Tag: Castlevania

GameFAQs Review – Castlevania Judgment (Wii)

So, there’s a new Castlevania game coming out in 2010. It’s called Lords of Shadow… it’s been in development for quite some time, having had a trailer shown in 2008 without any association with the Castlevania franchise. From the looks of the trailer, the game looks really, really good and promises to be a true successor to the Castlevania games of old.

Now what does this have to do with Castlevania Judgment?

Well, Judgment was released in 2008 and as mentioned, Lords of Shadow was originally presented via a quick trailer at a game show without the Castlevania name. The general belief is that Konami didn’t want the new game – which is essentially a reboot of the franchise – to upstage Judgment, which was the newest Castlevania offering on console systems (not counting the newest DS release, Order of Ecclessia). There’s probably a good reason for that… because if it had, people would skip over Judgment and not fall into the trap of believing this to be a good game.

The general premise of Judgment is a huge departure from the rest of the series – rather than a 3D action game or another 2D Metroidvania, this incarnation on the Wii is a one-on-one fighting game that pits various heroes and villains of various Castlevania games against each other. In essence, it’s a Castlevania All-Stars game and it seems like an interesting concept. However, the execution is gravely flawed.

Continue reading “GameFAQs Review – Castlevania Judgment (Wii)”

First Impressions – Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (WiiWare)

Just before the New Year, Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth was released and I coughed up the thousand Wii Points to buy it. Somehow, I managed to reach the fifth stage on my first game on Normal difficulty… seems rather off. Don’t know if I’m that good or if the game’s that easy… most likely the latter. Even so, it’s still no walk in the park, it’s classic Castlevania, and I wouldn’t have it any other way… unless they made it more like Super Castlevania IV… but oh well.

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth To Hit Japan October 27th

According to Kotaku and obtained “crappy cell phone” pictures of a Japanese magazine, the game will boast new enemies, new traps, and… yes, STAIRS! That’s right… forget the return to old-school Castlevania – STAIRS make their grand return to a Castlevania game after a long, LONG period of absence… and no, the Dracula X PSP remake doesn’t count.

With the game getting an early Japanese release (before the rest of us), it begs the question of what goofy Japanese name it’s being referred to as.

You can check out the article here for further details, primarily the picture in question.

All These Years, I’ve Screwed Up The Damn Name

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, the third in Konami’s series of classic remakes for WiiWare, is a bit of a revelation, as it officially confirms the proper name of the title. Besides that, the general belief is that it’s going to be a remake/remix/upgrade/whatever of the Game Boy title of the same name.

It sort of makes sense when you think about it. While I can’t necessarily speak for Contra ReBirth since I’ve not played it yet, it seemed to me like Gradius ReBirth is sort of a spritual remix or upgrade of the Game Boy version called Nemesis, as both games seem to have similar levels.
In any case, it’ll be interesting to see how this game turns out. I’m hoping it’ll be a return to form similar to Super Castlevania IV and not another “Metroidvania” game that seems to be the norm these past few years… then again, anything is an improvement over what we got on Game Boy.

A Relic Comes Home (and also Castle Of Dragons)

So I found myself a classic Nintendo Entertainment System.

Well, a working one.

A front-loader. Classic model.

For the most part, it works without fail… mostly. The obvious connector issue is an issue, but it works better than my dearly departed system, which means I can play Castlevania III without fail… and that’s a good thing because that game needs a bit of love that my FC Twin cannot provide.

However, instead of playing that gloriously difficult game, I’m spending my time playing crap like The Last Starfighter and Platoon. Suddenly, I get the feeling as to why my last front-loader died the death it did… even though its last game being played was Kirby’s Adventure, which is not crap.

Speaking of not crap, I also snagged the original Contra in a shop downtown. Truth be told, there’s a lot of good games there, but the prices are just ridiculous. In any case, I got that, along with another game called Castle of Dragon… the less said about that game, the better, but at least it was real cheap.

In closing, I’d like to remind you folks that Mega Man 9 is out now and I do suggest you get it… because it deserves love.

Getting Simon’s Quest

Interestingly enough, my memory is somewhat sketchy of what games I actually own on the NES.

For quite some time, I had assumed that I had all three NES Castlevania games. I certainly know this to be true since Simon’s Quest was the first ‘Vania I ever got. Somewhere along the line, it got lost somewhere and I never saw it again.  So among the shopping for random NES titles, I made it a point to hunt down Simon’s Quest, even if I had to force myself to get it from eBay.

But as luck would have it, a gaming store in downtown Montreal had a copy of the game in their NES rack. It was a bit pricey for my tastes, but in the end, it was worth. The circle is complete. One less “vital” addition to my collection of vintage games.

First Impressions – Circle of The Moon (GBA)

(2023 Update: In retrospect, calling this post a “First Impressions” is kind of a white lie, since my first time playing Circle Of The Moon would’ve been years prior, albeit through the “evil art” of emulation. My guess is that I had acquired an actual cart of Circle Of The Moon and wrote this shortly afterwards. So, in a sense, it’s my first impressions of the game played on its native hardware rather than though some spotty emulation… that’s my logic behind it, at least.)

Some time after Konami released Symphony of the Night on the Playstation, they released Castlevania 64… and it sucked. So they released a sequel… and it sucked too. A couple non-significant games later, Konami released their first GBA title, Circle of the Moon.

The story revolves around a trio of Vampire hunters attempting to kill Dracula yet again, only to be separated. As Nathan, you have to save the other hunter before he becomes a sacrifice or something. In any case, you’re equipped with a traditional leather whip and can spin it around like a lasso (but can’t brandish it like in CV4). You can also equip yourself with DSS cards that alters your whip to become flame whips, ice whips, poison whips, and even a gun! Neat-o.

The graphics are fairly decent for a first title and are varied from each other. Sure, most of the halls look alike, but it’s a common flaw even with Symphony in a couple levels, so no complaints there. The controls are responsive and the challenge is fair, with only a couple bosses being complete pricks. While it isn’t as expansive as the later GBA titles, at least this one has a decent soundtrack worthy of the GBA, unlike the later “sequels” and its NES-esque soundtracks.

If you have a GBA hanging around and you want a decent Castlevania game, don’t bother with the other two and get this one. Aria may have that Soul trading thing and Lament has Simon’s grandson, but this is actually the better game of the three.

Castlevania: In Death’s Lair

Before Simon Belmont entered Death’s Lair, other heroes had challenged the Grim Reaper and lost their lives. These are their tales.

Note: I believe this was the last entry on FF.Net and was supposed to signify a return to the fanfic fold… that didn’t quite pan out openly, at least. A couple minor edits and fixes were made to the text, but for the most part, it’s presented as is.

Disclaimer: The author acknowledges that Castlevania and all related characters are owned by Konami and not the author. A couple characters featured here are original creations of the author.

Continue reading “Castlevania: In Death’s Lair”

Abandoned Castlevania II Fic – The Second Quest (Part 4)

(2025 Update: The final chapter I wrote on this project before it was eventually abandoned… until it wasn’t. Turns out as I was cleaning these up, something interesting happened that I hadn’t done in years; I wrote another chapter or two… and then I wrote a couple more after that… and then I promptly forgot about the whole deal until it was too late to make an event out of it. So I’m hoping next year, those chapters are ready to go and maybe open the door to something new… ish. Maybe? We’ll see. Don’t get your hopes up.)

Disclaimer: The author acknowledges that Castlevania and all related characters is a trademark of Konami and not of the author.

Continue reading “Abandoned Castlevania II Fic – The Second Quest (Part 4)”