"Welcome to Fright Night", says a surprisingly clear voice |
Name:Fright Night
Number:88
Year:1988
Publisher:Microdeal
Developer:Microdeal
Genre:Side-scrolling Action Game
Difficulty:5/5
Time:1 hour
Fright Night is an interesting beast. Its the sort of bad game that could only come out on the Amiga. Adapted from a movie, but it looks amazing, it sounds amazing. You play it and its like...WHAT? Even as a cashgrab this seems...awful.
Jerry, fresh-faced and ready for the night |
Jerry walks up some stairs |
The only time most will see this screen |
Jerry, dead again |
The game just continues on like this until you win or become bored. Outside of the way the game looks its extremely boring to play. You're not really doing much, beyond dodging ghosts and grabbing people. Most of the effort, it seems, was put towards making the game look good and sound good. Its really impressive in that. Sound changes when you change rooms, cleverly reused graphics, but for a game where a scary vampire bounces around like comedy show? Its just a whole lot of nothing. Its not even the first game to use this formula, Dracula on the Intellivision has the same formula, but Intellivision games have excuses for playing like crap, they're on really old systems. And even then the Intellivision was capable of more, as was this. So were the people who worked on this. Except, it turns out, the programmer, a noted advocate of the Atari ST. Well, that answers some questions.
Jerry, after a meal, note the hand coming out of the ground |
None.
Enemies:
There are ghosts, hands that come out of the ground, and a selection of human enemies. Mostly, they're all just sort of there. 1/10
Non-Enemies:
There aren't any.
Levels:
The house gradually grows larger over the course of each night. Its simple, and in a better game it would have been effective. 1/10
Player Agency:
It works, but that's about it. Doing anything that isn't going left or right requires a bit of precision. Precision you don't get. There are also minor issues playing this with keyboard controls, unintentional ones, given that joysticks were more common back then and I'm using my keypad as an imitation. 1/10
One of the many ghosts that wander the house, perhaps his victims |
There isn't any.
Atmosphere:
Starts off nice, even mildly spooky, rather than the usual cheap haunted house stuff. Once enemies start showing up, that kind of loses its charm. Hard to enjoy it when you're desperately trying not to die. 4/10
Graphics:
Every background in this is a joy to behold, real skill went into this. There's some reuse, but everything looks great. The character sprites look good too, they're well-animated...mostly. 8/10
Story:
You're a vampire, kill some people in your house. 0/10
Sound/Music:
Generic Amiga sounds, but a primo soundtrack from legendary musician David Whittaker. If you can track it down, I suggest giving the soundtrack a listen, it is the best element of the game. A real treat to hear. 9/10
The skull indicates Jerry's health, he's not about to have an easy time here |
Briefly checking old reviews, and it seems like this opinion hit the head right on the money. One reviewer even mentions getting stuck on the same place I did. A curious thing.
According to Mobygames an adventure game was advertised, but never released. My personal Bias aside, that would have been a much better use of everyone's time and money. An adventure game where you play the villain? At the very least a modest curiosity.
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