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.