| CASTLEVANIA |
 
1986 AD, Konami unleashes the horror-tribute-vampire-hunter franchise thaht is Castlevania. A game of such gothic glory! Right out at a time just in time for some Cult, Samhain, and Sisters of Mercy albums, plust he first Nine inch Nails outing. Just in time for Steven Speilbergs cult masterpiece Maximum Overdrive! Also releeased on other platforms as "Vampire Killer" (computers) or "Akumajou Densetsu" (Japan), Castlevania is one of those games that hangs in a tier just above Dragon Warrior in mainstream obscurity, but just under mainstream enough that nobody envisions that old bespectacled guy stuck in the 50's at the end of the street when you say the name "Simon Belmont".In Castlevania, you are Simbon Belmont, 4th or 5th generation of the highly revered "Belmont Family" - an esteemed line of Vampire Hunters who have, in the past, dealt with dracula. The Simon Belmont in the game is not the vain, obtuse, Princess-Lana-Harassing wimp we all met in Captain N: The Game Master - oh heck no - this Simon Belmont is the longhired badass whip cracker that takes down Zombies in one slash! Under this version of Simon's exterior - we have a man trying to live up to his family name, and questioning whether he can do it. So seriously, if DIC/Saban ever put in the time to R&D their series a bit, we would have ended up with a much more interesting character than a prototype for the modern day douchebag in their extended Nintendo advertisem. But in all seriousness and all plot aside, this horror game starts out a lot like Five Nights at Freddy's did - with a basic plot, and a basic story. Simon needs to navigate Castlevania - a magical, flying castle, to kill Dracula and save his people. But it was still a very polarizing series because of the fact that the controls were not exactly...uh...smooth, or as easy as something as finely tuned as Super Mario Bros. So it became more of a "acquired taste". Not falling into that underground trap a lot of games did where ethey were the "other ones" you found at your local VHS rental place, but rather, one of the polarizing "hits" that has it's core audience of devout followers, yet still holds some consciousness in the mainstream as a quality product. From Dolt to Delicacy - My Experience I actually started with Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, and never played the others till I got to emulation much later on. So when I played this one, I could finally see what all the ruckus was about. Castlevania III was a bit harder than this one, and II would have been too confusing for me as a kid. But I is simple - like I like it - It's one of those games where you need to start with the simple beginnings to understand the expanded details of the later games. That said, as a kid, I would not have liked this game because it was just a little too hard, and my motor skills were shit until I was about 12-13 (probably all that running from police dogs and wannabe pubscent "gangsta"). But luckily I managed to get to it later when I had an appreciation for it. I'm actually quite good at this one. What drove my interest in the series more recently was when Netflix started running a Anime-ish series based on the games, though it was based on Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (Trevor Belmont is a loserville drunk from a family with a tarnished name, saved by one of the "Speakers" (the only one that's a chick) and Dracula's son Alucard). I'm hoping they continue the series so that we get to see more of the storyline including this one with Simon. It's nice not having that blonde haired gimp from Captain N being represenative of Simon Belmont anymore. Actually, that might have had some to do with why I did not like the series as a kid as well....there's a huge difference between "I'm Simon Belmont....Vampire Hunter! DON'T TOUCH MY HAIR!" and of course he had a quasi-sentient Whip to go with the whole trainwreck.Videos |
