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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Episode

I dunno about the Nerd, but when I was a kid this game looked really bland and boring in the magazines that featured it. So I’ve never played it until today… and it’s indeed a horrible game, gah! I’m glad my parents didn’t waste any money buying or renting this for me back in the day!

A Look at the Game

Okay! First, let’s take a quick look at the Japanese release and the North American release.

Here’s what the cartridges look like – I actually like both designs!

I do think the NES version makes it clearer what to expect from the game at leastI do think the NES version makes it clearer what to expect from the game at least

And although the Nerd didn’t show the box, here’s the both boxes look like:

Nah, not interested. Looks lame. ...Wait. This game has a psycho wave? TAKE ALL MY MONEYNah, not interested. Looks lame. ...Wait. This game has a psycho wave? TAKE ALL MY MONEY

And here’s the back of the boxes:

I... guess this is an RPG? I can see some of the elements, but I get the feeling it's not the kind of RPG that Japanese gamers expected it to beI... guess this is an RPG? I can see some of the elements, but I get the feeling it's not the kind of RPG that Japanese gamers expected it to be

I couldn’t help but notice the big “5300 yen” price thing on the Japanese box, so I decided to do some math! Checking the currency conversion rate for April 1988, I calculated that 5300 yen at the time was approximately $42 in the United States. But wait! Accounting for inflation, $42 in 1988 is actually around $83 now! HOLY CRAP!

Offhand, I don’t have the original price of the NES game, but I’m sure it was right around there too. I pity anyone who paid full price for this game back then, yikes!

A Mad, Mad Commercial

I didn’t realize it at first, but there was actually a commercial for this game in Japan! I’ve translated it and subtitled it here:

That… wasn’t very informative. Kind of memorable, though!

Tiger Time

Early on in the video, the Nerd mentions that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is so bad that even those Tiger electronic games are better than it. This made me wonder if Japanese gamers were familiar with the crappy Tiger electronic games. Like, I’m sure everyone in the world is familiar with crappy LCD games, but I was curious to know if the Tiger games specifically were ever released in Japan.

…And, it looks like they were!

Muscle Man points at you: 'Look at that sucker about to buy this crap!'

Although it actually sounds like they weren’t released in very big quantities in Japan, and maybe only certain titles were released. In an unexpected twist, it seems it was Sega that released these games in Japan!

If anyone knows more about these Tiger games in Japan, please let me know!

Title Screens

Now let’s take a look at the title screens:

Can I give you a hand?Can I give you a hand?
Houma ga Toki (Famicom)Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (NES)

The full Japanese title is ジキール博士の彷魔が刻 (“Jekyll-Hakase no Houma ga Toki”) which translates roughly to something like, “Dr. Jekyll’s Hour of the Wandering Monstrosity” or “Dr. Jekyll’s Hour of the Wandering Demon”. Something along those general lines.

Anyway, the Japanese title screen only features the second part of the full title – the “Hour of the Wandering Monstrosity” part.

This was changed to “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” for the NES release, which makes sense. The NES release also includes publisher and licensing info on the title screen; the original release just has the title and the spooky “Press Start” stuff.

Game Changes?

Right off the bat, it looks like the game’s been changed in a big way – the very first stage is different!

My gaming instincts make me think that COIN up in the right hand corner is some sort of arcade thing for Player 2 to join inMy gaming instincts make me think that COIN up in the right hand corner is some sort of arcade thing for Player 2 to join in
Houma ga Toki (Famicom)Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (NES)

I REALLY don’t want to play through this game to see what’s different, but from what I can tell the first stage of the NES version might be the second stage of the Japanese version. I don’t know if any other stages were rearranged – if you happen to know, please share your wisdom!

Who What?

The Nerd asks at one point who all these characters in the game are and why they’re harrassing Jekyll. This is actually covered in the instruction manual, so just for quick reference here’s a look:

I sometimes saw the old book in my school library but even then I was not interested in old timey London stories. I wonder if these characters are in the book/story/whatever. I assume so.
LOOK OUT SHEMP IS ATTACKING! Oh, it's just a Shepp, never mind.

And, if you’re interested, here are the manuals:

  • NES Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Manual (PDF)
  • Web version of Japanese manual (HTML)

I haven’t been able to find an actual, physical copy of the Japanese manual. If you have one and you’re willing to send it to me, or if you’re willing to scan it in yourself, contact me!

Japanese Responses to this Episode

Even though this was an early episode and there wasn’t a whole lot going on in it, Japanese fans loved it! Here are some random quotes from Nico Nico that I’ve translated for reference:

So skinny!

He’s got hair!

Whoa, he’s hot!

I really like these outbursts of anger from before the AVGN character was a thing

It’s the AVNN!

So young!

The pale skinny look fits the character much better rofl

Looks like Shinji

BOOZE lolol

He’s been drinking the same beer for years

When’s E.T. coming oooout

Secret Nerd Technique: “Anger from Memories”

Makes ME wanna have a beer too

Just get to it already!

I guess this is still before he had his game room

This feels like it’s a video will or something

THAT’S the cover they had overseas?!

I thought it was 89 dollars at first! But it’s 89 cents rofl that’s like 100 yen!

He doesn’t even wanna buy it for that much

He’s filming the screen rofl

You can’t even make a game this crappy on purpose

THIS MAKES NO SENSE

Early Nerd is great too!

LOL don’t even emulate it

The only way to play it is drunk I guess

I wanna show this to the developer

Summary

There wasn’t much to this particular AVGN episode, so there wasn’t much for me to dig into. Much, much later he revisits the game, though, so maybe I’ll revisit both versions of the game later on too!

For now, I can’t help but feel drained of my soul after researching this disasterpiece.

I know how you feel, buddy
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Last update: Jun 24th, 2019
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