Important takeaways
- Universal monsters in video games range from point-and-click adaptations to action-adventures.
- Frogwares faithfully portrays Dracula as a terrifying yet tragic figure
Dracula: Origins
. -
Van Helsing
lets players battle iconic monsters in one
Devil May Cry
clone.
For over a century, literary monsters such as Dracula, the Mummy, and Frankenstein's monster have enthralled and chilled audiences, especially when adapted into films by Universal Studios. This has coined the common term: Universal Monsters, which has been adapted into many films from the 1920s to the 2020s.
The Universal Monsters have been a staple of pop culture for decades, from blockbuster reboots to inspiring Marvel comic books to getting video game adaptations. While the gothic horror monster genre has so far only lent itself to video game form, some monsters have shined in the digital realms as both hero and villain.
8 Count Dracula in Dracula: Origins
Point-and-click customization from Van Helsing's perspective
- Developer: Frogwares
- Release date: May 29, 2008
- System: PC
- Genre: Point-and-click adventure
Usually Count Dracula is portrayed as this bigger villain with god-like powers, but Frogwares took a step back with Dracula: Origins. Similar to their famous Sherlock Holmes game, Frogware's remains faithful to the source material, with Dracula as a tragic yet sinister figure seeking his long-lost lover reincarnated in the form of Mina Harker.
As in Bram Stoker's Dracula novel, the titular villain is not the main focus of the story, but his villainous presence is felt throughout the point-and-click adventure. Most of Dracula's story is told through research done by the players, who control Abraham Van Helsing on his journey through England, Egypt and Transylvania to hunt down the vampire.
7 Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein: Through The Eyes Of The Monster
Tim Curry steals the show as the mad doctor
- Developer: Amazing Media
- Release date: October 3, 1995
- System: PC, Sega Saturn
- Genre: Point-and-click adventure
Instead of the monster that the audience thinks of, the player controls a newly created creature created by Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein: Through The Eyes Of The Monster. Thanks to FMV sequences, the player is constantly heckled and taunted by a more sinister version of the mad doctor played by Tim Curry, who revels in an evil yet evil performance.
The story of Frankenstein has always raised the question of who the true monster is: the walking corpse or the doctor who created it. The game makes it clear that Victor is the true evil, similar to how Hammer Pictures portrayed him with Peter Cushing.
6 Various iconic monsters in Van Helsing
Crossover of many famous monsters in a devil may cry claw
- Developer: Saffire
- Release date: April 27, 2004
- Systems: PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameBoy
- Genre: Third-person action-adventure
Based on the 2004 film of the same name, Van Helsing brings together many iconic monsters, including Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Werewolf and even Jekyll and Hyde. Like the film, the action-adventure embraces a more over-the-top gothic action-adventure to bring the monsters to life and create a shared universe similar to a Marvel movie.
The game itself is a shameless clone of Devil May Crywhich fits the popcorn blockbuster style of the film. Hugh Jackman of Wolverine fame reprises the role, adding to the film's faithfulness and fighting all the various Universal monsters that make for an underrated PS2 adventure, even if it doesn't do anything new for the genre.
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4 Ahmanet in The Mummy: Demastered
A silly Metroidvania that is better than the movie
In one of the rare times when the game was superior to the movie, The Mummy: Demastered deviated from The mummy reboot by creating a Metroidvania game where the player controls a soldier from the Prodigium organization led by Henry Jekyll. They have to go up against Princess Ahmanet, who was the main villain of the film, but that's the only real connection to the film.
However wild and random it is, The Mummy: Demastered managed to be a fun adventure that has a better version of The Mummy than the movie. Ahmanet essentially takes the same role as Dracula in Castlevania game, dispatch legions of monsters for the scope of the game before you become the final boss.
3 Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein: The Monster Returns
The monster becomes the main villain of the story
- Developer: Tose
- Release date: July 1991
- System: NES
- Genre: Action-Adventure
One of many forgotten gems on the original NES, Frankenstein: The Monster Returns is a clone of the original Castlevania. It switches roles with Dracula as one of the monsters working for Frankenstein's monster, who is the main villain. The monster is the classic square design reminiscent of Boris Karloff's portrayal but given superpowers.
As the unnamed warrior, the player must fight Dracula, Death, a werewolf, Medusa and other monsters to get to Frankenstein. The result is a difficult but fun experience in Frankenstein: The Monster Returnsespecially for those looking to satisfy their Universal monster niche.
2 Lycans in the Order: 1886
Werewolves at their scariest
Werewolves are often romanticized in video games, for better or for worse, in games like Skyrim, Werewolf The Apocalypse: Earthbloodand Altered Beast. The order: 1886but treats werewolves as terrifying monsters plaguing Victorian-era London with a secret organization sent out to hunt them down.
IN The order: 1886werewolves or lycans, are nightmares, with the infection looking less like a mystical curse and more like a disease that mutates the body into a beastly creature. They are not easy to kill either, as the player controls Sir Galahad, who is shot through the twister to kill the beasts with knives, firearms and special gadgets.
1 Count Dracula in The Castlevania: Lord Of Shadows 2
Play through the new dark origin story of Count Dracula
At first, the story of Gabriel Belmont i Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow seems like a regular story in the long-running franchise. But in a clever twist, it turns out that the main antagonist isn't Dracula because Gabriel is Dracula in the rebooted timeline, which shows a tragic fall from a heroic warrior to the villain the world fears.
The story would even go on Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2which goes full force by letting players play as the vampire lord Dracula with all his god-like power to turn him into an anti-hero. This portrayal of Dracula was unlike any other in the Castlevania series, and possibly for the better, as it would go on to even inspire Universal films such as Dracula Untold.
