 Another Patreon request, this time from Mauricio, a horror themed game called Nosferatu. If you remember a few months ago I looked at a Super Famicom game called Clock Tower. If you liked that game's vibe, but got frustrated with the slow pace and point and click gameplay, you might dig Nosferatu instead, since it's more of a cinematic platformer that allows you to be more hands on, or more accurately fists on, as there's no weapons here, fighting goblins, Frankenstein's monsters, mummies, all sorts of creatures with your bare hands. But yeah, since this is a 2D cinematic platformer, the controls are very deliberate, or if you'd rather put it bluntly, stiff and slow. I wouldn't call the controls here as stiff as something like out of this world though. Nosferatu controls a bit closer to something like the SNES port of Prince of Persia, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that, like I said, you've only got your fists to use, as well as a jump kick and a running charge. That's pretty much it for attacks, and that makes the game get pretty boring after a while. Weapons would have been a nice addition here, especially since this game is really freaking tough, with spikes everywhere, dissolving floors, boss fights that are like Wars of Attrition, buzz saws coming at you. I will say it's kind of odd for how often you die and how gruesome the death presumably should be. There's no blood in this game at all. Kind of weird considering this game is, you know, named after a vampire. But yeah, Nosferatu is really tough, with timing-based puzzles that can take a few tries to get the hang of. No saves or passwords here either. But thankfully, the game at least allows you unlimited continues, so that's good. I will say, though, for a cinematic platformer, at least the jumping here is forgiving. You manage to cling to ledges pretty easily instead of just automatically falling to your death, like in games like Blackthorn. Anyway, you play as Kyle as he makes his way through several different castles in Transylvania, in the hopes of rescuing his significant other, Erin, after she was kidnapped by who else but Nosferatu. Along the way, you can collect three different kinds of crystals. Green recovers health, blue extends your health meter, and red increases your attack, and you can lose red crystals as you take damage from enemies. One thing I should point out that wasn't made clear by the game is that each treasure chest can contain more than one crystal, so keep that in mind and make sure to check each chest more than once. The big selling point and strength of Nosferatu is the overall presentation, the visual design, the sprite work, and the music. The pixel art here is fantastic, the backgrounds, the intro here. I mean, if this is the kind of vibe you're seeking, you've found it here. This is well done. The music especially, I feel, adds a lot. This is one of the more underappreciated soundtracks on the Super Nintendo. My only thing is that the castle setting gets kind of old after a while, the colors used in the actual levels are just drab, so I wish they utilized the outdoor settings a little more, for example, but they're only reserved for boss fights. So yeah, is Nosferatu worth playing today? It depends on what you're looking for. If you want a horror themed platformer, I mean, you're gonna be better off with any of the 16-bit Castlevania games, it's hard to compete with those, but Nosferatu is perfectly fine. The controls do take some getting used to, of course, but if you liked Prince of Persia for SNES, you'll do just fine with this game. You might spike a few controllers in frustration because of how hard this game can be, but still, Nosferatu is an enjoyable game and a kind of underrepresented niche on the Super Nintendo.