Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (Nintendo Game Boy, 1991)

"Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge" holds a warm spot in my heart. Why? Because I am demanding of atmosphere, whether in a movie or videogame. And this game, which I have heard rightly praised as the best Castlevania game for the original Game Boy, fulfils practically my every demand. I immediately fell in love with it and now cherish it, even though it's a tad too short and its challenge is inconsistent.

The game is initially divided into four castles that you can visit in any order. All are very diverse and have their own unique characteristics and atmosphere; Crystal Castle, Rock Castle, Plant Castle and Cloud Castle. I am most fond of the last two; Plant Castle is a kind of earth shrine, while Cloud Castle, as its name suggests, reaches far up into the sky. Such things have always struck a chord with me. The simple Game Boy graphics convey all of this near-flawlessly. What I really love about this game is how thick its atmosphere is, and how it almost plays with it. The levels are divided by door passages, and each level culminates in a boss. When you pass through the last door before the boss, the music fades away, to be replaced by a tune that tells you something lies ahead. This is just one example of Belmont's Revenge's considerable atmospheric elements. The four castle bosses are all very creative and intriguing. My favourite is the boss of Plant Castle, the twin Minotaur-like guardians.
A simply breathtaking score accompanies the game. The themes for all the castles are motivating and inspiring, to say the least. My favourite is Cloud Castle's theme, possibly the most haunting piece of music I've ever heard for the Game Boy, original or no. Unfortunately, the second level of the Castlevania fortress has a theme that's really uninspired and irritating in comparison to the others - and as the level itself is quite tough, the song is more a hindrance than a help. Fortunately, the other tunes are all more than strong enough to make up for that.
With the game’s strong atmosphere, it is more than fun to tackle the castles. Really all castles are quite challenging, largely thanks to the many enemies and traps. But no matter how frustrated you become, I for one never get too discouraged, as the game packs such a fascinating world.

If there is one particular criticism I can make it's that the four castle bosses are not as challenging as they could have been. There are two bosses that consists of two separate enemies (Plant Castle, Cloud Castle), yet in both cases they share the same life meter, meaning that you can essentially beat them by focusing on one enemy. Had they had a different life meter, the challenge could have been increased. Another thing I would have liked fixed is the game's length - admittedly, its otherwise fine challenge is likely to keep you on your toes, but the game still is only 6 or 7 levels long. These two criticisms touch upon each other, as the difficulty of the first four bosses makes passing through the first four worlds in a flash really not that difficult after you’ve played the game a few times.

But why did I look for “Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge”? Revert back to the beginning of this review and read back through for your answer. Atmosphere, inspiration, great music, intriguing worlds - all that I love about video games is here and more, so I can forgive its shortcomings. I have only scraped the surface of what I feel about Belmont’s Revenge. How could I not buy it?

I have the fondest memories of playing this game back in the early 90's. In this game you play as Christopher Belmont against the forces of Dracula. There are many ways this title improved upon the previous game boy game. One of the coolest is a stage select option. While you're climbing a rope you can also hold down the B button to slide down the rope faster(which comes in handy in certain situations). The controls have improved too, the movement is a bit more fluid, a lot less frustrating.

The music in this game may only be 8-bit, but it's amazing. I can't emphasize this enough. The music really makes the game fun to play as well. The bosses as usual are huge and always fun to take on. The game doesn't really get all that difficult until you get to the final battle in the game against Dracula, and believe me, that battle is going to take serious practice and patience.

Best of all, this game actually has a password system. There's no need to lose all your progress if your game boy's battery power dies down or if you have to turn off the system just because you're driving and playing your Game boy at the same time(Seriously though, please don't play video games while driving).

Castlevania: Belmont's Revenge is one of the best games on the original Game boy, a real classic and an upgrade of an exponential level from the previous Castlevania game on the Game boy.(For those of you who are really new to the game boy and Nintendo handhelds, yes, it's compatible with the GBA, GBA SP, Micro, but not the DS or DS lite.)

this game is fresh even though its for the original gameboy. choose from 4 different castles to tackle before you take on dracula's, fighting a wide array of monsters for a gameboy game

Its a rare game for a very good price for all you Castlevania lovers come to Ebay to find your goods because there is treasure awaiting you here

I remember buying this game a long time ago and enjoyed playing it quite often. I bought the game and for a game boy game it was quite tough. I have played quite a few Castlevania titles since then and this one stands out to me about the middle of the pack. Based from when I played this game, I rate this game 4 out of 5 due to the toughness and for astounding graphics for an original game boy title. The only drawback to me is that the game was about 2 levels too short for my taste, but other than that, the graphics and sound are pretty flush.