What sets Dangerous Dave apart is hard to define. Pretty unremarkable premise, I guess, but don’t write it off just yet. I already forget the story, but along the way, he’ll collect treasure and face off against all sorts of horrible, deadly creatures, with only a trusty shotgun to defend himself. The story of this one is that Dave is exploring a mansion, looking for his brother. And it has two sequels of its own (designed by Softdisk rather than Romero). It’s actually the sequel to John Romero’s original Dangerous Dave, which I’ve never played. Okay, so Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion is a sidescrolling platform shooter. So this is the Haunted Mansion, you’re Dave, and you’re killing monsters (zombies, werewolves, giant spiders, the works). Games that even an id worshiper like me had heard of in passing but never played. I’m talking Shadow Knights, Rescue Rover, Hovertank 3D, Catacomb 3D, and yeah - Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion. And I’m not talking about Commander Keen, which is relatively well known among retro gamers (though hardly ever recognized as part of the id canon). Turns out, before Doom, even before Wolfenstein 3D, id was making a whole bunch of games no one remembers anymore.
#DANGEROUS DAVE IN THE HAUNTED MANSION PSP PC#
It really wasn’t until Doom that I came onto the PC gaming scene, but there’s still this warm, fuzzy feeling that creeps up on me when I load up these older games. I say pseudo-nostalgia because I wasn’t even around for it when it was going down. I have a kind of pseudo-nostalgia for this early era of PC games, in all its 16-color, PC speaker glory. I’ll admit I’m biased toward liking Dangerous Dave.