A pretty good collection with a nice lineup of games. It includes practically all of the major classic titles (i.e. the ones that aren't metroidvanias) except for Rondo of Blood, which is admittedly an unfortunate exclusion. It does include Japanese versions of most of the games however, which is a nice bonus.

In terms of extra QoL features, the collection leaves a bit to be desired. They've added a save state function, but there's only one slot per game and no options for rewind. There are also a few visual customization options as well as a replay feature that automatically records your gameplay, but that's about it. The collection does come with one really cool thing though: the digital bonus book. It contains stuff like concept art and developer interviews, and it's pretty interesting to look through.

Even with the slightly lackluster extra features, I think the game is worth its price tag. It's relatively cheap and seems to go on sale pretty often, so keep an eye out if you're interested in the old school Castlevania games.

For the most part, this game is a fairly inoffensive entry in the Castlevania series. It has alright level design, good visuals and music, and even two different playable characters to choose from. However, this game commits one cardinal sin that really holds it back: it has limited continues. No other Castlevania game I've played does this, and that's because it's a stupid feature that doesn't add anything to the game. If you don't want to lose all your progress every time you run out of continues, you're forced to use the antiquated password system (which doesn't refill your continues). The game itself isn't really even that hard outside of this, so I suspect they only did this to pad out playtime.

Even putting the limited continues aside, this game just doesn't really offer anything that a different Castlevania game hasn't already done better. It only has 6 levels, leaving it tied with Castlevania 1 for the shortest game in the series (aside from the Game Boy games). The boss fights aren't really all that interesting either.

Overall, I'd say you're just better off playing Rondo of Blood. Or if you're like me and have acquired a taste for NES jank, you can even give the originals a try.

As a sequel, this game is fantastic because it addresses nearly every major complaint I had about Castlevania: The Adventure. The most notable improvement is that this actually feels like a video game instead of something you'd get with a Happy Meal. The game runs much better, has greatly improved level design, and you no longer lose your whip upgrades when you get hit.

Judging the game on its own merits and not just in the context of its predecessor, it's not quite as impressive. The entire first half of the game is almost trivially easy, although it does pick up slightly towards the end. The level design is pretty decent, but I don't find most of the bosses to be particularly fun or interesting fights.

Overall, it's an alright experience. If you're a fan of the series, I'd say it's worth checking out at least once. That being said, I don't think it really holds up to some other entries in the series, and it's not something I'm in a rush to replay.

As opposed to the completely linear Castlevania 1, Simon's Quest places a lot of emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving. Your objective is to find the five body parts of Dracula, which are hidden in five different mansions around the world. This is fine at first, but eventually you will realize that most of these mansions are extremely well-hidden. The "puzzles" you have to solve in order to get to them are incredibly obscure and would take ages to solve without a guide. There ARE hint books that give you at least some clues for what to do, but someone at Konami had the bright idea of hiding all of them in completely unmarked walls that you have to throw holy water at. At least the NPCs bless you with such helpful dialogue as "LAURELS IN YOUR SOUP WILL ENHANCE ITS AROMA" and "DON'T LOOK INTO THE DEATH STAR, OR YOU WILL DIE."

Without a guide, this game blows and I wouldn't recommend playing it. If you do use a guide, it's not the worst thing ever, but it's still kind of a slog. Once you know where you're supposed to go, the game isn't even particularly difficult. There are only three bosses and they're all pushovers, even Dracula himself. The best thing I can say about this game is that it does at least have a killer soundtrack, with Bloody Tears going on to become one of the most iconic tracks in the series.

In the end, this is just another bad NES sequel that randomly decided to be a different genre than the first game. I wish I had a dollar for every time that happened.

If you liked Castlevania 1, you'll probably like this game. It's basically more of the same, though this time there's a lot more content. On top of the game just generally being longer and having more stages, there are also branching paths and even multiple endings to encourage replays.

In terms of difficulty, this game is somehow even more brutal than Castlevania 1. The levels are longer, and you only start with two extra lives instead of three. The boss fights are generally more difficult than in the first game, but I also find them to be a lot more fun. The actual level design is weaker (for some reason there seems to be a larger emphasis on platforming), but it still captures the rewarding skill-based gameplay of the first game. This is one of the hardest games I've ever played, but I still very much enjoyed my time with it.

It's worth noting that the famicom version of this game is slightly more forgiving, and it also features improved music and visuals due to the cartridge containing a special chip that wasn't compatible with the NES.

Take notes, Super Castlevania IV. THIS is how you bring the classic gameplay of Castlevania into a new generation. This really does feel like just a classic Castlevania game but on better hardware. All of the changes they DID make are mostly just QoL stuff (like an actual save function and a level select) and they just feel like a natural evolution for the series.

The game isn't quite as brutal as the NES titles, but it's still pretty challenging. If you enjoyed Castlevania 1 or 3, I'd highly recommend giving this game a shot.

This game feels like an attempt at modernizing the Castlevania formula. You can now whip in 8 directions as well as change your trajectory in midair. Partially as a result of these changes, the overall difficulty of the game is quite a bit lower than the older titles. The difficulty does pick up a bit in the last few levels, but only because of the introduction of many, many different instant death traps and janky platforming segments.

Feeling less restrictive may sound like a good thing at first, but I actually feel like being restrictive was an important part of the identity of the older games. Because of how limited your options were, you had to approach each situation meticulously in order to succeed. Learning to work around those restrictions and avoid taking damage felt extremely rewarding, but that feeling doesn't quite carry over into this game. Despite this, I still had a decent time with it (at least until the last few levels).

Due to being much more forgiving, this game might appeal to a wider audience than the NES Castlevanias. Personally I don't feel like there's much to it, though. Even the soundtrack is kind of mid by Castlevania standards. It's an alright game, but nothing special.

The original Castlevania games have a reputation for being some of the hardest games out there. I went into this game expecting it to be just average NES bullshit, with enemy spam and instant death pits everywhere. However, what I found was that the difficulty of this game is actually surprisingly fair. I mean sure, there ARE still a handful of those instant death pits in this game, but even with Simon taking approximately 4.3 nautical miles of knockback every time he stubs his toe, there are really only two or three rooms where you actively get knocked into them. Outside of those exceptions, the game is relatively "honest".

What I love about this game is that every room feels almost like a miniature boss fight. At first, many rooms may seem overwhelming and almost impossible to clear without taking damage. But as you keep retrying, you slowly start to learn the patterns of the enemies. You learn to predict how they spawn and behave, when they shoot their projectiles, and how to best avoid them. The slow and rigid movement options really highlight this, because they prevent you from just winging it. You really have to pay attention to how the monsters behave, so that you can predict their movements and know exactly when it's safe to weave through them.

This game is definitely hard and unforgiving, make no mistake about that. But despite how brutal the difficulty is, the game can be learned and mastered. It's a game that will take you many, many hours on your first playthrough, then when you boot it up the next day you'll beat 80% of it on a single continue. And that's exactly what I love about it.

This might be the worst game I've ever played. Having been released very early into the Game Boy's life, the game plays more like one of those crappy LCD toys than an actual video game. It runs like garbage and your movement is unbearably slow. Your jumps cover so little horizontal distance that practically every platforming segment ends up requiring pixel perfect precision. Couple that with level 3 being one of the most painful autoscrollers I've ever seen, and you've got a real stinker of a game.

This game only has 4 levels, and yet it took me multiple hours to beat due to how easily you can die and how much time it takes to traverse these screens. There are multiple parts where you just have to know in advance what's going to happen or you'll get insta-killed through various means. The music wasn't terrible, but it now haunts my dreams due to how much time I had to spend listening to the same short loops. Just overall not a very pleasant experience.