Don't worry, don't worry, Adam Sandler is nowhere to be heard.
While I've never seen the
Hotel Transylvania movies, despite being a Genndy Tartakovsky fan, but I
found the words 'Metroidvania' and 'Wayforward' tied to this game, so I had to try it.
Had to. I kinda, sorta wish I didn't.
Kinda.
As someone who's never seen the movie, the game does a poor job at giving you any
context of what's happening. A Frankenstein-looking dude gets kidnapped by a Chef, and then you have to go from fetch quest to fetch quest until you get told to go to the Kitchen, an area which is
off-limits because plot. The ending is just as bland, a few characters talk with each other and then the credits play, no resolution,
no nothing. I wikipedia'd the movie, and it turns out that the Frankenstein-looking guy is
actually a human being. The game might follow the plot from the movie, or it might not, in any case, the game does a poor job at portraying
ANY kind plot. For what it's worth, the game features Wayforward's
trademark beautiful sprites, and the handd rawn portrait renditions of the various characters are
top-notch, the game's a looker for sure.
The game plays like a Metroidvania-
lite, you have an interconnected map, for sure, but it's very
small, consisting on Dracula's castle and its garden, which totals to about 30 different rooms. Anyone who's played a Metroidvania before knows how small that sounds. At first, Mavis can only jump, which doubles as your only means of offense, heck, some enemies can't even be killed. But as you advance through the game you'll
unlock the Freeze Stare, which turns enemies into platforms for a short while, the electro jolt, which can defeat enemies(The ones that
can be killed) or turn on generators, the ability to run on red walls, a Mist form, that let's you go through specific gates(Because others have to be opened through switches even though they look
similar!) and, lastly, turn into a bat for a short while. While it's nothing spectacular, it's a decent
assortment of moves.
There's a single collectible item: Gems. Every 200 gems you get a new heart. For
whatever reason, the game
proudly claims that having 1400 gems to collect is a selling point. While getting extra hit points is nice, the game is quite on the easy side, if you die you'll
instantly respawn on the room's entrance, heck, at times dying on purpose feels like a pretty easy way to fill your life gauge! Since gems are your only rewards, and the game is pretty linear, exploration isn't well rewarded since there are only gems to find. I mean, extra life is nice, but what about other kinds of rewards? Like hidden moves or passive abilities? Plus, the map on the lower screen is horrible, it doesn't show
how rooms are connected,
Metroidvania 101, dude!
I think the best way to describe this way is a Metroidvania for
newcomers. There's absolutely no way to get lost, since every NPC
directs you to the next one, any wandering and meandering is yours to do for optional gems and
nothing else. There's
not a single time you'll be left without a marker on your map. This, in turn, makes the game feel somewhat rigid and formulaic, and quite
lame to be honest.
Beating the game unlocks 10 bonus challenge rooms, similar to the 'Key' rooms you can find on pretty much every area in the game, as well as a few bonus pieces of art. Beat the game and you may also
break your file forever. That's right, it's pretty common for your savefile to go kaput after finishing the game.
Hotel Transylvania has a few things going for it, but as a whole it can't escape being a bland, linear Metroidvania, which in and of itself goes
against what a Metroidvania
should be. The game is pretty, and most of the game is
functional, but it's a very unexciting affair
4.0 out of 10
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