castlevania game boy

31 Nights of Castlevania: Castlevania Legends

October 12, 2017 colin Articles

Castlevania Legends Screenshot

The third and final Game Boy game, Castlevania Legends is an attempt by Konami to tell the true origin of the Belmont family and their first battle against Dracula. The story is arguably the strongest part of the game, but it has some unique gameplay elements.

As far as where it ranks in the Castlevania library? It’s easily one of the better games in the franchise. Being released late into the Game Boy’s lifespan, there are some technical setbacks that keep it from achieving legitimate greatness. Castlevania Legends looks great on a Super Game Boy, though.

Castlevania Legends Screenshot

Castlevania Legends stars Sonia Belmont, the first (and only) female Belmont

Castlevania Legends starts out with a text crawl about a young woman named Sonia Belmont and how she is on a quest to defeat the ultimate evil…problematic protagonist tropes in Castlevania! And Count Dracula.

Castlevania Legends Screenshot

Joking aside, it is great to see a female protagonist in the series and be the (at the time) first Belmont to defeat the Count. The game also does not harp on the fact that she’s a woman either. And for longtime fans of the franchise, Alucard also makes an appearance.

Castlevania Legends Screenshot

Sidebar: there is a fan theory going around about the ending (scroll to #4, but spoiler warning), that could have been fodder for future titles.

How’s the rest of Castlevania Legends?

Castlevania Legends is quite a lot of fun to play. Controls are simple and responsive and luckily, the slowdown is minimal. The whip-based combat is back, as is the ability to upgrade it to shoot fire out of it.

One of Sonia’s abilities is the ability to absorb the souls of bosses, called Soul Weapons. The Soul Weapons allow her to heal herself, increase attack power, or hit every enemy on screen. Sonia can also enter Burning Mode where, at the cost of some hearts, she can become indestructible and have can deal heavy damage. Combined with these abilities, Sonia is a total badass. It also makes the game much easier than most.

Castlevania Legends Screenshot

On the other hand, the game’s graphics are very “meh”. Backgrounds aren’t as detailed as they were in Belmont’s Revenge. Playing it on the Super Game Boy is needed because at least some color is given to the game.

Castlevania Legends Screenshot

It doesn’t help the levels aren’t super well-designed either. While the branching paths are a nice addition, there just isn’t much worth exploring when it all looks the same after a while.

Castlevania Legends stands as a solid 3-star entry to the long-running series about killing Dracula. Sonia Belmont’s abilities are truly unique amongst her successors, and it’s a shame she never returned for a sequel. As far as action handheld games go, you can do a whole lot worse than Castlevania Legends.

Castlevania Legends Screenshot

31 Nights of Castlevania: Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge

October 6, 2017 colin Articles

The second Game Boy outing of the franchise, Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge is a massively improved sequel. Taking one look at the monochrome screenshots, and it only looks like a cosmetic upgrade. However, Belmont’s Revenge improves on nearly every issue the first Game Boy game had and holds its own against the original trilogy on the NES.

Belmont’s Revenge tells a story and takes cues from other games

Replaying as Christopher Belmont from Castlevania: The Adventure, Chris is on a quest to save his son Solieyu (Author’s Note: Yeah, I can’t pronounce it either…) who has been kidnapped by Count Dracula and transformed into a demon. And now we have our title…Belmont’s Revenge. To be fair, it is nice to see a lack of damsel-in-distress.

Anyways, Belmont’s Revenge uses the stage select feature popularized by Mega Man. This is also one of the only times the series has ever tried this feature. Christopher can travel to a castle, a forest, a crystal castle (Author’s Note: That would be an interesting crossover) among others. The stages are more detailed than the previous game and look great.

How’s the rest of the game? Good!

Belmont’s Revenge moves at a much quicker pace than the previous games making action and platforming an overall better experience. The game drops the focus on long-range combat and excessive platforming. The stages are perfectly designed to suit this new development as well. It also helps the controls are tight as well.

There is also an inclusion of sub-weapons, granted it’s only the holy water and the axe (or cross-boomerang in the European version), but it helps change up the gameplay. Instead of relying on the fire whip in The Castlevania Adventure, players are given a chance to play around with more stuff.

Finally, like many games in the series, Belmont’s Revenge features a solid soundtrack.

Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge is a great sequel and a worthy addition to the series. Sadly, despite being a huge step forward, Belmont’s Revenge is not available on any of Nintendo’s Virtual Console. Whereas they questionably added The Adventure. That being said, Belmont’s Revenge is worth picking up.

31 Nights of Castlevania: Castlevania: The Adventure

October 4, 2017 colin Articles

Castlevania: The Adventure holds the honor of being the first-ever handheld Castlevania game. It also holds a dubious honor; The Adventure is easily one of the weakest, entries in the series.

Is there anything decent about the game? For starters, it’s another attempt at expanding the canon and universe of Castlevania. And as far as Game Boy launch titles go, players could do much, much, MUCH worse. Still, even playing the game today, something about Castlevania: The Adventure seems…off.

Castlevania: The Adventure doesn’t feel like one

Starring Simon Belmont’s predecessor, Christopher Belmont, Castlevania: The Adventure has this particular vampire hunter fighting off…Dracula! (Strange for this series to take such a huge risk, I know?)

The Game Boy, despite all of its technical limitations, can produce some decent-looking games. Castlevania: The Adventure is actually a well-detailed Game Boy title. Backgrounds are actually one of the game’s most striking graphical features, creating mountains, graveyards, and haunted forests.

With a simplified control set up, Castlevania The Adventure has responsive controls, which is perfect for the game’s platforming sections, which dominate the majority of the game.

There is a lack of weapons to play around with, so no Holy Water or knives to toss at zombies. However, Christopher has managed to wield a Vampire Killer whip that, when upgraded, shoots fire. Sweet

One of the weakest in the series? How so?

With all that summed up, The Adventure sounds good, right? When going on your quest to defeat Dracula, players will notice how unbelievably choppy and slow. In typical old-school Nintendo console fashion, flicker and slow down are all too commonplace. This goes against the game’s focus on platforming and long range combat.

Also, the lack of weapons makes the gameplay very repetitive.

Finally, Castlevania: The Adventure’s soundtrack does not translate well onto a Game Boy. It’s shrill, ear-piercing and just not pleasant to listen to.

It’s not a horrible game, (no game is as bad as Haunted Castle) Castlevania: The Adventure isn’t one worth seeking out. The game was actually remade for the Wii and could be considered to be the better game of the two. (Author’s note: that will be covered…)