Game of the Day 4/5/2016: Dr Chaos

[celerystalker]

Dr Chaos is one of my favorite NES games. One of the earliest examples of survival horror, it tasked you with scrounging up ammunition, weapons, and items while searching for warp zones anchored to a rickety old mansion that was the home of some grisly experiments. As the brother of the eponymous Dr Chaos, you must traverse the horrors of the mansion and the evil warp zones to find the pieces of Dr Chaos' greatest invention, a mighty gun with the power to destroy the evil creatures and seal the warp zones forever.

There are three main areas to explore in Dr Chaos: the mansion itself, the inner rooms of the mansion, and the warp zones. There are no levels per se in the game, but you must search out items that will allow you to pass various obstacles in order to get through different warps and find more items. The mansion and warp zones are explored as a horizontal platformer, and the inner rooms are explored as a first-person point and click adventure. In these, you open doors, window, and closets in search of weapons, health, and warp zones, a la Goonies II's rooms or Shadowgate. You can strike walls to find secret passages as well, which is a big part of the game, but finding warps will prove a difficult stream of trial and error until you can locate the warp zone detector. Hint: I included a screen of the room that leads to the warp with the detector. It's the one with a brown wall and a window in the middle.

Progression isn't entirely unlike something such as Metroid in the way items are the key to moving forward, such as a helmet to let you go under water or boots to let you jump higher. Bosses guard most of these, though you can snag the items before killing them. Many of the bosses are vulnerable to specific weapons, so you must experiment if you aren't getting the desired result. It has an quaint Legend of Zelda-like sense of mystery and exploration in that regard.

I wouldn't call it early survival horror just because of its setting and limited resources. Sure, the bleeding title screen is cool and creepy, and the creaky mansion and music are spooky, but Dr Chaos gets some of the best early jump scares during the point and click segments of the game. Linger too long, and you might just find yourself surprised by an assault that will drive you out into the hallway, and it can be jarring. All together, it makes for an excellently creepy game that uses the NES' limitations to create a dark atmosphere that begs to be explored.

Played it? Any good memories?