How Is Your SNES Gaming Going?

[Ack]

Well, fair enough. I think you'll enjoy Castlevania IV. It feels like a continuation of the classic line before the series went in the Metroidvania style with Symphony of the Night. I liked it over Dracula X, certainly.

[Sarge]

You're in for a treat then.

[Xeogred]

Somehow the Castlevania series mostly slipped under the radar for me too growing up as a kid. I was too busy playing beat em' ups and Mega Man instead or something. But I did get around to Symphony of the Night when it was newer back in the day, so that was probably my first one, though I recall being exposed to some others briefly before then. From there, the GBA and DS games were just about literally the only handheld games I kept tabs on and pretty much the only exception I made for them haha... so I own all six of those and loved them.

I played Super IV finally a few years ago and was blown away for sure. Emulated Rondo a bit ages ago but never got too far. Then last year I went nuts and marathoned all the traditional ones and had a blast. I actually prefer the 16bit games over the NES ones though by a lot... Super IV, Bloodlines, Rondo of Blood, and Chronicles are my favorites. Rebirth was alright but I probably won't touch that one again, or Dracula X.

[Ziggy]

Super Castlevania IV was the first game I played in the series. The SNES was my first console, and back then word of mouth was a popular way to find out about new video games. You would rent them based on other people's recommendations. My mother would talk to a lot of people, having been a barber. So she must have mentioned to someone that "We just got a Super Nintendo for our kids" and they recommended to check out CV4. After Super Mario World, being the pack-in game, CV4 was one of the first games I played for the SNES. I rented it from the local ma and pa rental shop many, many times. My brother and I finally racked up enough bones (about 65 or 70 bones!) to finally buy a copy of our own.

My brother and I struggled to get just a little further each time we played it. I'm not sure how long it took us to play through the game. You don't have the same perception of time as a kid. It could have been years. We'd put the game down and play other games, then go back to it and try and get further. I can clearly remember the first time I beat the game. My brother and I had both been trying to beat it. We were on the last level, but didn't know it. "That damn bridge!" Then we'd get a little further, "Now the stairs are falling too!?" My brother was away at a friend's house when I beat it. I remember watching the castle crumble and having the greatest feeling of accomplishment. I don't know if I've ever felt more proud to beat a game for the first time. As the credits were rolling, my brother came home. He walked through the door and I said, as cool as I could, "Yeah... I just beat Castlevania." As a kid, one-upping your older brother is a thing to behold. It just made the victory that much sweeter.

So, SNES was my first console, but any time I was over a friend's or cousin's house I took the opportunity to play NES or Genesis. I remember seeing used NES consoles in the Funco Land flyer, and the price was affordable on an allowance and raking leaves income. I badly wanted to get an NES and Mario 1, 2 and 3. My mother wouldn't let me. I think we must have already gotten an N64, and when I told her I wanted to buy a NES she said something about it being like I was "going backwards" and why would you do that. So, I bought Super Mario All-Stars (which wasn't a bad compromise, that's one of my favorite SNES carts).

I did eventually get a NES from Funco Land though. But, the Mario games were all I really knew about for the console. This was back in the days of dial-up, so I wasn't looking on YouTube or forums for recommendations. I looked through the Funco Land flyer. I would look for games that sounded cool, and were priced cheap. Then... WOW! Of course there's a Castlevania 1, 2 and 3 on the NES. And they're affordable! I would beg my parents to take me down to Funco Land, which was a 30 minute drive. So I finally got there, and bought myself the NES CV games.

But dammit to hell! There was another Funco Land type store in the mall, which was across the street from Funco Land. Just after purchasing my cart-only copies of the three CV games in Funco Land, I found pretty mint looking CIB copies of each game in the store in the mall. And for the same price! Fuck it to hell! Too late, though. I couldn't return the copies I just bought for cash, as I bought them with trade-ins so I'd only get store credit. Credit that I couldn't transfer to the other store. And there was no way I could convince my father to drive back to Funco Land, then back again to the mall, AND loan my the money to buy the games, so I didn't even try. I must have had a Charlie Brown face on. I'm sure in my father's eyes it wouldn't have been worth it just to get the box, the box that you throw out when you get home. That reminds me... The reason I don't have many SNES boxes is because my parents threw them away. Manuals too. You throw out boxes after you open the product, like a toaster. And the manual is only good until you figure out how to use it, then you can throw it away. Dammit!

So I got my CART-ONLY copies of CV home and fired up the first game. At this point, I had played through CV4 many times, and was a master at it. CV1 blew me away, I couldn't believe how hard it was in comparison! It took me a while to figure out how to use the sub weapon, since I didn't have the manual. It probably took weeks before I made it to the boss at the end of level 4. After struggling to get that far, I thought the boss was so unbelievably hard that that's as far as I'd ever get. I turned the game off thinking that I would never beat it.

So I started on CV3. You know, I had that game for YEARS before a friend told me that you can press select to play as the other character. I would have known that if I got the CIB copy and read the manual!

/trip down memory lane

Bone, I hope you enjoy CV4. All my nostalgia aside, it's one of the greatest games ever made. For such an early SNES game, the visuals hold up. The sound effects and soundtrack are some of the best, hell, the soundtrack is one of the best soundtracks in video game history. If you're use to the NES games, the controls might feel a little weird at first. But they're very smooth, you'll get use to them quickly.

[Tanooki]

Makes sense and thankfully you are openminded too. Most just suck up to SOTN like it is some original masterpiece which is just aping the hell out of Super Metroid. There was, is this huge world of Castlevania many ignore due to that but you did not and went back to the NES roots. The SNES game is a must, and after that, I would everdrive it, do Dracula X which is more of a NES style throwback and harder too.

I hope for your sake you have good tolerance, if that is not Legacy of Darkness but Castlevania64 I pity you as the bugs are game breaking infuriating from wonky physics when jumping, cameras that twist and throw you into pits, colission that is wrong that crushes you in gears when they do not touch, and it also is a beta package missing 60% of the game.

If you do love the SOTN style the 3 best of those and Id dare say some being better are the duo of GBA and DS games Aria and Down of Sorrow, and then a prequel to Castlevania 3 in a SOTN+CV3 style mix up on 3DS but also on Steam (and right now 75% off so like maybe $4) called Lords of Darkness Mirror of Fate.

[MrPopo]

The first Castlevania game that I actually put any real time into was Dawn of Souls. Outside of seeing five minutes of gameplay while at a party (the kind where the adults get together and then the kids go in the room with the Nintendo) I didn't touch a Castlevania game until I was in high school and could emulate. Naturally, playing the Classicvanias on a keyboard was the height of frustration, so I only put in a few minutes on each game. I got Dawn of Souls because I was looking for games for my DS in the early points of its life. That quickly hooked me into the other Metroidvanias, and then I decided I needed to get the Classicvanias because of their legacy.

[Sarge]

Makes sense and thankfully you are openminded too. Most just suck up to SOTN like it is some original masterpiece which is just aping the hell out of Super Metroid. There was, is this huge world of Castlevania many ignore due to that but you did not and went back to the NES roots. The SNES game is a must, and after that, I would everdrive it, do Dracula X which is more of a NES style throwback and harder too.

I hope for your sake you have good tolerance, if that is not Legacy of Darkness but Castlevania64 I pity you as the bugs are game breaking infuriating from wonky physics when jumping, cameras that twist and throw you into pits, colission that is wrong that crushes you in gears when they do not touch, and it also is a beta package missing 60% of the game.

If you do love the SOTN style the 3 best of those and Id dare say some being better are the duo of GBA and DS games Aria and Down of Sorrow, and then a prequel to Castlevania 3 in a SOTN+CV3 style mix up on 3DS but also on Steam (and right now 75% off so like maybe $4) called Lords of Darkness Mirror of Fate.

I'm not sure that's entirely fair. Most folks I run into don't think that Symphony is a bastion of originality, more that it reinvigorated the series. As fun as Classicvanias were, the series was starting to get stale. That the game gets well into Super Metroid territory, particularly during a time where those games were nearly impossible to find, makes it even more impressive how well it all turned out.

Note, too, that Symphony certainly takes from Metroid's playbook, it also takes quite a bit from itself with Simon's Quest. The RPG elements definitely shift the focus, as do the myriad weapons. Super Metroid was all about obtaining a very tight set of abilities to overcome the various environmental puzzles; while there's a lot of combat, it's not nearly as combat-oriented as Symphony. In that game, it's all about experimentation. You get so many different weapons, many of which have very unique properties, that you can play the game tons of different ways every time. It's why I tend to revisit it so often. I could do a Crissaegrim run, play around with the Shield Rod (seriously, how have I not known about that all these years?), use the awesome Fists of Tulkas... there's just so many ways to play.

I do agree, though, that it's a bit sad that some won't delve into the older games. But I guess I can understand that, too. After all, Symphony thrives on empowerment and its RPG elements, whereas the older games rely on restrictive platforming and a brutal challenge. They may share a motif, but they play so differently that I can totally see why folks might like one and not the other. I love 'em both, of course.

I will also agree with your assessment of Aria and Dawn. I liked Dawn better, and feel it's the closest to Symphony in quality. Maybe not quite there, but dang close.

[Tanooki]

Fair enough argument there. i suppose I could try out NITM/SOTN again as it has been years since I had a PSX. I will have to maybe read into my options a bit more.

Steam sale though, grabbed the HD port of that sotn+cv3 mash up title since it was cheap so I got enough to handle. Truly though that DS game is on my get list as I am digging the DS stuff again lately.

[Betagam7]

Super Castlevania IV was the first game I played in the series. The SNES was my first console, and back then word of mouth was a popular way to find out about new video games. You would rent them based on other people's recommendations. My mother would talk to a lot of people, having been a barber. So she must have mentioned to someone that "We just got a Super Nintendo for our kids" and they recommended to check out CV4. After Super Mario World, being the pack-in game, CV4 was one of the first games I played for the SNES. I rented it from the local ma and pa rental shop many, many times. My brother and I finally racked up enough bones (about 65 or 70 bones!) to finally buy a copy of our own.

My brother and I struggled to get just a little further each time we played it. I'm not sure how long it took us to play through the game. You don't have the same perception of time as a kid. It could have been years. We'd put the game down and play other games, then go back to it and try and get further. I can clearly remember the first time I beat the game. My brother and I had both been trying to beat it. We were on the last level, but didn't know it. "That damn bridge!" Then we'd get a little further, "Now the stairs are falling too!?" My brother was away at a friend's house when I beat it. I remember watching the castle crumble and having the greatest feeling of accomplishment. I don't know if I've ever felt more proud to beat a game for the first time. As the credits were rolling, my brother came home. He walked through the door and I said, as cool as I could, "Yeah... I just beat Castlevania." As a kid, one-upping your older brother is a thing to behold. It just made the victory that much sweeter.

So, SNES was my first console, but any time I was over a friend's or cousin's house I took the opportunity to play NES or Genesis. I remember seeing used NES consoles in the Funco Land flyer, and the price was affordable on an allowance and raking leaves income. I badly wanted to get an NES and Mario 1, 2 and 3. My mother wouldn't let me. I think we must have already gotten an N64, and when I told her I wanted to buy a NES she said something about it being like I was "going backwards" and why would you do that. So, I bought Super Mario All-Stars (which wasn't a bad compromise, that's one of my favorite SNES carts).

I did eventually get a NES from Funco Land though. But, the Mario games were all I really knew about for the console. This was back in the days of dial-up, so I wasn't looking on YouTube or forums for recommendations. I looked through the Funco Land flyer. I would look for games that sounded cool, and were priced cheap. Then... WOW! Of course there's a Castlevania 1, 2 and 3 on the NES. And they're affordable! I would beg my parents to take me down to Funco Land, which was a 30 minute drive. So I finally got there, and bought myself the NES CV games.

But dammit to hell! There was another Funco Land type store in the mall, which was across the street from Funco Land. Just after purchasing my cart-only copies of the three CV games in Funco Land, I found pretty mint looking CIB copies of each game in the store in the mall. And for the same price! Fuck it to hell! Too late, though. I couldn't return the copies I just bought for cash, as I bought them with trade-ins so I'd only get store credit. Credit that I couldn't transfer to the other store. And there was no way I could convince my father to drive back to Funco Land, then back again to the mall, AND loan my the money to buy the games, so I didn't even try. I must have had a Charlie Brown face on. I'm sure in my father's eyes it wouldn't have been worth it just to get the box, the box that you throw out when you get home. That reminds me... The reason I don't have many SNES boxes is because my parents threw them away. Manuals too. You throw out boxes after you open the product, like a toaster. And the manual is only good until you figure out how to use it, then you can throw it away. Dammit!

So I got my CART-ONLY copies of CV home and fired up the first game. At this point, I had played through CV4 many times, and was a master at it. CV1 blew me away, I couldn't believe how hard it was in comparison! It took me a while to figure out how to use the sub weapon, since I didn't have the manual. It probably took weeks before I made it to the boss at the end of level 4. After struggling to get that far, I thought the boss was so unbelievably hard that that's as far as I'd ever get. I turned the game off thinking that I would never beat it.

So I started on CV3. You know, I had that game for YEARS before a friend told me that you can press select to play as the other character. I would have known that if I got the CIB copy and read the manual!

/trip down memory lane

Bone, I hope you enjoy CV4. All my nostalgia aside, it's one of the greatest games ever made. For such an early SNES game, the visuals hold up. The sound effects and soundtrack are some of the best, hell, the soundtrack is one of the best soundtracks in video game history. If you're use to the NES games, the controls might feel a little weird at first. But they're very smooth, you'll get use to them quickly.

Great post. I love hearing people's personal stories of nostalgia. The bit about the boxes made be furious! What was with parents back then thinking that a videogame box was the same as a box that a household appliance came in? I bet they didn't throw away the sleeves of their vinyl records or the boxes their VHS movies came in!

My dear old Mum had a thing about throwing away the white carboard inserts. Oh yes, she knew I treasured the boxes but those inserts are just taking up space! What? How?!

Infuriating!

[darsparx]

See and that's in the same vein as a lot of the games I grew up with. If we did buy it new or get it for Christmas new, the box always went. I'm mad about that now because there's so many games I have now that I wish I had that stuff for it because it would be rather helpful at this point. Then there's the fact of how I wish someone would translate the SFC manuals. For games that didn't get a release back then, that would be a major help at this point. There's some points to Tales of Phantasia I don't quite understand and I'm sure the manual would explain it. I just don't want to go to the gba one to figure some of this out. (I'm a little lost on combos, and why there's a food sack, not to mention there might be some other goodies in there)