When you land on Vampire Island, you know nothing about it, other than it allegedly contains a lost treasure. Then you receive this note:
"I know who you are, and I know what you are doing here, but you will NEVER succeed in your quest! Begone! You cannot trace me! You cannot find me! You have no idea who I am! Sincerely, Dracula, Lord of the Undead, Upper Turret of the Creepy Castle."
...which is a pretty good indication that your upcoming adventure is not entirely serious. And though you end up killing a whole series of movie-style monsters using puzzles, the whole thing remains either tongue-in-cheek or flat-out giggily.
The game's hosted on Rinkworks
as part of Adventure Games Live.
The game provides examples of:
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: You can die if you run out of time, but all that happens is that the watch goes back to 8pm, and you don't even lose any progress. The game's Hall of Fame keeps track of how many timer resets you have, but that's really no different to the number of moves taken.
- Genre Throwback: Compared to the complex worldbuilding and
Nintendo Hard difficulty of many other games hosted on Adventure Games Live, Vampire Island feels more like a text adventure game of yesteryear. - I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Dracula's note, quoted above.
- Light and Mirrors Puzzle: You need to shine light on the castle early on for the later puzzles to work in your favor.
- Multiple Endings: There are multiple endings, and the Hall of Fame reflects which one you get, depending on whether or not you manage to kill Dracula, steal the treasure, defeat the Headless Horseman and manage to get the thunder gag.
- Nonstandard Game Over: Failing to achieve any of the goals and just going back home in your boat is recorded as a victory (provided you get back in your boat after the game has warned you that it is nearly sunrise), and you will appear in the game's Hall of Fame for doing so, albeit with the table noting that you failed to achieve any of the game's goals.
- Race Against the Clock: This is why you start out with your digital watch, one that doesn't stop for anything.
- Take That!: One of the torture devices in the torture chamber is a television with a VHS of "The Best of Rob Schneider" inserted.
