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About 500 years ago, the final, decisive battles between Islam and Christendom were being fought. Deep in eastern Europe, at the heart of the struggle, the Slav people relied on their courageous but utterly cruel leader, Prince Vlad of the Dracule. Though he held the day in a great battle, his love, Elisabetta, was lost. Cursing ungrateful God he sword defiance of death. As it was spoke, he was condemned to an eternal state between life and death, with a craving for human blood. He became Dracula; Vampyr.

Centuries passed, but his presence remained. Now, in 1899 he is drawn towards England, and a young girl called Mina, the incarnation of his Queen. He has trapped her fiance, Jonathan Harker, in his Balkan castle. Only by escaping can Harker warn Mina of the impending shadow, resting in the earth of Carfax Abbey.

Licensed from recent film. It bears an alarming similarity to previous Psygnosis game, Galahad.

Either locate the exit or the boss on each stage. Find objects to help you defeat Dracula.

Dracula is presented in the form of a story, taken from Bram Stoker's book. Each level is split into short 'chapters' that expand out of the pages. There are seven chapters in all, following Harker's escape from Castle Dracula; his refude in the convent; killing the Undead Lucy, uncovering the lair at Carfax Abbey, and the final flight to Transylvania.

Harker, having lost his Transylvanian guide-book, often finds himself lost in the assorted Inns, barns and convents he passes through. To reveal the exit he must find a friendly local. Strangely, this motionless figure thinks of an object, which is enough to uncover a pointy exit sign at another place in the level.

Along the way, Harker encounters Dracula's fearsome henchmen (women?) in end-of-level fracas. Each takes about eight hits to defeat. There's the evil coachman, who lashes with his ten-foot whip (oo-er!); the three Vampire Devil's strumpets - all cackles and flowing frocks, plus multiple manifestations of Dracula - as an old magician, and a young assassin - as well as a 20 foot high fireball-spewing madman.

Harker found one of Dracula's antique swords, which he swishes about on command. Also to be found are small arms - pistols, rifles and dynamite - for stronger foes. But ammo is strictly rationed.

Count Dracula is feared throughout the world as a filthy abomination. Pity the game will be too. Psygnosis have produced such a tacky load of tripe it will freeze the blood in your bones. Okay, the gameplay isn't as infuriating as the Mega-CD version. But I don't rate the game any better, as it's just a rehash of their Galahad game, probably using much the same programming engine.

Each level is a charmless platform monotony of finding a motionless sprite and then an exit. There's no logic, point or depth (or 'ambience' as the write of the game's production notes likes to call it!) to the game beyond that. For the most part, the graphics are bland and inappropriate: Where the hell did the giant tarantulas, the barn, the scorpions, the zombies and the drunk-men-lying-at-the-bar come from? Not the excellent movie this supposedly comes from!

A proper Dracula game could be blood-suckingly good: this just sucks.

Dracula certainly is a horror game - the thought of some unsuspecting punter paying any amount of cash for this festering running sore of a cartridge scares me witless. On all levels, it fails miserably.

As a game-of-the-film it's hopeless. The superb, creepy atmosphere of the film has been replaced with a laughably crap B-movie ambiance and the original plot has been altered beyond recognition to suit the completely bog-standard negotiate-the-platforms-and-beat-the-big-end-of-level-boss action.

And as a game in its own right, it's substandard, completely unoriginal and filled with annoyances. The controls are very sluggish indeed, things fall down from the ceiling without warning which makes the going very frustrating, collision detection is poor, the general game design and plot is crap, the sound is average, the graphics aren't much cop and attention to detail is shoddy - for example, when the main character walks up and down slopes his legs tread in mid-air, rather than on the ground!

After a couple of sessions I felt no compulsion to play this pustulent, putrescent platformer any more. In fact, personally I think every Megadrive platform game available is better than this. Even the irredeemably crud-infested Dark Castle...

Presentation 84%
P. The game has three skill levels, including a short training mode.
N. The book graphics used for atmosphere fail miserably, because they look dire.

Graphics 57%
P. Very Psygnosis backdrops, with detailed flecked patterns for wood and stone. Okay animation on some baddies.

Sound 67%
P. Some of the music is okay, and at least tries to develop an atmosphere. Ditto with samples.
N. Some really annoying bland music and some crap effects.

Playability 19%
P. There are plenty of things to slash at, there are plenty of gaps to jump.
N. The slashy things, and the jumpy gaps are devoid of any essence of the Dracula myth, making it entirely academic.

Lastability 19%
N. You'll play for about as long at it took Vlad to impale his prisoners. The agony could last up to a day... but then no more.

Overall 19%
Let Dracula rest in peace, for it is truly written that it is a load of old cobblers, and fool is he who purchaseth it with the wages of sin. Amen.