Darkman

""Peyton is gone. I am everyone and no one. Everywhere, nowhere. Call me...Darkman.""

Ah, the 1990 film Darkman was a tremendous piece of celluloid. Starring Liam Neeson and Larry Drake with a cameo by Bruce Campbell, Darkman had it all pretty much. Luckily, Ocean made this video game adaptation.

Dr. Peyton Westlake was a brilliant scientist. He and his assistant were working on a type of synthetic skin for victims of horrible burn wounds. By taking a photograph of a body part and scanning it, he could mold the synthetic skin into the shape of the part in the picture. Unfortunately, the synthetic skin could only last for ninety-nine minutes in the light because it was photosensitive. Before Dr. Westlake and his assistant could perfect the skin, Robert G. Durant, a very cruel man, destroyed Dr. Westlake's lab while looking for a very important memorandum. His thugs savagely beat Dr. Westlake, killed his assistant, and blew up his lab with him in it. Afterwards, Dr. Westlake was transported to a hospital. His body was burned beyond recognition so he became a regular John Doe. Because of the damage done to his skin and some new medical technology at the hospital, Dr. Westlake was unable to feel pain, but as a side-effect his anger could be triggered easily making his adrenaline pump, causing him to have great strength. He escaped from the hospital, bandaged like a mummy, and set up shop in an abandoned warehouse. He became Darkman. He used masks of his synthetic skin to hide in the daylight for short periods of time. Now he wants revenge.

Darkman is probably the BEST film-based game I have ever played. It even has an extremely accurate plot. When I first played the game I immediately thought, ''I never thought I'd live to see the day when a good film-based game was made.''

As Darkman, you must exact revenge on the bastards who did this to you. A few levels even call for you to take pictures of your enemy so you can make a synthetic skin mask and go around in disguise. It's quite enjoyable.

Darkman usually runs around fairly quick so you must really master the controls of the game carefully or you might meet an untimely death.

The graphics in this game are simply superb. Even for the NES, Darkman has awesome graphics.

The sound isn't half bad either. The music is good as are the sound effects.

Ah, as I sit here listening to music by Oingo Boingo, the best band ever, I think of Darkman. Both movie and game because the lead singer and song writer of Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman, also scored the music for Darkman. The movie that is. Another nice little tidbit of information is that Sam Raimi of Evil Dead fame wrote the story, co-wrote the script and directed the film. His younger brother, Ted Raimi, had a small role in the film. If you liked Darkman or even if you didn't like it I suggest you check out the game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/01, Updated 12/31/01