Vampire Killer reuses a lot of assets from its NES counterpart, and presentation wise, it looks quite nice, but this is all to lure you into a false sense of security. Real quick, you'll realize what makes Vampire Killer so different from Castlevania. Hearts serve two purposes here: one is for your sub-weapons (standard stuff), and secondly, currency, kind of like Castlevania II. You use these hearts to buy from merchants who are sometimes in plain sight or behind a breakable wall. You have to hit these merchants a few times before they sell you anything, and after you're done with them, you can keep hitting them, and they'll eventually die. Free points!!! Speaking of breakable walls, they're everywhere in this game, and hitting at walls is vital as they can hide chests that can be opened with regular keys you find scattered throughout the levels, but more importantly, you might also find white keys. These white keys are required to progress to the next level. Unlike NES Castlevania, there's no boss at the end of every level; instead, they're at the end of every third level. There are 18 levels in total, which means a lot of hitting at walls and hoping you find those white keys.

You start off with your classic whip, but from the previously mentioned merchants, you can replace your whip and have, for example, an axe or a knife as your main weapon. They don't consume hearts, so spam to your heart's content. Although if you have the cross or the axe, which acts like the cross in this game, make sure to catch it on the rebound or you'll lose it and you'll be stuck with your shitty whip. You might find a merchant selling a candle; this will highlight which walls are breakable. Don't matter though, since your entire inventory, besides hearts, resets after beating a boss.

So truth be told, I was actually having an okay time with this up until stage 17, where I managed to softlock myself. See this block I subtly highlighted (this screenshot is not from my playthrough; I took this from a longplay on YouTube)? I got here after picking up the white key, but for some reason this block wouldn't break, so I checked a longplay on YouTube, and it seems to only break with holy water? Which I didn't have, so I had to jump off a pit and restart the level. This also reset my hearts, so I had to grind hearts to buy the holy water. Turns out there's another white key in this level close to the exit, so I didn't actually need to do any of that. The fun doesn't end there; Dracula in level 18 has a completely unique second form compared to his NES counterpart. He has a jewel on the top of his head, and to hit it you have to jump up these small platforms and attack from the top. The best method of attack is the knife. Luckily, the very first merchant you see on this level sells them for uhhhh 90 hearts. I didn't exactly get that many hearts back after spending most of them on the previous level, so once again, I grinded for these fucking things. Here's a very useful hint: you'll occasionally find red and white bibles. White bibles make merchant items cheaper, while red ones make them more expensive, so don't accidentally pick one up while you already happen to be holding a white bible, completely screwing yourself over. Play with save states if you really want to play this.

It feels like one of those really trashy exploitation films, even down to how poorly the women are handled! For a 90s adventure game, it really doesn't ask the player for much; the puzzles, if they can even be considered that, are very simple, and the action is just clicking on the zombie's weak point (you should know where it is). This is also one of those games where you have to examine absolutely everything in order to progress. I got stuck for like 15 minutes because, for some reason, examining a dead detective's shoulder triggered a new line of dialogue, which then allowed me to progress. The story, while predictable, does go off the rails near the end, which I did find enjoyable, and there are a few lines of dialogue that I did find funny. The pixel art is nice too!

Ghoul School can be considered one of the earliest trailblazers of the "Metroidvania" genre. You are dropped right into the game after the title screen (the story can be found in the manual) and are given quite a bit of freedom when exploring the school. You'll find the occasional dead end and roadblocks that can be conquered later by acquiring a powerup. You start out with a pretty shitty weapon, a bat. Its close range and you'll quickly encounter monsters that fire projectiles or are too low to the ground to hit, like the monkeys that throw wrenches or the little annoying eyeball fucks that will follow you all throughout a room. You can hide in lockers, but I found this almost pointless since enemies that follow will just circle around the locker you're hiding in, or some will just stand and wait right in front of it. Why not just jump over them, right? Well, your jump is pretty shit as well; you simply do not get enough momentum to make it over any of the larger enemies; not even standing on tables and shelves will help you much. I swear there are some jumps you can't make without taking damage. Even when you get the spring shoes, which gives you a bigger jump, damage seems unavoidable.

There's no map of any kind, so getting lost is a given, especially since a lot of the rooms and hallways look very similar. The game does indicate which room you're in on the top left, so that's nice at least. It's in these rooms you enter where you'll find upgrades to your arsenal, like the Deweytron gun, which fires straight, or the Digestaray, which will finally allow you to deal with all those pesky ground bound enemies. I mentioned the spring shoes earlier, but there's also suction cup shoes, which makes you stick to the ceiling. You just need to actually be able to reach the ceiling with your pitiful jump while wearing these to attach to it, so they're used very rarely. You'll probably be scrounging for recovery items quite frequently, which are apples. You can't hold onto any of these, so if you currently don't need one, make sure you remember where it was! You might even find the elusive golden apple, which halves the damage you receive (I wish I had found this).

Find power-ups, get lost, find your way to the literal heart of the ghoul-infested school, and defeat the big bad to rescue the cheerleader you were planning to ask out for the school's Halloween dance. The titular Ghoul School then reverts back to its original state, the "Cool School". The game is kind of shit; your jump sucks and the hit detection can be questionable at times, but despite this, I found this game quite charming, and the OST is memorable enough. It's not on the same level as Monster Party (I'll get to this one later this month), but it's pretty close to that vibe. Worth checking out if you're interested in early "Metroidvanias" or want an interesting curiosity for the spooky month of October.