Castlevania Review

Anyone who considers themselves a gamer should know what the Castlevania series of games are, but nowadays Castlevania isn't what it once was, now they consist of running around, back an forth collecting items to uprgade, they've become more of a 2D button masher with RPG elements, now these games are good but they just are not what I think of when I remember back to Castlevania, I remember something a little different... and that's what i am going to talk about in this review.

                         Even the Cartridge art had more atmosphere than most NES games.

Castlevania was released for NES way back in 1987 and at the time all you really had in the way of games was Mario Bros and many clones of its platforming gameplay, there was Metroid but that wasn't technically a traditional platformer so doesn't count in my opinion for this comparison.

So what is it that made Castlevania such a resounding success, its because it was so groundbreaking for the time, the horror theme made for a great setting and the game has a genuinely eerie feel to it, and that was hard to employ in a 8-bit game, i mean how do you make this look scary?

You cant really can you? So the Game developers had to actually use the structure of the game and its mechanics to set the theme, also that combined with its immense soundtrack, even for 8-bit it was great.
Another thing that set Castlevania aside from other NES games, especially platformers was that its insanely hard, but not in cheap ways like most old games were, It had tight, precise controls, all the enemies were placed in specific places so the player would have to learn the level and adapt to each stage as they encounter new enemy types, if you died in Castlevania it was your fault because you had been to hasty or you haven't learnt the bosses attack pattern yet.
I find this method of gameplay much more rewarding than in the new games where you just mash enemies until you level up to buy a new weapon and then your stronger so can beat the boss easier, this essentially means you as the player don't actually improve as a gamer and whats actually happening is your gaining something known as Avatar strength, your in-game character improves which makes the game easier to beat and then you enter a new harder area and the process repeats.



The overall Game design of Castlevania just feels right, an yes that is the best way to describe it, everyone has experienced that moment when your playing a game or watching a movie and so on, when you just think yes, yes this is just perfect. The reason Castlevania achieves this in my opinion is because, each level has its own unique feel and colour palettes, as well as its own soundtrack and new enemies, the bosses also impact heavily on this as they are all recognisable figures from the horror genre, from Frankenstein to Medusa, Mummy's and Giant bats, an of course Dracula himself, the Grim Reaper even makes an appearance. All this combined really makes you feel like your on an adventure, and every time you complete a stage you do get a sense of achievement most games cant usually ascertain.

The only thing wrong with Castlevania in my opinion are the stairs, they are just plain stupid and do sometimes cause you to inadvertently die, for example if you jump off a high ledge down onto some stairs below you, you will fall straight through them, now once you learn this its fine, but it will catch you off guard when you forget because in most other games this would be something you can do.


Castlevania isn't a long game but it will take you a long time to complete, I remember playing as a child and I could only get as far as the halfway point of Stage 4. I finally beat the game completely only last year, and it felt great, the moment of great satisfaction you feel when you finally defeat the stage boss after a long period of frustration and heart pounding throughout the stage, this is short lived though as you realise there's more to come an it's going to test you even more. I did it properly by the way, no emulation with saves states to let me re-try because that is pointless and defeats the point of a game all together.


So in conclusion Castlevania is a intensely hard platformer with a horror theme, that will bend you over and kick your arse repeatedly until it has you throwing down your NES pad in furious anger, but  you will keep going back for more because its all worth the punishment for that sense of adrenaline and accomplishment you feel when you finally conquer this masterpiece of a game.

The Score: 9/10
+ Ingenious level design and enemy placements.       
+ Looks and sounds great for NES standards.
+ Insane amount of challenge, but always fair.
 - It's going to piss you off.

 Thanks For Reading.