Monster In My Pocket was a somewhat popular toy line that came around in 1990. The toy line was similar to the old M.U.S.C.L.E. line (that I used to LOVE) in that it was made up of a boat load of small, soft plastic figures. Instead of being wrestlers, Pocket was based after mythical creatures, like vampires, mummies, werewolves, and anything in between. The franchise seemed to have only lasted a few short years, but it made the media rounds in the form of comic books, a made for TV animated movie, and of course, the 1991 Konami video game.

I wasn’t really a fan of the Monster In My Pocket franchise, and by the time the NES game came around, I believe I had already moved onto the SNES so I didn’t care much about the game either. However, there used to be a local video store that rented out NES games, but they weren’t really up to date on their Genesis and SNES stock (actually, they went out of business not much longer after Blockbuster came to town, and now Blockbuster is on its way out, weird huh?). So I was in there one time and decided to rent Monster In My Pocket because of the Konami name branded on the package. Even at a young age, I was confident in Konami products, especially licensed ones.

About an hour after renting it, I had finished the whole thing in a single sitting. It wasn’t really hard, but it was rather enjoyable regardless, and at least I only rented it. That brings us to today, where I felt like playing through the game again, so I ordered a copy off eBay for a whole dollar. The game came in a few days ago, and this morning I recreated history by plowing through it again in a single sitting.

As a late generation NES title, this game is doing some cool stuff, and it has really good graphics all things considered. The lead characters (you can choose between Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster, guess who I chose) are large and well animated, and the game pushes a bunch of large scale sprites. Since you’re supposed to be a monster that can fit in a pocket, the stage layouts are reminiscent of Capcom’s Rescue Rangers game, with over sized house hold objects. In classic Konami fashion, two players can run through the game together, in what feels like an easy man’s Contra. While there is no shooting and combat is done in close quarters, the game moves quickly and has a strong focus on platforming, which is what makes it feel more like Contra than say Konami’s NES TMNT brawlers. In fact, it’s the only NES game I know of that has a double jump, which is something of a standard these days. Which leads me to question, which game had the double jump first, this or Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts on SNES? Or was there something before that? My money is on Ghouls, but I could be wrong.

The game consists of six stages, which wouldn’t be a bad thing if you actually had to get good at them to win. Obviously developed for kids, Konami decided to go easy on the player, so unlike Contra there are no one hit deaths (you get five hits) and there’s plenty of health laying around. On top of that, the player respawns right where they left off until they run out of lives in which they just start at the beginning of whatever stage they’re on. I imagine someone who is even half way decent at video games could plow through this game in a single sitting, two tops.

It certainly isn’t a classic, but there’s enough Konami charm in there (tight controls, great hit detection, bold graphics for the NES, great pacing, 2 player action, and the expected fantastic Konami style chip tune soundtrack) to make it worth looking into for NES collectors. Considering how cheap you can nab it on eBay and the fact that it will never be re-released ever, I’d say its worth the half hour it takes to run through, especially if you have a couple of beers and a buddy.