Another day, another video in the AVGN “Castlevaniathon” from 2009. In this video, James takes a look at Super Castlevania IV on the SNES followed by Castlevania on the Nintendo 64.
James opens by setting the stage — it’s the early 90’s, and the NES era is drawing to a close, and a game has been released on the then-new Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super Castlevania IV.
James praises the graphic improvements that the Super NES provided, just for the introduction alone, before finally going into the game itself. Simply put, he love it – the control is massively improved compared to the NES games — perfect, according to James — making the overall experience of playing the game far more enjoyable.
He considers it to have a mostly fair challenge compared to how cheap the previous games and to have high replay value, even though it’s basically a re-creation of the first game. He even mentions that, in the final stages, it plays new versions of classic themes from the previous 3 games in the series, making it basically a “perfect” Castlevania game.
James then goes on to tell us about his anticipation for the next game in the series, what he figured would be Castlevania V. Instead, he sees in Nintendo Power the next game would be “Castlevania Dracula X.” This confuses him as a kid, but makes sense in retrospect — this was basically a SNES port of a Turbographix-16 (PC Engine in Japan) game, which played more like the classic titles.
That’s a problem — the control is stiff, being the more traditional style, which makes the game harder and less forgiving than Castlevania IV. It’s frustrating, and he feels the final battle is impossible. In the end, naturally, he prefers Castlevania IV.
This is where things get interesting — we’re now up to 1995-1996, and the rise of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. James decides to go the Nintendo route, and got the option of two Castlevania games on that console: Castlevania, and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness. Since the games are basically the same, he just focuses on the first one, commonly known as “Castlevania 64.”
This also ends his “personal” recollection on the series.
The game is, of course, a 3D title from the early era of 3D gaming. Not that Nintendo 64 games looked the best ever, but he finds these to be “unappealing” graphically. The control is awkward to James, and he finds the overall setting odd — this isn’t anything like Castlevania to him, in look, sound, or feel. It’s an odd thing to behold, and in classic Nerd style he goes over everything odd or otherwise wrong he finds, with this game having a new top flaw: the camera.
Yep, the camera is your biggest enemy — it’s terrible, so you never quite know what you’re doing, making maneuvering the world more difficult than it needs to be.
The comes one mid-game puzzle — the Castle Center. The long and the short of it is, James is supposed to grab two items and mix them at the right area to blow a hole in a wall. The problem is, there are basically no instructions (that he could find) on how to go about this, causing him to get stuck and forcing him to restart the game!
So, he does that – he plays through the game again, grabbing the other item in the pair. The problem? This item is explosive! He can’t rush through the level without killing himself, and by the time he makes it to the end? He still can’t use the item. It’s the same situation as before!
The video ends with what, for a gamer, is a frustration we’ve all felt — he simply lets his character blow herself up and says “life sucks.” A symbolic, and sad, end to James’ personal history with Castlevania.
Final Rating: 4.5/5
A solid third part to this 4 part epic. A bittersweet one as well, given the contrast between what basically would be the best Castlevania game he’s ever played, moving on to a less-than-stellar one and then to what’s basically the worst. It’s an experience that many of us had with a game series we loved.
The episode does have comedic highlights even during the latter half — the explosion clip section especially has a classic “damn” moment I can’t help but laugh at. Still, this episode feels like a chance for James to vent about a game which really upset him as a kid, and feels like it was needed.
Next up, the final part of the Castlevaniathon. For now, enjoy part 3.