Castlevania (Nintendo, 1987)

Here is where it all started. You, Simon Belmont, must journey into the heart of Castlevania to destroy Dracula once and for all. Well, the original is still the best! STORY: 5/5. Great story! Go in. Kill all who oppose you. Very simple and easy to understand. GRAPHICS: 5/5. Incredible! Remember folks, this was the NES. When this came out, these graphics were top-notch. MUSIC: 5/5. The music is one area where this game really shines. It starts out good at the beginning with the classic "Vampire Killer" track. Each level has its own music and it is all good. HERO: 5/5. Here we had a guy with a relatively normal name: Simon. I mean come on, this is a hero we could RELATE to. PLAY CONTROL: 5/5. And the controls in this game are tight. They are straight to the point. Left goes left. Right goes right. B does a weapon. B+Up does a special weapon. A jumps. Up and Down go up and down stairs. What's not to love about simple controls that are economical and make sense? STYLE: 5/5. The mood and style of this game are killer. Who wouldn't want to crawl around a creepy castle and whack a few bats with a whip? That's just good wholesome fun right there. The mood of this game is just right. It is about as scary as games like that got back then. GAMEPLAY: 5/5. The gameplay is absolutely great. There was nothing else like it at the time. It created a new style of play all it's own. CHALLENGE: 5/5. Let's be blunt here. This game is difficult. It will not be beaten on your first try. The game is not THAT hard after all. I've beaten it, and I'm not the only one. The enemies all follow a definite pattern. FUN FACTOR: 5/5. This game rocks.

I bought this trio of games because the first Castlevania game I ever played was Symphony of the Night, and that was PS1, so I wanted to go back in time to when the classics were some of the best games out there.

The first Castlevania was really fun, you run around and whip all sorts of undead creatures, collecting power ups and getting special items. What was strange, not necessarily bad, was the hearts in the games, all of the games, really. They aren't used for health, as anyone would've expected, but used as ammo for special items such as the holy cross and the axes. whenever you die in these games, the hearts you have collected reset, which I found quite annoying, because the only things that heal you, are end boss orbs, or pork chops (yes, I know they look like chicken wings or something, but they're pork chops, look it up if you don't belive me) found inside secret hollow walls which you can break open. The gameplay is awesome, and gives you a satisfying feeling when you destroy something with a spikey ball chain. Although, your worst enemies are either medusa heads, or stairs. Medusa heads fly all over the place in a snake-like pattern, whereas stair are just awkward to fight on, especially when an enemy is right above you, you would have no choice than to take damage. Simon's quest (the second one) has to be the worst. I do, however, like the fact that you can go into towns and talk to people, even shop (the hearts are also used as currency here). But there's plenty wrong with this one. When it turns night, there's this annoying box that's stops the game, and takes it's time to load up, all to tell you that it's turned night/day. Ontop of that, at night the shops close, and zombies roam the town, increasing the chance that you'll lose all the hearts you've collected before you get to spend them. One last thing, possibly the biggest problem with the game, is that in dungeons, some of the bricks aren't really there, they're there to trick you so you fall down to where you came from, so you're forced to use holy water on every single brick you walk on in dungeons, taking up time you would rather be playing games with.

These games are really fun, but challenging. I suggest the third game, for it's my favorite. Overall, this is a great game, with plenty of nostalgic value, highly suggested to old-school gamers especially.

The vast majority of early NES games were arguably absolute crap. Some you could play for maybe half an hour and you would see all the game has to offer! That was ridiculous.

Anyway, it was a refreshing thing for Castlevania to come around in 1987. Basically, Castlevania was the first to imprint the notion that games should have hours of replay and entertainment value.

Castlevania is about as linear as games get, especially since this was the very first in the series. That doesn't mean it's bad though or weak. Instead, the only real weakness comes from the lack of agility from the hero Simon Belmont. You can't control your jumps in mid-air, he can only swing his whip in FRONT of him, and just like in Ninja Gaiden, every time Simon gets hit by an enemy he flies back in the opposite direction about 10 feet!!!

Despite these weaknesses though, Castlevania is still very playable. With the right power-ups, you can have a lot of fun navigating each stage and encountering every boss and defeating them. The bosses do get exponentially more and more difficult by the way. Some of the bosses are downright sadistic and may take you weeks to beat.

Castlevania is pretty hardcore. There's no password system, but luckily there's not nearly as many cheap deaths as there are in the Ninja Gaiden series.
Castlevania will test your patience though.

Many will want to take this game and throw it into a wood chipper. It's playable, it's hard, it's challenging, but it's not impossible. I can't give it an excellent score and I think it's inaccurate to say it was average, because it was the blueprint for many action platforming games to come along since 1987.
Castlevania was a good game, and a classic.

Castlevania is one of my favorite Nintendo Entertainment System games. The story is very intriguing and you're hooked from the start. You play the part of Simon Belmont descended from a long line of vampire hunters and you're the next in your lineage to challenge none other than Count Dracula himself! This is a side-scroller action game where you traverse many levels through The Count's castle to ultimately face-off against the Lord of Darkness. It's is by no means an easy adventure, you'll face off against zombies, mer-men, medusa heads, armored knights...need I say more? As if that wasn't enough, at the end of each stage awaits a boss whom will attempt to stop your progression to the next level. Armed with your whip and classic sub weapons such as the holy water, daggers and the cross you must put and end to Dracula's reign over Transylvania. Overall I give this game an "EXCELLENT" rating for solid game play and an amazing soundtrack.

A good platformer! A sure-fire classic!

-The Good
-Good Graphics for Its System
-Decent Weapon Variety
-Easy to Get Items
-Cool Enemies
-The Bad
-Overly Frustrating Bosses
-Unpredictable Enemies
-The Summary
-You are Jonathan Morris, a young vampire hunter. You have just entered Castlevania, hoping to destroy the evil that is Dracula! In Castlevania, you must battle ghosts, ghouls, vampires and zombies to finally reach Dracula, and battle him in a duel to the death! You will acquire many items along your quest, including extensions for your whip, hatchets to chuck, and boomerangs to throw. Use these items to your advantage! Good luck!
This game is now available on the Virtual Console for the Wii.

-thepokeson