A nice effort, and it’s a fun little game with charming cartoon sprites. This marks not only the first time Konami has released it round our (bitten) neck of the woods, it’s also localised it with an English ‘Kid Dracula’ title screen and changed all the Japanese text to English. Kid Dracula (or Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun, to give it its proper Japanese title) was only ever released on the Famicom in Japan, and while the West would later get a Game Boy remake, the original was never released over here. Thankfully, the Game Boy sequel Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge is a different kettle of fish entirely and ranks as one of the best action titles on the Game Boy – it also has an utterly amazing soundtrack.įinally, rounding things off is an interesting little game that many will dismiss as a ludicrous decision but is actually a fairly big deal for the wider Castlevania series. It was superbly remade by M2 for WiiWare, and why that version wasn't included is anyone's guess after all, M2 is the team responsible for this collection and Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth is no longer available following the closure of the Wii's online services. #Konami pixel puzzle collection solutions series#Next up is Castlevania: The Adventure, the first Game Boy outing for the series which serves no real purpose here other than to remind us that it exists it's a technical disaster, clunking and stuttering all over the place and running at about half a mile an hour (and yes, that’s how it played back in the day too – it was one of the very first games for Nintendo's monochrome marvel). Sadly, if you were expecting this you’re out of luck: the collection hits a chronological dead end at the Mega Drive game and then goes backwards, which is both good and bad. Then, daring to dream, we wondered if Konami would actually go far enough to include the legendary PlayStation game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. #Konami pixel puzzle collection solutions Pc#We’d hoped it would have moved onto the likes of the PC Engine game Rondo of Blood (or, if that’s too obscure, its SNES remake Castlevania: Dracula X / Vampire’s Kiss). It’s great to have it on here too: it’s a hugely underrated Castlevania with a slightly darker and gorier tone to the Nintendo titles.Īt this point the collection takes an odd turn. This Mega Drive title is relatively rare and its inclusion here actually marks the first time it’s ever been re-released since it first came out in 1994 (beating the upcoming Mega Drive Mini, which also includes it, by a few months). When you’ve run out of NES games the next logical step is to move to the SNES, and sure enough Super Castlevania IV is the fourth game in the collection, its fantastic music and lovely gimmicks (like a Mode 7 spinning room) all present and accounted for.Ī pleasant surprise follows in the shape of Castlevania: Bloodlines, known in Europe as Castlevania: The New Generation. This is remedied with Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, the final NES ‘vania and the result of a wise decision by Konami to keep things simple again and focus solely on the original game’s style of action platforming (albeit now there are multiple routes through the game, meaning different playthroughs will see you taking on different stages). Although its attempt at a deeper adventure was a noble one, the horribly translated clues and clunky day/night cycle make it a real chore to play today (not that it was a dream back in the late ‘80s or anything). The same can’t be said for Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, the NES sequel notorious for its decision to switch things to a more open-world RPG style similar to Zelda II. Naturally, the original NES version of Castlevania is the first on the list, and it still holds up brilliantly well 33 years after its initial release. The eight games here cover (with one exception) the early Castlevania games on Nintendo systems. Happily, it’s an improvement over the last offering, but there are still some areas where it could be better. Now it’s time for the second helping, this time aimed at the Castlevania series: specifically, most of its 8-bit and 16-bit entries. Konami recently kicked off its trio of Anniversary Collection compilations with an assortment of arcade shooters that, while certainly classics, were let down by limited emulation options (though since then Konami has confirmed it’ll be fixing most of our concerns with a patch).
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