Monster Bash

Look: 8/10 Pretty cool for its time, definitely fulfills the Halloween theme. It was hard to get many screenshots of gameplay screens

I did really like that sunny background with the castle tho lol (it does change to a more eerie night background mind you). And honestly, my favorite graphics were the sorta-world-select-looking screen

This screen was awesome, too

And the fact your character shakes their butt after completing all 3 screens ha.

Sound: 5/10 The music during the levels is annoying, but does fit the Halloween-y theme... But I like the "ha ha ha" "voice." I eventually had to mute the annoying song tho. Well, I turned it back on just for function's purpose, but annoyingly, some parts of the song sound like some of the jingles that have functional relevance... not really a good idea to do that with your background music heh..

Play: 6/10 The first screen was almost... too easy? Unless I missed something? The enemy collision masks are quite forgiving, and I just killed several, got the sword, and rocked Dracula. The 2nd screen got a little more confusing cuz the Sword couldn't immediately be used. (tho now that I watch others' playthroughs, it seems the Sword isn't always immediately accessible on the first screen, apparently I just got lucky). I thought you could only defeat the screen bosses (Dracula, Frankenstein, then Chameleon Man) with the Sword, but it seems you can dwindle their health with your regular weapon. As basic as this gameplay is, and not as addictive as I'm making it sound, it does have so many of the roots of future games I love, particularly platformers and Metroidvanias. Turns out you can even use the windows to teleport around the screen? What's fun about this game is, you can just pick it up and play it, and sorta discover these features on your own, because it is quite forgiving. I liked the shooting aspect in particular, and dang sometimes the enemies even duck your bullets ha. Hm, after playing around for a bit, it seems possibly that hitting the candle helps power up the sword? I don't see a lot of info for it online, mostly just about the 1986 Ghost House game it inspired that has quite a few differences. It's funny seeing Frankenstein run from you, but your character's speed is frustratingly slow compared to the screen bosses. Also, your own collision mask is quite annoying; after playing such a tight collision mask system like Q*Bert, this was irritating how you can't do quick escapes down a ladder because the collision mask is so rudimentary. Hm,.... oh... uh... yea this game is kinda sloppy. I guess you can shoot the screen boss while you have the Sword powerup, definitely making that chase part less frustrating, but it wasn't all that fun learning this gameplay aspect. It starts quite strong and fun, but tires quite quickly. Let's finish up with this third screen and move on heh...

Feel: 7/10 I'm a sucker for these early Halloween-y games' "feel" like Monster Smash, whose gameplay I didn't really like much. This gameplay is right up my alley--simple platformer with an action shooter aspect that reminds me of the roots of Castlevania etc.--so this one really stands out. Welp, in the end tho, I didn't really have that good of a time. And the gameplay got old, even with some somewhat fun maze chase elements in the last screen with that nice wrap around feature. And omg! Your character does a little booty dance when you complete the game! Lol!

Attachment: 6/10 I mean, I guess I'm not mad I gave this an earnest try cuz it exposed me to the 1993 DOS Monster Bash that looks excellent. But I do feel like I kinda wasted my time playing this goofy game so earnestly. Then again, I tend to like Halloween-themed games, so how would I know. Not that the game is that bad, but it just also wasn't all that fun and got annoying real quick. A lot of potential to this game, but not one I will be returning to or having friends/family playtest.

Completion: Completed All 3 Screens Playtime: ~25 mins