I haven't seen the movie this action game is based on, but you take the role of Van Helsing, a tough guy out to vanquish evil monsters. The story is vaguely interesting, and as you progress through the game, you'll encounter famous monsters like Jekyll/Hyde, Frankenstein, a werewolf, and Dracula. You'll also meet friendly characters which come along for the ride, although they only appear in non interactive scripted sequences and you never see them while you're actually playing the game. As Van Helsing, you'll fight enemies through several locations which include a cathedral, the woods, on top of a train, a castle, and a village. These levels consist of a number of screens, each with one or two exits to other screens. The gameplay consists of progressing from screen to screen, fighting enemies and collecting different glyphs, until you either reach the exit, or defeat the boss of the level, after which you receive a password to record your progress. You'll start with swords and a pistol as your primary weapons, and also have a grappling hook, which allows you to reach certain places, and also pulls enemies towards you. Unfortunately, there aren't many more weapons. You'll get a crossbow and lightning gun later in the game, and that's it. For most of the game, you'll be using mostly your swords and crossbow to dispose of your enemies, which consist of skeletons, birds, and a few other hellish creatures. Some serious flaws and questionable design decisions make the game frustrating. Some levels have screens with unbalanced variety of enemies. For example, you'll encounter screens where all you'll be fighting are skeletons, and the next screen, it'll all be birds. The problem is that skeletons nearly always drop a health glyph once they've perished, and birds never do. So you'll be healing after every battle in the first screen and never in real danger of losing a life, and in the second, you'll be running away when your health is low, knowing that there aren't any enemies that drop health glyphs when you kill them. Once you've realized this, you may run through screens, avoiding enemies, since there isn't really any incentive to kill anyone until you reach the bosses. When you choose to fight, it is common to get surrounded and have no opportunity to fight back. Also, there are reward glyphs which seem to serve no purpose in the game. Technically, this game fails. The graphics aren't anything to be excited about, the music is virtually nonexistent, and the sound effects are mediocre. Perhaps the most memorable effect is the scream when you pick up a life glyph. All in all, Van Helsing is a simple beat-em up game that offers little to distinguish itself from other games in this genre and has little replay value once you've finished it. If you're looking for a short game to kill some time on your GBA, and don't have any expectations, this may be right up your alley. Otherwise, there are many better action games available.
I haven't seen the movie this action game is based on, but you take the role of Van Helsing, a tough guy out to vanquish evil monsters. The story is vaguely interesting, and as you progress through the game, you'll encou... Read Full Review
I made the mistake of buying this game, because i thought the movie was awesome. This game is absolutely crap. It's incredibly easy to finish, (I managed ot finish it the day i bought it) and it is extremely repetitive.... Read Full Review
