Together Retro: Castlevania

[thecheeseeater]

I havn't cared much for the gba castlevanias. They were just a slightly modified Symphony of the Night. I'd rather just play SOTN instead of an officially endorsed clone. Personally I think Konami should try other directions with the series now. Although that did kind of end up pretty nasty (N64 games anyone?).

[MrPopo]

I initially couldn't stand the NES Castlevania controls, but it slowly grew on me as I tried it more and more. Mega Man is still my favorite platforming series, but Castlevania is nice now and again for a change. And the Castleroids are fantastic (what with Nintendo refusing to make a new 2D Metroid).

[4ppleseed]

I've never got into ANY of the CV games
I have tried, I promise! But they just haven't excited me.

[racketboy]

I've been on vacation for a couple of weeks and just started the game today. After reading all your comments, I feel highly inadequate. took me a couple continues to get past the first level. You definately can't just waltz through it without serious practice or insane concentration.

[timewarpgamer]

Stage 1 - No problem, the axe with a 2x multiplier makes short work of the Bat boss.

Stage 2 - Despite one medusa head causing an untimely death mid-way through the level, I recover nicely with my second life and smoke the Medusa boss with holy water x3.

Stage 3 - One little annoying bone-throwing skeleton (which jumped part-way off the screen, to a pixel-defying perch on some stone blocks to dodge my axes), combined with flying medusa heads puts me in a really bad spot. I pick up the stopwatch and constantly use it from there on out, just trying to get as far as possible on my final life points, and I actually make it to the final stretch of the level. Of course, at this point the game designers have really upped the ante, and you're facing ravens, skeletons, fireball-breathing skulls, flying medusas, and dead-falls. I don't make it to the mummy twins.

Starting over again at this last section with full life should make things easier. It doesn't. You might as well have blown up mid-way through level three in Gradius. You've lost all your special weapons, and your whip is about as threatening as a yo-yo. I lose a few more lives on this section and give up. Back in the day, I could make it past the third level about 50% of the time, and I even got to the Frankenstein boss on the next level a bunch of times. Of course, I never beat him!

The stiffness of gameplay and difficulty aside, the original Castlevania is an astonishing early NES game, especially in terms of level design, graphics, and sound. With ample use of freeze states, maybe I could finally even beat it.

[IMJ]

Lament of Innocence might be the most underrated Castlevania game ever, IMHO.

[noiseredux]

I haven't played CV in about 15 years. Breezed through the first level without a single problem, and thought "damn, I guess it's not as hard as I remember it being." Then level 2. Hard. This is the sort of platformer I really loved and grew up on. Awesome. Not too hard, but not so easy that I'll finish it in a day either. Something I can keep going back to.

[noiseredux]

oh man, the Frankenstein boss with the little Igor guy is sooo hard! I was sick all weekend, and spent some time with this game, and this is tough.

[timewarpgamer]

LOL. Even in my Castlevania prime back in the day, I couldn't beat Frankie. I could get him down to about 4 bars of life, and I always croaked.

[fastbilly1]

Ok I admit, I could not beat the first Castlevania. So I tried to beat three, got to the boss fight where you fight the mummies then two other bosses and just couldnt win. So I am playing through Circle of the Moon. Its my first time since I beat the year it came out. I plan on giving it another go, but itll probably be after I beat Dynablaster.