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The beginning of a series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: July 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Castlevania. No true gamer alive would hate this series. I mean, seriously, who wouldn't want to go kill Dracula and play challenging platform missions? Well, if you don't like that then you're gay, pure and simple. In this first installment, we take a look at the very first game in the series---simply titled Castlevania respectively---that was released for the NES back in the late 1980s. How does it measure up?

THE GOOD
First off, let me say that these are some of the best graphics I've seen for the NES. Very good for their time in my opinion. Secondly, it's a FUN game and you can see where the roots all go back to in the series like Holy Water, the whip upgrades, etc. Practically every classic aspect about Castlevania is here! The music is classic as well and has been remixed in subsequent entries (especially the infamous "Vampire Killer" theme).

And since it's an old NES cart, what's that phrase again? YES, this game was "made back in the day when NES games were made to kick you in the [...] and make you love them." I've used this quote time and time again and this one of the few NES games I feel VERY STRONGLY about when it comes to that phrase. VERY difficult and to this day, I have not beaten it. The levels are insanely hard and Dracula's even harder once you get to him. You might think this as a "bad thing," but I love a game that's insanely hard, so this aspect of Castlevania really enthralls me.

THE BAD
I was put off by the lack of passwords, but given this is the first title in the series, I'm not going to rant on it for that. I feel that since this is the first title in the series, I won't go overcritical on it LIKE SO MANY OF YOU HAVE.

OVERALL
This is a definite must-own for your NES, ESPECIALLY if you love Castlevania. Even with the sequels, this is still one of my favorites. I think this game is overlooked because "it's raw" and/or "It's too hard!" (I'm noticing a pattern here, after my Mega Man review...) BAH! I'm a big Castlevania fan and I can honestly say that this game is still great after all these years. Long live Konami and may they bring us more adventures and vampire murdering!

VAMPIRE KILLER!!! THE ORIGINAL IS STILL THE BEST

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: August 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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. Sure, they made some better graphics for the NES later on, but this was when the Nintendo had very few titles to choose from. Coolest Graphics: Death and Dracula.

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. One 8-bit tune from anywhere in this game kicks "Harmony of Dissonance"'s butt anyday.

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. This was no wimp like some of the other Belmonts have turned out to be.

PLAY CONTROL: 5/5. I am so sick of all these CHUMPS complaining, "Wahhh, wahhh, there's no midair jump control! Wahhh, wahhh, the controls are sluggish..." To all of you GIRLIE MEN, I say to you, "Get a life!" You know what? Sorry people, but midair jump control does not exist in real life. Once you leave the ground, you really don't have much say in what happens next until you hit the ground. 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? Nowadays you have to have a freakin' college degree to figure out what all the buttons do on the controllers we've got now.

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. And who wouldn't want to hit a giant head over and over? That's great stress relief. 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, and the games that followed and copied it such as Ninja Gaiden really shined.

CHALLENGE: 5/5. Let's be blunt here. This game is difficult. It will not be beaten on your first try. But all of you WIMPS and CRYBABIES out there who to complain about that need to take your stupid complaints somewhere else. Hey, we used to spend $40 to $50 bucks on these games, remember? If you can beat the stupid thing in 2 hours, that would have been a total waste of money. Plus, 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. The question is, do you have the patience to learn the patterns and earn that sweet taste of 8-bit victory in all its glory?

FUN FACTOR: 5/5. This game rocks. This is the best game of all time. It is the best game ever created. There were no cooler games before this one, and there have been no cooler games since. And after seeing all the CRAP coming out these days, I believe that no one will ever create a cooler game. But this is more than just a game. It is a way of life. It is a gift from God to all mankind.

HOW TO BEAT IT:

The game is not that hard to beat. If you can get to the bosses, here's how to beat them:

1. GIANT BLOOD-SUCKING BAT. The first one's a pushover. Just grab the axe and whack him. Any 5-year old can beat this one.

2. BUTT-UGLY MEDUSA HEAD. Not too hard either. Just use the watch to stop her and then hit her with your whip. Or of you've got the holy water, use that.

3. DOUBLE MUMMIES - THE LOST DISCO DANCERS. By this time, you may have noticed that the game has started to become a little more difficult. Not to fear, have confidence, young Belmont! For remember, you are a POWER PLAYER, an elite member of the NINTENDO FUN CLUB. It's not hard to beat the mummies, even without a weapon. Here's what to do. There's a pork chop hidden in the room. Whatever you do, DON'T get it. You need that block to stand on. First, jump into the room. Walk to the center to activate the mummies. Then immediately walk back to the left and jump on top of the blocks where they can't hit you. Wait for the mummy underneath you to walk to your right. When they are both a relatively safe distance away, stand on top of the lowest block (the one with the pork chop), kneel, and start hitting them. If they come close, jump back, wait again, and repeat.

4. FRONK-EN-STEEN AND EAGER IGOR. If you have gotten this far, then you are doing pretty good. You've got what it takes to beat this game, my man. The best way to beat Frankenstein is to use the holy water. You've only got one chance in the game to get it. It's located on the starting level. Just get it, hold onto it, and concentrate on getting to the boss without dying. If you get there, stand on the lower right ledge and throw it over and over. It will kill him quick.

5. DEATH (DON'T FEAR THE REAPER). This is one of the hardest bosses of all time for any game. The main thing to do is learn how to get to the boss with a full meter of health. It may seem really hard but it's not. On the last screen, you face axmen and flying medusas. All you have to do is stand up straight and keep whipping. Whip nonstop. You must hit every single ax that is thrown at you. If you are in the center of the screen, the medusas will just fly right over your head. The thing to do is once you hit one or once one passes, move forward a few steps. Take it very SLOW at first. Don't try to move quickly or kill the axman. Just slowly move, bit by bit, after each head goes by. After a few minutes of this, you will be past the axmen with full health. To beat Death, you MUST have a weapon. If you can pick up the ax at the beginning and survive all the way to the end, that is a good weapon. The best weapon is the holy cross. To really use it, you've got to be lucky enough to pick up a double or triple shot. Be careful not to pick up any daggers or watches that the flying medusas drop. Once you get to Death, stand in the middle. Jump up in the air and throw the cross, then move to the left to dodge the sickles. Immediately throw another cross or use your whip to hit the sickles you dodged. Concentrate on hitting sickles before they hit you; it is your only defense. And keep that cross moving! Put the maximum possible out at once. It is your weapon that is going to kill Death.

6. THE COUNT, PART I. This guy is tough. Just 4 hits and you're dead. It will take lots of practice to beat him. Luckily, if you've made it this far, your continues will start you right at the last boss. Not that that helps that much. Dracula is difficult. You have to learn to time your jumps just right. Look for him to solidify. Wait for an instant. Then jump up and hit him in the head. If you timed it right then his bullets will pass over your head harmlessly. Concentrate on moving out of the way because he constantly wants to warp right on top of you. Try to learn to beat him without losing any health, because you are definitely going to need it for Part II. Also, don't use the cross. Get the holy water. Don't use it on him now. You will need it later.

7. THE COUNT, PART II. Is it over? Is he dead yet? Nope. At this point, you will probably feel like smashing your controller into your TV screen. Resist the urge. Just throw some holy water on him to slow him down, and rapidly jump and whip him in the face. He is hard to dodge, so you will probably take a few hits. Keep wearing him down, and you will win!!!

8. THE SECOND QUEST. If you thought the game was hard before, you ain't seen nothing yet baby!

Konami, PLEASE release a Castlevania collection disc for Gamecube. Include Castlevania 1, 2, and 3 from the NES, and part 4 from the Super Nintendo. PLEASE!!! You owe it to your loyal fans!!!

Introducing Simon Belmont, Vampire Hunter

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The classic video game that brought a whole new nightmare to video games. You are Simon Belmont, vampire hunter, your quest is to go through five very challenging levels to finally kill Dracula! Armed with a whip, and other weapons like daggers, axes, boomerangs, you set out into Dracula's castle facing nightmarish monsters and mythical beasts like Medusa, Frankenstien, a pair of mummies, and the Grim Reaper. This game has some fantastic graphics for Nintendo, and even its time! The challenge is incredible, however it is rather mindless, because you only have a whip and one other weapon at a time. You must use strategy and patience to defeat the five bosses, or they will destroy you quite quickly.

Ain't nothing rare about CV except its quality.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Rarely do we see a title like Castlevania. Only a handful of titles from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras really capture a simple idea so well.

So is it old? Most certainly, and you can find a cartridge for a few bucks. Do the graphics look terrible? No--to the contrary, they're consistently done and support the game's mood perfectly. Is the music awful? Not a bit--the first level music is considered the best composition in video gaming by scores.

Castlevania did get lucky, having the equivalent of a planetary alignment in the console gaming world. Nintendo had decided to port its Famicom Disk System games over to the U.S. with next year's launch of the NES (1987 at this point) and would give them a more reliable format with the cartridge (instead of those intentionally cheap disks--in Japan the philosophy was to make the game affordable, but here they decided to avoid major repair headaches and went cartridge only). Here as in Japan, Castlevania was the first really popular third party game for the system on disk or cart.

The fact of the matter is that Castlevania appears in no form until late in 1986, about a year after Ghosts n' Goblins hit the arcades. Even the venerable style of Makaimura (G n'G again) is too focused on silly details than Castlevania (which is saying quite a bit). Whereas Makaimura mixes up the game mechanic and throws in a lot of unpredictable and mysterious elements, Castlevania's seeming staid nature in fact borrows a lot from it. Instead of replacing the main weapon, a major headache for G n'G players, an inadvertent weapon pickup is manageable. Running to catch a flying key in G n'G is replaced in CV by the famous orb. It's a matter of taste, but many people are attracted to CV over other games simply because it seems more manageable and less intent on stealing your (phantasmic) quarters, which G n'G seems to aim for even in its handheld incarnations.

That's only half of the story--less than half, as many other titles were ported over to the system. Castlevania was developed at a time when you really had no extra space or processing power for silly, complex game mechanics or terribly immersive storylines, and is restricted even further than many later games utilizing more storage space as Castlevania is stuck to the size of the original 128K disk (64K per side, that is). Castlevania is nearly the archetype of the 2D action game with a focus on evenly timed, choreographed gameplay that emphasizes strategy and feels nothing like button mashing. Is this due to its restrictions or in spite of it? It is hard to say.

Unlike a legion of forgettable NES titles, Castlevania is truly the indispensable title.

Castlevania, still cool

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 10, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Castlevania is what some of us gamers call an "Addict Game" because this game always had a grip on you in some sort of way. Some it's the gameplay, others it's the difficulty factor and for some it's just that this game was a classic and no Nintendo collection was complete without it.

What got me hooked to this game was the difficulty of this game. There were no cheats and no passwords. None of that baby stuff. This game seriously took skill to win at. If you didn't have the skill to match this game's often "cheap and cheater tactics", you couldn't do it.

I will say that this game was not impossible. I did beat this game a few times so that proves it. But even after that, I hit Reset and did it all over again. To this day, I still believe that many games after this took it's concept of Strategy to Win. After all, let's say it... defeating most of the standard enemies was not all that tough but when it came to the bosses and the board itself, then you really had to think.

Again, if you have this one, you're Golden. If you don't, then you should pick this up. After all, this is a very rare title now (15 some years later) and it could be very hard to find. Get this before you regret it.

The Start of the Series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: December 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

"Castlevania" was one of the first games for the NES; as a result, you can expect somewhat stiff, challenging gameplay, placed in an extremely addictive formula.

As Simon Belmont you are required to kill Dracula for some reason. Although it wouldn't be explained WHY until Castlevania II, all you need to know for this game is that Dracula is bad and must die. Dracula knows this, and so has a cast of minions at his disposal, including Medusa, Frankenstein, and the Mummy.

Because the game was made in 1986, quite a few of the religous undertones were axed for the game. Holy Water is called the "firebomb," whereas the Cross is called the boomerang. Still, everybody knew what these sub-weapons REALLY were.

The game offers detailed graphics (for the time) as well as absolutely amazing music and sound effects (it took a lot of work on Konami's part to get Simon to grunt when he was hurt.) The music for the first level has become a staple of the game series.

The game, however, is hard. Very, very hard. The furthest I ever got was to the dungeon, right after you beat Frankenstein and Igor. With no password feature, this means that you'll be playing the game for quiet some time before you fight Dracula--provided, of course, you ever get that far in the game.

Still, a great game that deserves a place in any classic video game collection.

Good intro to a classic series

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: July 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Here's the 1987 debut of a now legendary series. Unfortunately, it was not without its flaws. Read on for pros and cons:

PROS:

-Excellent arcade style gameplay
-Secondary weapons add to the experience

CONS:

-Sometimes lacking variety
-Midair jump control extremely sluggish
-Some sections EXTREMELY difficult
-NO PASSWORDS! Gotta start over in every sitting

A decent game overall but not a great one. Only get it if you're a collector, or just desperate to try it. The game itself isn't great, but it's got high nostalgia value.

Caslevania

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game is a true classic. It can be challenging, but it is definetly worth playing. If you don't have it, I recommend buying it.

A Classic!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game brings back so many fond memories. It was a very tough game, no saving or passwords, so you had to start over every time you wanted to play. In my opinion this game features some of the best video game music of the time. Some of the themes in this game have been redone in newer castlevania games. Titles such as "Vampire Killer" are classic and add to the creepiness of this game. The levels are challanging, and overall a highly addictive game.

Where it all began

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Over the years, Konami has become one of the best-known video gaming third party corporations out there - for a number of reasons. But, their most popular series of all would have to be the vampire-killing franchise, Castlevania. Konami released the first installment of the series on Japanese consoles in 1986. The American arcade game got its release the same year. And the following year, 1987, the game reached American consoles. Read on for my review of Castlevania - the first game in a now-legendary franchise.

PROS:
-FOR ITS DAY AND AGE, THESE WERE SOME OF THE BEST VIDEO GAME GRAPHICS OUT THERE. The on-screen graphics move along at a pretty decent pace, and slow-down is very minimal. As far as the NES in the eighties goes, the graphics didn't get a whole lot better than this.
-PLAY CONTROL IS SIMPLE AND TO THE POINT. Basically you move, crouch, jump, attack, and attack with a secondary weapon. This was one of the first video games to feature a secondary weapon - a video gaming feature which has since been copied countless times.
-IT'S CHALLENGING. If you're a fan of side-scrolling platformers and you're looking for a good challenge, this game will give you the best of both worlds!

CONS:
-THERE ARE NO PASSWORDS OR BATTERIES IN THE GAME, SO YOU MUST START OVER EVERY TIME YOU PLAY! This is just inexcusable, and it greatly hurts the replay value. Hopefully if Konami rereleases the game as part of a "classics" collection, they will fix this problem.

-PLAY CONTROL CAN SEEM VERY STIFF AT TIMES. Your character has no midair jump control whatsoever, which can make life a living hell. Also, having to hold up on the control pad to use a secondary weapon can be a pain. And let's not forget about scaling flights of stairs - that's where the control is at its worse.
-THIS GAME IS MORE OF A CHALLENGE THAN THE AVERAGE GAMER WILL WANT. I know, there are some die-hard gamers out there that live for a good challenge - but I bet this game will be too difficult even for them.

OVERALL:
Overall this is a very good game for being the first entry in the series, but in comparison to later games in the series it just isn't that great. The NES follow-ups, Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse, are WAY better (even if Simon's Quest is a drastically different game.) Still, if you're a sucker for eight-bit side-scrollers, you can't go wrong with this game.

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