Was gonna start with some sort of intro or joke as always but now that I think about it I just wanna quickly say that I adore this game’s box art. The Castlevania series has always been synonymous with banger artwork but the composition and colors in this one are something else, and it’s probably the most menacing Dracula has ever looked in one of these so far… but that shield and sword that Simon is carrying are complete false advertising, that mf isn’t gonna use anything but the whip on this one!
The Adventure is quite a curious entry; as the last game of the series before Akumajou Densetsu, it would be easy to assume that this game was actually the true return of the series of its original roots — unless you count Haunted Castle and its Zelda CD-i looking ass… oh god I’m gonna end up playing that one aren’t I—, but actually, The Adventure feels more like an adaptation of that original adventure into a more simplified platformer, with even the losing power-up system akin to that of the Mario series on top of the usual health-bar and far more simplified and bare level design… oh and also if the original game was kind of a slog.
Christopher is a Belmont, and that means it should have the usual walk full of determination and commitment-based jumps… emphasis on should. The Adventure is s l o w, and when I say slow, I mean s l o w, and it not in a way that feels deliberated. I genuinely thought I was playing as the first protagonist in a game to have arthritis: Chirstopher’s movement doesn’t feel rewarding or like it has heaviness of it, instead it just feels like he’s sliding at a snail pace and like he’s being pushed backwards everytime he jumps, and you know, that’s already pretty bad, but I’m not even taken into consideration the slowdowns ON TOP of that!
I kinda associate this series with framerate problems, it’s always a price that the series has paid in service of its striking vistas and its spectacular boss fights and levels, and I’ve always refrained from mentioning it simply because it was never a problem that really got in the way of my enjoyment of past games and I every time it happened I just thought ‘’yeah, makes sense honestly’’. Here in Game Boy Land however, this old friend has decided to he’s gonna appear more than normal! From the moment the game starts it dawned on me that this wasn’t going to be a very pleasant adventure, and it never really got better, ‘cause even in those moments my jump wasn’t incredibly delayed, and enemies weren’t moving in power-point presentation mode, it didn’t matter because the base movement still sucked!
I believe that single HUMONGOUS problem caused a ripple effect in which other hiccups, some which were already present in previous and even future games of the series, were made even worse: ledge-jumping was a particularly annoying challenge in Simon’s Quest and it would return as the basis of many platforming challenges in IV, but at least in those two you felt in control of Simon, so imagine having to do the same on here but with a less responding character and the punishment being either to have to repeat an entire section or instant-death, at that point I’m sure it would be at least 10 times more fun having to clean Dracula’s own coffin for an hour straight.
The Adventure has interesting sections, mainly the eyeball bridge in Stage 2 and the entire first section of Stage 3, and other moments show snippets of a interesting and possibly fun game, but they are constantly interrupted by incredibly uninspired or frustrating challenges, inconveniences that feel like another level of tomfuckery — even for this series—, and the entirety of Stage 4, which I like to call ‘’The Gauntlet’’, and not in a loving way. If anything, this game has made me gain a much greater appreciation for Super Castlevania IV, ‘cause both games share that same problem, the difference of course being that in here they are much worse. And hey, some complain than in IV there aren’t any new secondary weapons or don’t feel as useful, but hey, in The Adventure there aren’t any to begin with and all your whip upgrades are gone if you are hit even once! JOY.
I’m not entirely sure how much this game being on the system it’s on got in the way of what the game wanted to do, and even if I can still commend the effort of translating a series into the handheld verse, I can’t justify its myriad of problems when nothing about the game itself gives a sense of unbridled creativeness or just general competency. Comparing this to even Simon’s Quest, my least preferred of the original NES trilogy, would be a disservice to the latter, because that game, even if in my opinion failed to bring to fruition most of its ideas, it tried, and in the process created a wonderful and original world and had many sections I do enjoy. In The Adventure, aside from two or three scattered parts in is three first levels, the only thing I got out of it is frustration and a profund sense of boredom.
All Castlevania games made me feel the former at times, but they always were much, much more than that. The Adventure has cool ideas, cool music, some cool visuals, and very little else. I’m sure there could be a good game in here, and maybe eventually there would be, but right now… I would prefer to not see the first boss in my entire life again, thank you very much…
The Adventure is quite a curious entry; as the last game of the series before Akumajou Densetsu, it would be easy to assume that this game was actually the true return of the series of its original roots — unless you count Haunted Castle and its Zelda CD-i looking ass… oh god I’m gonna end up playing that one aren’t I—, but actually, The Adventure feels more like an adaptation of that original adventure into a more simplified platformer, with even the losing power-up system akin to that of the Mario series on top of the usual health-bar and far more simplified and bare level design… oh and also if the original game was kind of a slog.
Christopher is a Belmont, and that means it should have the usual walk full of determination and commitment-based jumps… emphasis on should. The Adventure is s l o w, and when I say slow, I mean s l o w, and it not in a way that feels deliberated. I genuinely thought I was playing as the first protagonist in a game to have arthritis: Chirstopher’s movement doesn’t feel rewarding or like it has heaviness of it, instead it just feels like he’s sliding at a snail pace and like he’s being pushed backwards everytime he jumps, and you know, that’s already pretty bad, but I’m not even taken into consideration the slowdowns ON TOP of that!
I kinda associate this series with framerate problems, it’s always a price that the series has paid in service of its striking vistas and its spectacular boss fights and levels, and I’ve always refrained from mentioning it simply because it was never a problem that really got in the way of my enjoyment of past games and I every time it happened I just thought ‘’yeah, makes sense honestly’’. Here in Game Boy Land however, this old friend has decided to he’s gonna appear more than normal! From the moment the game starts it dawned on me that this wasn’t going to be a very pleasant adventure, and it never really got better, ‘cause even in those moments my jump wasn’t incredibly delayed, and enemies weren’t moving in power-point presentation mode, it didn’t matter because the base movement still sucked!
I believe that single HUMONGOUS problem caused a ripple effect in which other hiccups, some which were already present in previous and even future games of the series, were made even worse: ledge-jumping was a particularly annoying challenge in Simon’s Quest and it would return as the basis of many platforming challenges in IV, but at least in those two you felt in control of Simon, so imagine having to do the same on here but with a less responding character and the punishment being either to have to repeat an entire section or instant-death, at that point I’m sure it would be at least 10 times more fun having to clean Dracula’s own coffin for an hour straight.
The Adventure has interesting sections, mainly the eyeball bridge in Stage 2 and the entire first section of Stage 3, and other moments show snippets of a interesting and possibly fun game, but they are constantly interrupted by incredibly uninspired or frustrating challenges, inconveniences that feel like another level of tomfuckery — even for this series—, and the entirety of Stage 4, which I like to call ‘’The Gauntlet’’, and not in a loving way. If anything, this game has made me gain a much greater appreciation for Super Castlevania IV, ‘cause both games share that same problem, the difference of course being that in here they are much worse. And hey, some complain than in IV there aren’t any new secondary weapons or don’t feel as useful, but hey, in The Adventure there aren’t any to begin with and all your whip upgrades are gone if you are hit even once! JOY.
I’m not entirely sure how much this game being on the system it’s on got in the way of what the game wanted to do, and even if I can still commend the effort of translating a series into the handheld verse, I can’t justify its myriad of problems when nothing about the game itself gives a sense of unbridled creativeness or just general competency. Comparing this to even Simon’s Quest, my least preferred of the original NES trilogy, would be a disservice to the latter, because that game, even if in my opinion failed to bring to fruition most of its ideas, it tried, and in the process created a wonderful and original world and had many sections I do enjoy. In The Adventure, aside from two or three scattered parts in is three first levels, the only thing I got out of it is frustration and a profund sense of boredom.
All Castlevania games made me feel the former at times, but they always were much, much more than that. The Adventure has cool ideas, cool music, some cool visuals, and very little else. I’m sure there could be a good game in here, and maybe eventually there would be, but right now… I would prefer to not see the first boss in my entire life again, thank you very much…
THE FIRST PORTABLE CASTLEVANIA GAME.
who fucking made this shit. sucks ass. i know the gameboy was limited but some of these levels are just barren hallways with enemies. the 3rd level had an interesting gimmick but it goes to shit because simon controls like a fucking tortoise. mf can’t move or jump for shit. the game demands the tightest jumps from you which most of the time you will fail on your first try due to how stiff and shitty the jump is. bosses are barely even bosses and have like one attack. music was kinda good but they loop after like 30 seconds lol. i think for a gameboy game it has cool aesthetics i guess but everything else is terrible. every flaw with classic castlevania is present here in full force and then some.
my advice? play the remake on wii instead. i will personally send you the rom of that shit do NOT play this. they turned the worst 2d castlevania into one of the best how is that possible.
who fucking made this shit. sucks ass. i know the gameboy was limited but some of these levels are just barren hallways with enemies. the 3rd level had an interesting gimmick but it goes to shit because simon controls like a fucking tortoise. mf can’t move or jump for shit. the game demands the tightest jumps from you which most of the time you will fail on your first try due to how stiff and shitty the jump is. bosses are barely even bosses and have like one attack. music was kinda good but they loop after like 30 seconds lol. i think for a gameboy game it has cool aesthetics i guess but everything else is terrible. every flaw with classic castlevania is present here in full force and then some.
my advice? play the remake on wii instead. i will personally send you the rom of that shit do NOT play this. they turned the worst 2d castlevania into one of the best how is that possible.
Lot of big brained reviewers on this site coming to the conclusion that a Castlevania game released for the freaking Game Boy in 1989 might be scaled down and compromised. Wow, can't wait to hear what you all have to say about Mario Land - NOT!!!
Castlevania: The Adventure does an admirable job of shrinking the classic NES game down for a portable device, perfect for playing on a long trip to Lake Tahoe for a vacation your parents hope will salvage their rapidly deteriorating marriage. Platforming feels great and requires the usual level of precision you'd come to expect from a Castlevania title, though it is more forgiving thanks to the game running at about 5 frames per second, which provides ample time to make inputs. I just like to call that "good design," but apparently some of you have issues with that and you have issues with enemy placement, because you sure love to moan about it online. There's an invincibility item on like, every single screen, get better at the game you nerds.
Oh this game looks bland, does it? I know you Zoomers are spoiled on your Nintendo Switches and X68000s, but if you turned off your emulators and played Castlevania: The Adventure on Actual Hardware, perhaps you'd find yourself appreciating its graphical effect. You know the one, where background objects had a transparency that made them look like they were actually in the distance. Emulation screws that up, but it looked cool as shit back in the day, god damnit!! Look, what do you think we had for entertainment in 1989? You either played Castlevania: The Adventure or you were rolling cans of beans around in the street.
I streamed this game a couple years back, and outside of the usual group of friends who would participate in chat, I attracted someone who apparently speedruns it. Finally, my people! But my best friend Larry Davis banned him from the chat because he was too afraid of the idea that people out there like it. Well guess what, they do! Just because you've all foolishly consigned yourself to the hivemind doesn't mean history will favor you when the books are written. Castlevania: The Adventure fans will inherit the Earth, because we weren't filtered by the crushing spike sequence. I may die on this hill, but I'm going to take you all down with me.
Castlevania: The Adventure does an admirable job of shrinking the classic NES game down for a portable device, perfect for playing on a long trip to Lake Tahoe for a vacation your parents hope will salvage their rapidly deteriorating marriage. Platforming feels great and requires the usual level of precision you'd come to expect from a Castlevania title, though it is more forgiving thanks to the game running at about 5 frames per second, which provides ample time to make inputs. I just like to call that "good design," but apparently some of you have issues with that and you have issues with enemy placement, because you sure love to moan about it online. There's an invincibility item on like, every single screen, get better at the game you nerds.
Oh this game looks bland, does it? I know you Zoomers are spoiled on your Nintendo Switches and X68000s, but if you turned off your emulators and played Castlevania: The Adventure on Actual Hardware, perhaps you'd find yourself appreciating its graphical effect. You know the one, where background objects had a transparency that made them look like they were actually in the distance. Emulation screws that up, but it looked cool as shit back in the day, god damnit!! Look, what do you think we had for entertainment in 1989? You either played Castlevania: The Adventure or you were rolling cans of beans around in the street.
I streamed this game a couple years back, and outside of the usual group of friends who would participate in chat, I attracted someone who apparently speedruns it. Finally, my people! But my best friend Larry Davis banned him from the chat because he was too afraid of the idea that people out there like it. Well guess what, they do! Just because you've all foolishly consigned yourself to the hivemind doesn't mean history will favor you when the books are written. Castlevania: The Adventure fans will inherit the Earth, because we weren't filtered by the crushing spike sequence. I may die on this hill, but I'm going to take you all down with me.
An admirable, but disappointing attempt to adapt the series to the portable format.
In a nutshell, it's a game with good ideas and you can tell it almost achieves the task of being a decent Castlevania game, however, the constant slowdowns, unresponsive controls coupled with an unfair and punishing level design make this game a fiasco. Things I don't like is that in this game there are no sub-weapons, it's just you and your whip throughout the whole game, and what I liked least of all is that you now lose whip upgrades every time you are hit by an enemy, which makes the game harder than it should be, and you can tell it was made hard on purpose to extend the length of the game, as there are only 4 levels in total. It is certainly a very small game, the music is decent, although nothing memorable and as for its graphics, they are quite simple.
Conclusion
I suppose it's admirable for being the first attempt to adapt the franchise to a handheld console, especially since it came out only a short time after the Game Boy was released, yet it suffers from the same problem as Super Mario Land, in the sense that the game doesn't feel very good to play, and the fact that in this case the level design demands a very high degree of skill makes it worse, because even if you have the skill, the game doesn't play well enough for your skill to be truly reflected.
In a nutshell, it's a game with good ideas and you can tell it almost achieves the task of being a decent Castlevania game, however, the constant slowdowns, unresponsive controls coupled with an unfair and punishing level design make this game a fiasco. Things I don't like is that in this game there are no sub-weapons, it's just you and your whip throughout the whole game, and what I liked least of all is that you now lose whip upgrades every time you are hit by an enemy, which makes the game harder than it should be, and you can tell it was made hard on purpose to extend the length of the game, as there are only 4 levels in total. It is certainly a very small game, the music is decent, although nothing memorable and as for its graphics, they are quite simple.
Conclusion
I suppose it's admirable for being the first attempt to adapt the franchise to a handheld console, especially since it came out only a short time after the Game Boy was released, yet it suffers from the same problem as Super Mario Land, in the sense that the game doesn't feel very good to play, and the fact that in this case the level design demands a very high degree of skill makes it worse, because even if you have the skill, the game doesn't play well enough for your skill to be truly reflected.
A miserable little pile of shit
go fuck yourself
It's pretty sad when the box art is the best part of a game. And in this case, it absolutely is. Seriously that is some of the sickest box art Castlevania has gotten, in a series that has a lot of really good box art. Shame the name's positioning makes it look like it says "The Castlevania Adventure".
This game is noooot good and it only takes playing through the first level a little to get through. First, Christopher Belmont walks as if he did not have legs. He is UNBEARABLY slow and it is probably the worst thing about this game. Not only does it make trudging through every level feel like walking through molasses, it means that fighting literally anything that can move is ridiculously frustrating. You simply do not have the movement speed to deal with stuff in a way that actually feels fun even when you see it coming. Not only is this not enjoyable, it also means enemies by and large have very simple attacks / patterns. Most of the difficulty in this game comes from fighting the terrible controls.
This is not helped by the jumping, which is bad. Castlevania jump physics are stiff, that's fine, the games often gear themselves to that, but this is TOO stiff. You WILL initially find yourself having difficulty doing a single jump onto a platform because ol' Christopher doesn't want to move. It IS something you can get used to, but it never feels truly consistent, and combined with your non-existant horizontal movement means the way to take every single jump is to get as cloooose to the edge as possible and leap. I will say right now I heavily save stated playing this game unlike NES Castlevania, because extra lives are very hard to come by and it is way too easy to die to the controls. Bosses are largely extremely easy though, with the exception of the second stage boss...which is still easy if you do it right, but if you do it wrong and a single one of whatever the hell they are gets out it becomes very hard because they move fast and you can't really dodge move fast consistently.
There's no sub-weapons in this game, but given this is a near-launch title on a crunchy lime-green original Game Boy I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is your whip upgrades going DOWN when you get hit. Castlevania games and Mario games have pretty different designs, and Castlevania's doesn't work well with it I feel...but especially not in a game as stiff as this. There's also the fact that it isn't like the whip attack "eats" damage like a mushroom in Super Mario, you just also lose it and your health. Maybe it's because the Flame Whip is OP here? At least the bosses give you a free whip upgrade before they start.
This game does have a little bit to it that is innovative, such as an extended section involving running away from a spiked floor and then spiked wall. It's pretty common but a bit novel for an original Game Boy or old Castlevania game, I feel like the segment would have been kinda fun if the movement speed wasn't so bad. The spike platforms are a bit neat I guess? Okay yeah there isn't much, just a tiny sliver, but ay. Soundtrack is a fairly poor early GB soundtrack, it largely gets repetitive in a bad way when you are dying so often. The graphics aren't that good, but I submit the fact that it is on the original ass green Game Boy and only like 3 months after release means it isn't bad for the time it was made, and honestly I'd take how it looks over something like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
So, yeah, Castlevania: The Adventure isn't good! It is slow, sounds bad, unnecessarily difficult in a way more unfair than challenging, and I would essentially only recommend it to people very interested in Castlevania's full history (like me), the original Game Boy's history or if you got it via Castlevania Anniversary Collection and figured "eh, why not". An unworthy game.
This game is noooot good and it only takes playing through the first level a little to get through. First, Christopher Belmont walks as if he did not have legs. He is UNBEARABLY slow and it is probably the worst thing about this game. Not only does it make trudging through every level feel like walking through molasses, it means that fighting literally anything that can move is ridiculously frustrating. You simply do not have the movement speed to deal with stuff in a way that actually feels fun even when you see it coming. Not only is this not enjoyable, it also means enemies by and large have very simple attacks / patterns. Most of the difficulty in this game comes from fighting the terrible controls.
This is not helped by the jumping, which is bad. Castlevania jump physics are stiff, that's fine, the games often gear themselves to that, but this is TOO stiff. You WILL initially find yourself having difficulty doing a single jump onto a platform because ol' Christopher doesn't want to move. It IS something you can get used to, but it never feels truly consistent, and combined with your non-existant horizontal movement means the way to take every single jump is to get as cloooose to the edge as possible and leap. I will say right now I heavily save stated playing this game unlike NES Castlevania, because extra lives are very hard to come by and it is way too easy to die to the controls. Bosses are largely extremely easy though, with the exception of the second stage boss...which is still easy if you do it right, but if you do it wrong and a single one of whatever the hell they are gets out it becomes very hard because they move fast and you can't really dodge move fast consistently.
There's no sub-weapons in this game, but given this is a near-launch title on a crunchy lime-green original Game Boy I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is your whip upgrades going DOWN when you get hit. Castlevania games and Mario games have pretty different designs, and Castlevania's doesn't work well with it I feel...but especially not in a game as stiff as this. There's also the fact that it isn't like the whip attack "eats" damage like a mushroom in Super Mario, you just also lose it and your health. Maybe it's because the Flame Whip is OP here? At least the bosses give you a free whip upgrade before they start.
This game does have a little bit to it that is innovative, such as an extended section involving running away from a spiked floor and then spiked wall. It's pretty common but a bit novel for an original Game Boy or old Castlevania game, I feel like the segment would have been kinda fun if the movement speed wasn't so bad. The spike platforms are a bit neat I guess? Okay yeah there isn't much, just a tiny sliver, but ay. Soundtrack is a fairly poor early GB soundtrack, it largely gets repetitive in a bad way when you are dying so often. The graphics aren't that good, but I submit the fact that it is on the original ass green Game Boy and only like 3 months after release means it isn't bad for the time it was made, and honestly I'd take how it looks over something like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
So, yeah, Castlevania: The Adventure isn't good! It is slow, sounds bad, unnecessarily difficult in a way more unfair than challenging, and I would essentially only recommend it to people very interested in Castlevania's full history (like me), the original Game Boy's history or if you got it via Castlevania Anniversary Collection and figured "eh, why not". An unworthy game.
There is a cheat code in Retroarch, and also now a full-on patch, that allows the main character to walk just a little bit faster than horse-hoof glue. This means the developers had originally programmed the game to sort of control normally, but chose not to release it that way to the general public, only to keep the normal play control for themselves during the debugging phase. This is because game developers in the eighties and early nineties hated you, and therefore they in turn deserve our contempt for them.
castlevania first iteration for the gameboy is a really weird work of experimentation and I'm still left confused at what actually I have to say about this
i always skipped this one in my countless castlevania playthroughs but since this was featured in the anniversary collection I was like why not it probably won't feel like cock and ball torture
it feels like cock and ball torture.
trying to port the whole formula to a system that has like a total of 30 pixel on the screen was definitely a tough achievement and i won't leave this achievement undiscussed for another second . and tear it the fuck apart
most of the main elements of the nes trilogy were considerably sized down to a more humble progression no subweapons available anymore and youre left only with your whip which makes the decision of the whip downgrading at each damage taken a lot more questionable because why the fuck would you make the only weapon in my repertoire get back to its main form and not give me any other option whatsoever what was popping in Konami headquarters ong then talking gameplay the core is still there but new entry boy christopher belmont plays like an even heavier statue than simon was in castlevania 1 trying to make him move around feels like being sisyphus pushing the stone up the hill he's literally unmovable and what's more tragic is the fact that the performance on this one is also abysmal so have fucking fun trying to make some sense to this 5 fps sequences with enemies everywhere and a LOT of FUCKINg . ROPES lord im gonna have so much trauma on this I'm not even making this shit up
and for all these issues ? you did it at my birthday dinner I made excuses for you back then
ideally until stage 3 I wasn't particularly impressed with this but I was enjoying my time nonetheless with this super short slowmo bite sized castlevania but then stage 4 shows up and you're gonna get a taste of metal bar on your teeth like have fun with those savestates you're gonna need those pal
so uhhh yeah nice experiment I'm never touching this again
levels and music were surprisingly good tho I'll give it that
i always skipped this one in my countless castlevania playthroughs but since this was featured in the anniversary collection I was like why not it probably won't feel like cock and ball torture
it feels like cock and ball torture.
trying to port the whole formula to a system that has like a total of 30 pixel on the screen was definitely a tough achievement and i won't leave this achievement undiscussed for another second . and tear it the fuck apart
most of the main elements of the nes trilogy were considerably sized down to a more humble progression no subweapons available anymore and youre left only with your whip which makes the decision of the whip downgrading at each damage taken a lot more questionable because why the fuck would you make the only weapon in my repertoire get back to its main form and not give me any other option whatsoever what was popping in Konami headquarters ong then talking gameplay the core is still there but new entry boy christopher belmont plays like an even heavier statue than simon was in castlevania 1 trying to make him move around feels like being sisyphus pushing the stone up the hill he's literally unmovable and what's more tragic is the fact that the performance on this one is also abysmal so have fucking fun trying to make some sense to this 5 fps sequences with enemies everywhere and a LOT of FUCKINg . ROPES lord im gonna have so much trauma on this I'm not even making this shit up
and for all these issues ? you did it at my birthday dinner I made excuses for you back then
ideally until stage 3 I wasn't particularly impressed with this but I was enjoying my time nonetheless with this super short slowmo bite sized castlevania but then stage 4 shows up and you're gonna get a taste of metal bar on your teeth like have fun with those savestates you're gonna need those pal
so uhhh yeah nice experiment I'm never touching this again
levels and music were surprisingly good tho I'll give it that
There's a good game in here, but it felt like the Game Boy wasn't a good choice for this sort of thing.
I can appreciate the ambition, and the first three levels felt fine, but there's some pretty noticeable frame rate issues, which brings down the enjoyment you get. Platforming becomes more tedious, the combat in slow motion doesn't feel good, and the incredibly minimalistic presentation removes a big part of what makes the retro Castlevania games so special.
And there's stage 4. It felt a bit too long and accentuated another problem with the game, which was its poorly placed checkpoints.
Had it been designed for another system, this could've been quite good.
In its current state, it's something that can be safely skipped.
I can appreciate the ambition, and the first three levels felt fine, but there's some pretty noticeable frame rate issues, which brings down the enjoyment you get. Platforming becomes more tedious, the combat in slow motion doesn't feel good, and the incredibly minimalistic presentation removes a big part of what makes the retro Castlevania games so special.
And there's stage 4. It felt a bit too long and accentuated another problem with the game, which was its poorly placed checkpoints.
Had it been designed for another system, this could've been quite good.
In its current state, it's something that can be safely skipped.
I was looking for videogames that you could finish in a short amount of time and i stumbled upon Castlevania the adventure. I have heard many negative things about this game. Lots people called it slow and even considered it to be one of the worst games oat but i told myself that it can't be that bad right?. The gameboy graphics were pretty good and have a unique charm imo. The game has a total of 4 stages. The first 2 stages are decent, the 3rd stage was my personal favourite and the final stage wasn't so bad either. The combat is a downgrade from the 1st Castlevania because this game doesn't have any subweapons but the whip was slightly improved because once you upgrade the whip it can shoot projectiles and speaking of upgrades. Everytime you get hit by an enemy your whip gets downgraded which is just total bs if you ask me. The platforming sucks mad balls. It feels so stiff and i found myself to be dying a lot because my fricking jumps were not perfect. The level design was kinda decent tbh it wasn't as bad as some people said. Alrighty now it's time for my biggest complaint about this game. The assness of the bosses in this game is unbelievable. The first boss of the game is Gobanz and dying to this boss would be more embarassing than taking a shit in the middle of the street and i'm not even exaggerating this might be the easiest boss i ever fought and i've played Devil may cry 2. The second "boss" you fight is under mole and the perfect way to describe this whole fight is that it's just whack a mole except the moles fight back. The third boss you fight is giant bat and again there's nothing positive to talk about here. The final boss is Dracula and it's the best boss in the game imo..... it's still dogshit ngl especially for a final boss 💀 and i consider him the best boss because he was at least difficult. Overall this game is pretty bad but i wouldn't consider it to be of the worst game ever because at least the stages were good 4.5/10
It was honestly a really solid gameboy version of Castlevania on NES, until I got to the last 2 levels where it starting throwing one hit kill spikes and other bullshit at me. Throw in old crappy GB controls that make the one hit kill BS much MUCH harder you have for a very frustrating last half of what could've been a really solid portable alternative to the real thing.
This game is literal hellspawn conceived by the Dark Lord himself. A disgusting lagfest of boring and downright sadistic level design, even by Castlevania standards. The amount of pixel perfect jumps required to beat this is ludicrous.
I'm just glad I didn't grow up in the 80's/early 90's, because there is no doubt I would have fallen for that "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality" and I would have never forgiven them for it.
I'm just glad I didn't grow up in the 80's/early 90's, because there is no doubt I would have fallen for that "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality" and I would have never forgiven them for it.
not really worth your time
This game still sucks, but it does so a bit less than I thought it did on my first time through. The first level in particular does a great job at encapsulating a lot of what one could expect a handheld Castlevania to be, with the limited art still being enough to capture a bit of atmosphere and paint a vivid enough scene of your surroundings, everything feeling very methodical. I also think that Battle of the Holy is a fantastic first track that I wish had slightly greater presence in the series as a whole, as even though it's definitely on the lower end in terms of my favourite first stage themes in these games, but when you see the competition, that's not really anything too scathing to say that.
My previous issues with the game still hold true through, everything is sluggish to a painful degree and doing anything in the slightest feels as if the Gameboy is moments away from catching fire from how much it ends up lagging, and the way the screen scrolls is nauseating at the best of times. Frustrating level design all around post-level 2 as well, with autoscrollers and instakill spikes abound that really remind you just how miserable it feels to control Christopher Belmont here. I'd like to say that this will be my last time playing this, but my brainrot towards this series raises the genuine possibility that I'll end up playing it again, so no guarantees there.
My previous issues with the game still hold true through, everything is sluggish to a painful degree and doing anything in the slightest feels as if the Gameboy is moments away from catching fire from how much it ends up lagging, and the way the screen scrolls is nauseating at the best of times. Frustrating level design all around post-level 2 as well, with autoscrollers and instakill spikes abound that really remind you just how miserable it feels to control Christopher Belmont here. I'd like to say that this will be my last time playing this, but my brainrot towards this series raises the genuine possibility that I'll end up playing it again, so no guarantees there.
Having come to the realisation that most games covered by pre-2010's YouTubers are nowhere near as bad as they are made out to be (see: Daikatana, Simon's Quest, Takeshi's Challenge, Sonic R, etc.) it continues to astound me how reviled Castlevania: The Adventure still is. By no means is the game objectively great or anything, but it's spoken about in the same hushed whispers as Bubsy 3D and Superman 64. This feels a disservice to the first portable Castlevania and an outright overblowing of its shortcomings. My own rating of the game at five stars might be an over correction of this scorn, but I genuinely adore this game.
I first played Castlevania: The Adventure as a gaff when it was included in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. I bought it purely for the first NES game and Kid Dracula but dipped my toes in The Adventure's waters to at least see what the hubbub was about. Back in 2011, JonTron uploaded a 'Drunk Gaming' video on the game where he derided it just as he would Black people and medical realities in the years to come. His misrepresentation stuck with me as I worked through The Adventure and found his criticisms to be either unfounded or hyperbolic. And when Dracula was felled the only thoughts in my head were 'what's the problem here exactly?' and 'that kicked ass.'
What people get caught up on the most for The Adventure is its movement. Christopher Belmont moves laboriously at a pace identical to most of his enemies. His jump is a commitment, his swing so rigid as to betray the flexibility of a whip. In another game this would be a fair point of contention, but as Vee already highlighted in his excellent Castlevania review, "Belmont movement fucking rules." The name of the game here is intent rather than reaction. This is apparent from the first stage's floating bricks. The pixel perfect precision demanded for progress leaves no room for error even as an enemy swoops towards you. Should you fail, you tread back to the start of the section and try again. The enemy returns every time. This is not a cruelty on Konami's part, but a deliberate test of the player's skill and ability to stay calm under pressure. The stakes are low here, they will be debilitating later.
The Adventure does have areas of insidiousness, particularly in stage two's ropes. If the player chooses incorrectly at the first set, they meet a dead end and are forced to use a continue. I have little defence for this, but its position near the start of the level means little time is wasted; it feels like a little joke. The gauntlet in the third stage is downright dismaying in its scope yet remains one of my favourite parts of the game. Here too does The Adventure insist upon keeping your cool. There is room to make up for a few scant mistakes, but there is no time to dilly-dally. March forth with confidence, your leaden feet like the unceasing momentum of a steam roller. This need to persevere is seen as well with the few instances where the only feasible way forward is to use your limited invincibility powerup maximally. Reviews decry that these sections necessitate the pickups as poor design, but I see it as deliberate, conscious design. It operates similarly to segments in Mario titles where you pickup a Star and a plethora of enemies lie in your path. Certainly one could eschew this boon and risk harm, but the creators wanted the tool provided to be used.
The lack of subweapons might hurt the game if it weren't designed around their absence. The fireball shot from the whip effectively functions as a knife, however, so I don't believe we're missing out. The Adventure's reduction in the Belmont repertoire asks for a full understanding of the most basic elements of a Castlevania game: jumping, whipping, moving. Even the removal of stairs in favour of ropes is in service of jumping gameplay as seen in stage three. Having enemies generally perish in a single hit from the upgraded whip is in service of the intended unabated path. The hesitant player is hit, the hesitant player gets a weaker whip, the hesitant player has to abide by the game's stricture to get back to an optimal state. The bosses in The Adventure aren't amazing by any means, but they too crumble into dust if the player avoids letting things get too hairy. The Under Moles of stage two are a great example. They appear at a perfect pace where they can be dealt with individually without issue. Should the player dawdle or miss their mark, their problems have compounded and made the fight all the harder. This isn't a test of proficiency, this is a trial to see how steadfast a Belmont can be.
I love this game for what it is. I don't bemoan it for what it isn't.
I first played Castlevania: The Adventure as a gaff when it was included in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. I bought it purely for the first NES game and Kid Dracula but dipped my toes in The Adventure's waters to at least see what the hubbub was about. Back in 2011, JonTron uploaded a 'Drunk Gaming' video on the game where he derided it just as he would Black people and medical realities in the years to come. His misrepresentation stuck with me as I worked through The Adventure and found his criticisms to be either unfounded or hyperbolic. And when Dracula was felled the only thoughts in my head were 'what's the problem here exactly?' and 'that kicked ass.'
What people get caught up on the most for The Adventure is its movement. Christopher Belmont moves laboriously at a pace identical to most of his enemies. His jump is a commitment, his swing so rigid as to betray the flexibility of a whip. In another game this would be a fair point of contention, but as Vee already highlighted in his excellent Castlevania review, "Belmont movement fucking rules." The name of the game here is intent rather than reaction. This is apparent from the first stage's floating bricks. The pixel perfect precision demanded for progress leaves no room for error even as an enemy swoops towards you. Should you fail, you tread back to the start of the section and try again. The enemy returns every time. This is not a cruelty on Konami's part, but a deliberate test of the player's skill and ability to stay calm under pressure. The stakes are low here, they will be debilitating later.
The Adventure does have areas of insidiousness, particularly in stage two's ropes. If the player chooses incorrectly at the first set, they meet a dead end and are forced to use a continue. I have little defence for this, but its position near the start of the level means little time is wasted; it feels like a little joke. The gauntlet in the third stage is downright dismaying in its scope yet remains one of my favourite parts of the game. Here too does The Adventure insist upon keeping your cool. There is room to make up for a few scant mistakes, but there is no time to dilly-dally. March forth with confidence, your leaden feet like the unceasing momentum of a steam roller. This need to persevere is seen as well with the few instances where the only feasible way forward is to use your limited invincibility powerup maximally. Reviews decry that these sections necessitate the pickups as poor design, but I see it as deliberate, conscious design. It operates similarly to segments in Mario titles where you pickup a Star and a plethora of enemies lie in your path. Certainly one could eschew this boon and risk harm, but the creators wanted the tool provided to be used.
The lack of subweapons might hurt the game if it weren't designed around their absence. The fireball shot from the whip effectively functions as a knife, however, so I don't believe we're missing out. The Adventure's reduction in the Belmont repertoire asks for a full understanding of the most basic elements of a Castlevania game: jumping, whipping, moving. Even the removal of stairs in favour of ropes is in service of jumping gameplay as seen in stage three. Having enemies generally perish in a single hit from the upgraded whip is in service of the intended unabated path. The hesitant player is hit, the hesitant player gets a weaker whip, the hesitant player has to abide by the game's stricture to get back to an optimal state. The bosses in The Adventure aren't amazing by any means, but they too crumble into dust if the player avoids letting things get too hairy. The Under Moles of stage two are a great example. They appear at a perfect pace where they can be dealt with individually without issue. Should the player dawdle or miss their mark, their problems have compounded and made the fight all the harder. This isn't a test of proficiency, this is a trial to see how steadfast a Belmont can be.
I love this game for what it is. I don't bemoan it for what it isn't.
Tremendamente limitado em vários aspectos da gameplay - especialmente nas partes relacionadas a movimentação do personagem.
Mas não tem como eu deixar de mencionar a quantidade de ideias interessantes que tem perdidas no jogo. É uma base bruta, mas que foi bem melhor trabalhada na sua sequência, reaproveitando e polindo várias dessas ideias.
Mas não tem como eu deixar de mencionar a quantidade de ideias interessantes que tem perdidas no jogo. É uma base bruta, mas que foi bem melhor trabalhada na sua sequência, reaproveitando e polindo várias dessas ideias.
Imagine you’re chatting with friends about your favorite restaurants. One person mentions the fish market, another talks about a tucked-away little Thai place, and then someone says Olive Garden. The first impulse might be to laugh, but at that moment, my number one wish would be to go with them and see what’s good. I mean, how many people have the integrity to go against the grain like that, to be unembarrassed and unapologetic with their taste, and not lie or make excuses like I probably would. Even if I ended up not enjoying it, I would at least get to hang out with someone who has a unique take on things and expand my perspective.
That’s how I ended up playing this game. On my recommendations list, user Lot0 mentioned that they were in the minority for appreciating it, which piqued my interest. Even as a huge Castlevania fan, I rarely heard people talk about it, and the few times they did were decisively negative. But a lot of people think even Castlevania on NES is bad, so why should I trust them on their assessment of The Adventure? After all, these platformers are simple games, there’s not much you could do to ruin the formula, as long as it all functions properly it should still be a pretty enjoyable game.
However, the operative phrase there is “as long as it all functions properly”. The movement is pitifully slow, jumping from a standing position seems to not work sometimes, inputs randomly drop, it just has an inexcusably bad game-feel. A couple stages have some neat concepts, but mixed in with the fun parts are challenges that border on unfair. That’s certainly not a unique problem within the series, but since this game has no subweapons, there’s no room to strategize your way around it. In the original game, bosses were designed to be weak to certain weapons, so by removing them, bosses in The Adventure are all about finding a spot where you just can’t be hit. It’s like playing a Castlevania title as explained by people who don’t like the series, who would tell you it’s just clunky controls and unfair difficulty set to a decent soundtrack. That’s why I'm so curious about the people who enjoy it, I want to see what they love in something I found to be a comedic exaggeration of the series’ problems. There doesn’t have to be a formal reason for loving it of course, everyone’s entitled to what they enjoy and don’t need to justify themselves, but I would love to give the game a second look from the perspective of a fan. Maybe after that we could go get some nasty breadsticks.
That’s how I ended up playing this game. On my recommendations list, user Lot0 mentioned that they were in the minority for appreciating it, which piqued my interest. Even as a huge Castlevania fan, I rarely heard people talk about it, and the few times they did were decisively negative. But a lot of people think even Castlevania on NES is bad, so why should I trust them on their assessment of The Adventure? After all, these platformers are simple games, there’s not much you could do to ruin the formula, as long as it all functions properly it should still be a pretty enjoyable game.
However, the operative phrase there is “as long as it all functions properly”. The movement is pitifully slow, jumping from a standing position seems to not work sometimes, inputs randomly drop, it just has an inexcusably bad game-feel. A couple stages have some neat concepts, but mixed in with the fun parts are challenges that border on unfair. That’s certainly not a unique problem within the series, but since this game has no subweapons, there’s no room to strategize your way around it. In the original game, bosses were designed to be weak to certain weapons, so by removing them, bosses in The Adventure are all about finding a spot where you just can’t be hit. It’s like playing a Castlevania title as explained by people who don’t like the series, who would tell you it’s just clunky controls and unfair difficulty set to a decent soundtrack. That’s why I'm so curious about the people who enjoy it, I want to see what they love in something I found to be a comedic exaggeration of the series’ problems. There doesn’t have to be a formal reason for loving it of course, everyone’s entitled to what they enjoy and don’t need to justify themselves, but I would love to give the game a second look from the perspective of a fan. Maybe after that we could go get some nasty breadsticks.
Unsure what is the most distressing here; your whip being completely downgraded any time you take even the slightest bit of damage, the truly heinous game feel that makes even walking feel like you're half-heartedly dragging yourself through sludge, or the strings of multiple frame-perfect jumps in a row even in the first level of the game.
I don't know about you but I don't trust any level that puts insta-death spikes and autoscrolling in the same room together
when you see a level like that you get the hell out of there it's not worth staying in that unhealthy relationship
when you see a level like that you get the hell out of there it's not worth staying in that unhealthy relationship
I’ll say this for Simon’s dad, Christopher Belmont and our star in The Adventure: he has a significantly less fucked time of it than his dad had or especially his son will have. I’ve played a handful of castlevanias from across the series timeline and it’s kind of a general blindspot for me – I just don’t care to read about stuff I don’t care about, and for most of my life I didn’t care about Castlevania. I didn’t KNOW that this game EXISTED until like a month ago and I didn’t realize it was REVILED until like last week when I saw a friend comment on Detchibe’s review which as a contrarian-by-circumstance I’m very excited to finally read. Having played it now it seems absurd to me that this thing is sitting at a 1.6 average rating? Damn guys.
I think this is a pretty smart adaptation of Castlevania to the constraints of first year gameboy development. Sure you move slow as molasses but it’s only a little different from how every other castlevania moves, only a little bit more extreme, and your enemies certainly slow down to accommodate you. There aren’t any subweapons but the bad guys you fight don’t necessitate them, and if you keep your whip powered up you get a sick fireball attack that shoots from it. You lose this if you get hit even once, and that just goes back to the central focus of the game. The thing it asks of you, again and again, is to master its movement. Get good at jumping, especially, and I think it’s a fair ask. The game is tuned around your stripped back abilities, an adaptation rather than an attempt to condense the full NES experience to the Gameboy. If there’s one black mark here that I never quite acclimated to it’s that Christopher’s hitbox is enormous, a giant invisible rectangle that occupies a lot of negative space around especially his head and shoulders, and this fucked me up primarily when I was trying to duck under projectiles. As if in answer to this, though, the game’s candles drop a pretty generous number of healing items, something unique to this entry in the 8-bit life of the series so far.
There’s a variety to the game that surprised me, too. Level 2’s cave maze admittedly sucks lol but level 3 being a really evil take on the ever-present gear theme in this series to first create a ceiling of crushing spikes that can only be stopped if you destroy the pillar gear that is bringing it down on you in time, followed by a really challenging (but imo not unfair) vertical platforming section as the instakill spikes rise from the bottom of the screen to greet you. Level 4 is similar but with horizontal scrolling and more gothic set dressing and I WILL say that the enemy difficulty is a little wild here but just like every other Castlevania game you get infinite continues, so to some degree it is a nonissue I think. Bosses are a similarly mixed bag; 1 and 3 are standard gameboy type guys who just sort of run or fly at you and do their attack while 2 and Dracula have patterns and interesting gimmicks to them.
ALSO the music is STILL GOOD and this is the sickest Castlevania design so far, a bulbous mass of lumps and protrusions, very cool looking, even if you only see it in silhouette.
So I dunno man, is this the least of the three NES games plus this one? Absolutely, for sure, no question. But I find a lot to like in it. I think in it being the least it’s easy to throw the kid dracula out with the evil bathwater but to do so overlooks that this game did try to creatively tackle the problems inherent to making one of these games as they existed then on this system and I think that for the MOST part they pulled it off well if you’re willing to practice it some. I think Christopher did a great job, but considering he’s got a sequel in two years, he is about on par with his son as a vampire hunter, because presumably Dracula is going to also not be really dead for him. Who said these guys are the best vampire hunters? They’re two for two family members who can’t seal the deal.
PREVIOUSLY: SIMON'S QUEST
NEXT TIME: DRACULA'S CURSE
I think this is a pretty smart adaptation of Castlevania to the constraints of first year gameboy development. Sure you move slow as molasses but it’s only a little different from how every other castlevania moves, only a little bit more extreme, and your enemies certainly slow down to accommodate you. There aren’t any subweapons but the bad guys you fight don’t necessitate them, and if you keep your whip powered up you get a sick fireball attack that shoots from it. You lose this if you get hit even once, and that just goes back to the central focus of the game. The thing it asks of you, again and again, is to master its movement. Get good at jumping, especially, and I think it’s a fair ask. The game is tuned around your stripped back abilities, an adaptation rather than an attempt to condense the full NES experience to the Gameboy. If there’s one black mark here that I never quite acclimated to it’s that Christopher’s hitbox is enormous, a giant invisible rectangle that occupies a lot of negative space around especially his head and shoulders, and this fucked me up primarily when I was trying to duck under projectiles. As if in answer to this, though, the game’s candles drop a pretty generous number of healing items, something unique to this entry in the 8-bit life of the series so far.
There’s a variety to the game that surprised me, too. Level 2’s cave maze admittedly sucks lol but level 3 being a really evil take on the ever-present gear theme in this series to first create a ceiling of crushing spikes that can only be stopped if you destroy the pillar gear that is bringing it down on you in time, followed by a really challenging (but imo not unfair) vertical platforming section as the instakill spikes rise from the bottom of the screen to greet you. Level 4 is similar but with horizontal scrolling and more gothic set dressing and I WILL say that the enemy difficulty is a little wild here but just like every other Castlevania game you get infinite continues, so to some degree it is a nonissue I think. Bosses are a similarly mixed bag; 1 and 3 are standard gameboy type guys who just sort of run or fly at you and do their attack while 2 and Dracula have patterns and interesting gimmicks to them.
ALSO the music is STILL GOOD and this is the sickest Castlevania design so far, a bulbous mass of lumps and protrusions, very cool looking, even if you only see it in silhouette.
So I dunno man, is this the least of the three NES games plus this one? Absolutely, for sure, no question. But I find a lot to like in it. I think in it being the least it’s easy to throw the kid dracula out with the evil bathwater but to do so overlooks that this game did try to creatively tackle the problems inherent to making one of these games as they existed then on this system and I think that for the MOST part they pulled it off well if you’re willing to practice it some. I think Christopher did a great job, but considering he’s got a sequel in two years, he is about on par with his son as a vampire hunter, because presumably Dracula is going to also not be really dead for him. Who said these guys are the best vampire hunters? They’re two for two family members who can’t seal the deal.
PREVIOUSLY: SIMON'S QUEST
NEXT TIME: DRACULA'S CURSE
Here we have a game I didn't really want to play in the past. It just never really interested me especially after playing the Rebirth version but I decided to do a very scruffed (aka using a lot of save states sorry...) playthrough of the game just to look at it.
Now I knew one thing going in, this game was hated immensely in the community. I've seen reviews like Stop Skeletons From Fighting (Formally known as Happy Video Game Nerd) and Jeremy Parish talk about the game both disliking it. There's also the many negative reviews of the game on GameFAQs and this site. There's even a page for this game on the Bad Game Hall of Fame website. While it's probably not the most hated game...actually what is the most hated game in this series? Is it Haunted Castle? Is it the MSX game? Is it this?? Actually it could be that one mobile game did anyone even play that? It looks pretty bad.
So this game is called Dracula Densetsu in Japan. It's interesting because the up and coming 3rd was called Akumajo Densetsu. Wonder what was with them wanting to use the word Legend for the title. Dracula Densetsu stars a completely new Belmont named Christopher Belmont. Though honestly you wouldn't even notice unless you looked it up. It's not even mentioned in the US release to my knowledge. Still regardless of his name, you'll be traveling through 4 levels and yes it's really only 4.
Christopher has very different physics to Simon which is to be expected as it is a Game Boy game. He is very heavy in this game and moves very slow. I've heard this was meant to be helpful with the screen when playing on the original hardware so I guess props to them if it was the intention. You can still whip and use sub-wait there are no subweapons?? Well that's pretty lame.
Now let me talk about something I've always never understood about this series. In many of the older games you could grab this item to upgrade your whip up to level 3. This mechanic is stupid because most of the time they give it to you early enough for you to never worry about a weak whip. Why even have this if most of the time I'm gonna use the best one anyway? This game tries to give this more of a purpose by making the level 3 really good like it gives you a projectile but now there's a catch. Each hit = a downgrade in level. Now look I can appreciate them trying to balance this but this ends up hurting the game more then helping it. I especially hate when the game eats my input from the frame drops and I get hit and it's just bye bye to that. I could see this working if it was more refined but it ends up being more annoying then anything for me.
Level design though actually can be fun at times. I find the choice to use ropes interesting. Stairs are usually hated in the Famicom games so I like the change and it brings new ideas to the levels. What I don't like though is the obsession of one tile platforming and platforms that fall when you land on them. They use this throughout the game and the worst part is it's so stressful. I always get too scared ill press the button too late and end up dying anyway. I think it's too strict personally. Though I'll give the game this, I do like how they least let you practice the one tile platforms near the end of stage 1 even if this section is hated by many.
Can I just say I love the idea of level 3. It's not much about fighting tough foes but instead fleeing from instant death spikes, it's perfect in striking fear with your slow running and climbing skills. You're constantly looking at them to see if you even have a chance of surviving. What could be a decent challenge for a platform character like Mario is now a huge challenge with a Belmont like Christopher. Though I do think the controls being not amazing hurt this level but I'd argue it's the best level in the game though I'm sure most would disagree with me. Also M2 why didn't you bring this back for Rebirth? Would have been perfect there...
I think another thing I appreciate is you can tell the team did want this to be a good effort. None of the levels feel like anything the previous games did and whether or not you dislike them doesn't mean they didn't try to give it an identity of it's own. Even most of the enemies and bosses are different giving this a feel of it's own. While there are bad parts to this game like I'm not a fan of stage 2 and especially some parts of stage 4, I'd rather take this then just the first game again but worse.
I think this game has limited continues but I kept trying to game over and it never seem to end so if anyone knows the answer to this let me know. Those bosses are also kind of weird now I think about it, especially the 2nd one. It feels like you're just fighting a lot of easy small enemies. They also poorly balance them out as they die really quick to a fully powered up whip. They even bring out the first boss three times in stage 4 which reminds me of the giant bat in stage 6 of the first game. The 2nd form of Dracula is hard btw, if there is an easy way of beating him then I don't know it. Though I eventually got a good pattern on him and then got awarded the ending which shows by the end that Dracula escape? Maybe that's for Dracula Densetsu II to continue with.
The music is soooo good in this game. I always love to gush over how Konami does music for their older games and this is no different. You really can't go wrong with any of it and it's probably the one thing everyone can agree is amazing. The visuals also don't look bad either with some good spritework and areas to appreciate. Man I miss when Konami did cool things.
Despite all of it's issues and how much people hate this game. I for some reason can't say it's bad. Don't get me wrong there are bad parts for Dracula Densetsu and some moments can feel fury inducing at times but for a team that probably lacked what they needed to make a great game I think they did an okish job at making it at least playable. I'm not a fan of this game but I admire the effort. It may not be a Legend for most but sometimes you just aren't destined to be loved.
Ok but like can we still talk about how Rebirth just barely takes from this game like why even base it off this game? Now I feel like I have to redo my review of that one now...but my Wii is in such poor shape nowadays. Surely hit a roadblock here..AH! I'm rambling here for no reason, bye for now!
Now I knew one thing going in, this game was hated immensely in the community. I've seen reviews like Stop Skeletons From Fighting (Formally known as Happy Video Game Nerd) and Jeremy Parish talk about the game both disliking it. There's also the many negative reviews of the game on GameFAQs and this site. There's even a page for this game on the Bad Game Hall of Fame website. While it's probably not the most hated game...actually what is the most hated game in this series? Is it Haunted Castle? Is it the MSX game? Is it this?? Actually it could be that one mobile game did anyone even play that? It looks pretty bad.
So this game is called Dracula Densetsu in Japan. It's interesting because the up and coming 3rd was called Akumajo Densetsu. Wonder what was with them wanting to use the word Legend for the title. Dracula Densetsu stars a completely new Belmont named Christopher Belmont. Though honestly you wouldn't even notice unless you looked it up. It's not even mentioned in the US release to my knowledge. Still regardless of his name, you'll be traveling through 4 levels and yes it's really only 4.
Christopher has very different physics to Simon which is to be expected as it is a Game Boy game. He is very heavy in this game and moves very slow. I've heard this was meant to be helpful with the screen when playing on the original hardware so I guess props to them if it was the intention. You can still whip and use sub-wait there are no subweapons?? Well that's pretty lame.
Now let me talk about something I've always never understood about this series. In many of the older games you could grab this item to upgrade your whip up to level 3. This mechanic is stupid because most of the time they give it to you early enough for you to never worry about a weak whip. Why even have this if most of the time I'm gonna use the best one anyway? This game tries to give this more of a purpose by making the level 3 really good like it gives you a projectile but now there's a catch. Each hit = a downgrade in level. Now look I can appreciate them trying to balance this but this ends up hurting the game more then helping it. I especially hate when the game eats my input from the frame drops and I get hit and it's just bye bye to that. I could see this working if it was more refined but it ends up being more annoying then anything for me.
Level design though actually can be fun at times. I find the choice to use ropes interesting. Stairs are usually hated in the Famicom games so I like the change and it brings new ideas to the levels. What I don't like though is the obsession of one tile platforming and platforms that fall when you land on them. They use this throughout the game and the worst part is it's so stressful. I always get too scared ill press the button too late and end up dying anyway. I think it's too strict personally. Though I'll give the game this, I do like how they least let you practice the one tile platforms near the end of stage 1 even if this section is hated by many.
Can I just say I love the idea of level 3. It's not much about fighting tough foes but instead fleeing from instant death spikes, it's perfect in striking fear with your slow running and climbing skills. You're constantly looking at them to see if you even have a chance of surviving. What could be a decent challenge for a platform character like Mario is now a huge challenge with a Belmont like Christopher. Though I do think the controls being not amazing hurt this level but I'd argue it's the best level in the game though I'm sure most would disagree with me. Also M2 why didn't you bring this back for Rebirth? Would have been perfect there...
I think another thing I appreciate is you can tell the team did want this to be a good effort. None of the levels feel like anything the previous games did and whether or not you dislike them doesn't mean they didn't try to give it an identity of it's own. Even most of the enemies and bosses are different giving this a feel of it's own. While there are bad parts to this game like I'm not a fan of stage 2 and especially some parts of stage 4, I'd rather take this then just the first game again but worse.
I think this game has limited continues but I kept trying to game over and it never seem to end so if anyone knows the answer to this let me know. Those bosses are also kind of weird now I think about it, especially the 2nd one. It feels like you're just fighting a lot of easy small enemies. They also poorly balance them out as they die really quick to a fully powered up whip. They even bring out the first boss three times in stage 4 which reminds me of the giant bat in stage 6 of the first game. The 2nd form of Dracula is hard btw, if there is an easy way of beating him then I don't know it. Though I eventually got a good pattern on him and then got awarded the ending which shows by the end that Dracula escape? Maybe that's for Dracula Densetsu II to continue with.
The music is soooo good in this game. I always love to gush over how Konami does music for their older games and this is no different. You really can't go wrong with any of it and it's probably the one thing everyone can agree is amazing. The visuals also don't look bad either with some good spritework and areas to appreciate. Man I miss when Konami did cool things.
Despite all of it's issues and how much people hate this game. I for some reason can't say it's bad. Don't get me wrong there are bad parts for Dracula Densetsu and some moments can feel fury inducing at times but for a team that probably lacked what they needed to make a great game I think they did an okish job at making it at least playable. I'm not a fan of this game but I admire the effort. It may not be a Legend for most but sometimes you just aren't destined to be loved.
Ok but like can we still talk about how Rebirth just barely takes from this game like why even base it off this game? Now I feel like I have to redo my review of that one now...but my Wii is in such poor shape nowadays. Surely hit a roadblock here..AH! I'm rambling here for no reason, bye for now!
Visually I give this game props, decent looking Game Boy game but it is SO sluggish and reptitive, died a few times and decided not to deal with the boredom of this one.
Why are Simon's Quest and Castlevania 64 seen as the lowest points in the series when this game exists? What a shitload of fuck.
Much like most old school franchises, Castlevania was destined to head to handheld consoles at some point after the first couple entries, and it did so with this game, which is... not very good. The game essentially takes the formula of the original Castlevania and puts it on a handheld, but unfortunetly, it doesn't do that well at it.
The story is no different from many other games in the series, so no need to comment on it, the graphics are... Game Boy graphics, the music is good, but nothing really noteworthy, and the control is about the same as the original game, so nothing really to complain about there.
As usual though, it's the gameplay where everything falls apart. You move EXTREMELY SLOW, even more so than Haunted Castle somehow, making facing enemies and obstacles a struggle, you drop like a rock in the air, the level design is terrible, with literal dead ends in some levels, the enemy placement is incredibly annoying, the boss fights range from being really annoying to piss easy, and there aren't even any sub-weapons in the game.
All you get is the whip upgrades, which, by the way, you lose whenever you get hit at all, which is inevitable, and it does make things much more stressful. At least the game isn't that long, having only four levels, so you don't have to suffer through this for that long.
Overall, as the first Castlevania for handhelds, it could have been done WAY better. Sure, it does work, and it provides almost the same experience as the console game, but there is a lot that is keeping it from being ok even.
Game #24
The story is no different from many other games in the series, so no need to comment on it, the graphics are... Game Boy graphics, the music is good, but nothing really noteworthy, and the control is about the same as the original game, so nothing really to complain about there.
As usual though, it's the gameplay where everything falls apart. You move EXTREMELY SLOW, even more so than Haunted Castle somehow, making facing enemies and obstacles a struggle, you drop like a rock in the air, the level design is terrible, with literal dead ends in some levels, the enemy placement is incredibly annoying, the boss fights range from being really annoying to piss easy, and there aren't even any sub-weapons in the game.
All you get is the whip upgrades, which, by the way, you lose whenever you get hit at all, which is inevitable, and it does make things much more stressful. At least the game isn't that long, having only four levels, so you don't have to suffer through this for that long.
Overall, as the first Castlevania for handhelds, it could have been done WAY better. Sure, it does work, and it provides almost the same experience as the console game, but there is a lot that is keeping it from being ok even.
Game #24
I mean, it's cute, I guess. It's really rough though... like actually disorienting at times with the choppiness and slow down.
Worst Castlevania game I've played so far. I really wanted to like this game and had fun with much of it but overall the game was a more frustrating than fun. The whip degrading every time you take damage is easily my least favorite aspect of the game and served to infuriate me constantly. If this mechanic alone was removed I'd have had a massively more fun experience, but it complied on top of the other issues to hinder my enjoyment. My least favorite Dracula fight easily, they're normally hard but this one was just hard in an unfun way. I haven't been using save states through the rest of the series much at all but this game broke me of that habit and at the end of it I was making save states every screen just to finish the game without absolutely hating it.
Expect nothing but the least a video game can be. Castlevania The Adventure is the first entry of the franchise on the gameboy, and this is where I finish this trilogy (I had first beaten Belmont's Revenge, and didn't have the balls to endure Legends until the end).
It really is Castlevania reduced to its smallest possible form; no sub-items (but hey, hearts regenerate health now), Cristopher is slower than a slug, and movement is clunkier than I ever thought it could be. Is it terribly bad? No, but it's terribly boring, but I'd argue that's expected from an early gameboy title, at least it's very short.
But OH MY GOD that level with the moving spikes is one of the worst things I've ever had to experience on a video game.
It really is Castlevania reduced to its smallest possible form; no sub-items (but hey, hearts regenerate health now), Cristopher is slower than a slug, and movement is clunkier than I ever thought it could be. Is it terribly bad? No, but it's terribly boring, but I'd argue that's expected from an early gameboy title, at least it's very short.
But OH MY GOD that level with the moving spikes is one of the worst things I've ever had to experience on a video game.
me going to defeat dracula in the heaviest boots ever made
ok we are going to make a game where the player moves at 1 inch per second and then make them do precise platforming its going to be awesome