This is the first Classicvania game I’ve played, and it has won me over. Super Castlevania IV is frenetic fun, and I found myself greatly appreciating its simplicity. The gameplay is very straightforward, you must progress through linear stages, using your whip and a sub weapon to defeat enemies that obstruct you, whilst managing your health and lives so that you have enough to vanquish each concluding boss. The draw of it is learning from each mistake or death, then adjusting and optimising your approach accordingly, so that you can get a clean clear of each stage.
Initially I felt a great rush completing a stage, as the limited lives system urges you to lock in and play precisely, however later stages become bloated endurance tests, with an increase in awkward enemy positioning, and atrocious platforming, where making a mistake often results in an instant death and reset. Thankfully though this can be mitigated by the use of save states. These stages also exacerbate the issues with the boss battles, as you frequently reach these with less resources to expend. Unfortunately, the majority of boss battles in Super Castlevania IV are frustrating because the arenas are too small, bosses recurrently bump into you and many attacks feel unavoidable, as a result they are more so a test of if you can initiate the fight with full health and lots of hearts so that you are able to out DPS them, rather than that of positioning, reflexes and recognising patterns. Regardless there are some exceptions, such as Dracula which is a tremendous but difficult fight.
Overall, I really enjoyed my first foray into classic Castlevania, however I feel like because of my use of save states in the latter half of the game, I circumvented a lot of frustration and tedium. I also derived additional enjoyment from playing this handheld on my RG35XX, a vertical Anbernic emulation device modelled after the original Gameboy, which I can’t shill for enough.
Initially I felt a great rush completing a stage, as the limited lives system urges you to lock in and play precisely, however later stages become bloated endurance tests, with an increase in awkward enemy positioning, and atrocious platforming, where making a mistake often results in an instant death and reset. Thankfully though this can be mitigated by the use of save states. These stages also exacerbate the issues with the boss battles, as you frequently reach these with less resources to expend. Unfortunately, the majority of boss battles in Super Castlevania IV are frustrating because the arenas are too small, bosses recurrently bump into you and many attacks feel unavoidable, as a result they are more so a test of if you can initiate the fight with full health and lots of hearts so that you are able to out DPS them, rather than that of positioning, reflexes and recognising patterns. Regardless there are some exceptions, such as Dracula which is a tremendous but difficult fight.
Overall, I really enjoyed my first foray into classic Castlevania, however I feel like because of my use of save states in the latter half of the game, I circumvented a lot of frustration and tedium. I also derived additional enjoyment from playing this handheld on my RG35XX, a vertical Anbernic emulation device modelled after the original Gameboy, which I can’t shill for enough.