Dr. Chaos is just one of those obscure games. Most people probably haven’t even heard about it and the ones who do remember it don’t really recall it very well. I haven’t played Dr. Chaos in years, but I do remember the time I did spend on it. It actually wasn’t even my game, but my younger brother’s who really doesn’t play video games then or now. I ended up inheriting it from him since I was the only one who really spent any time playing it and the only one who completed it.

I first heard about Dr. Chaos when I bought a strategy/review guide for Nintendo games years ago. Ever since I played Goonies II, I was looking for more adventure games like it. Dr. Chaos seemed like a good choice. For some reason, I never got around to buying it, since back then I had a restricted income and I only bought games I knew for sure I wanted. When my parents got it for my younger brother - which to this day baffles me that they bought him a video game in the first place and an obscure one at that – I immediately jumped on the opportunity to play it. My younger brother wasn’t very good at it so I didn’t have any problems with him letting me play it.

Being released in 1988, the graphics are on par with other Nintendo games released up to that time. They aren’t going to wow you, but they are far from disappointing. As far as the music and sound goes, it isn’t too memorable since I can’t really remember any catchy tunes. The sound effects seemed to serve their purpose and were comparable to other games. Game play is where Dr. Chaos sort of deviated from the normal game. There weren’t too many adventure games out around the time Dr. Chaos was released if I recall correctly. You had Zelda and the aforementioned Goonies II, but most games were platformers like Super Mario Bros or shoot’em ups like Contra or Gradius. You basically wonder around a mansion looking for portals to different dimensions. Searching the various rooms of the house, you could find portals in closets or windows. The levels are typical side scrolling structure with a boss encounter at the end of each one. You can get special items when you defeat certain bosses like high-jump boots. Dr. Chaos isn’t an easy game. It did take me awhile to complete it and some of the levels took longer to get through. Most casual players, like my younger brother, won’t bother spending the time to play through it. Since Dr. Chaos is consider ancient by video game standards, only hardcore classic gamers will find value in it.

Mentioning Dr. Chaos to most people will just cause them to stare blankly at you. Even if you mention it to people who play video games religiously, you still won’t find many who will know what you are taking about. But if you like old-school adventure games for the NES, Dr. Chaos definitely fits the bill.