![]() ![]() ![]() Score: Masterpiece Castlevania II: Simon’s QuestLike Zelda II, Simon’s Quest is a failed but fascinating attempt at making an RPG platformer before technology and localization practices were ready for it. It doesn’t get any better: Play Castlevania before you die. The feel is just right: Whipping, jumping, freezing time, discovering secrets… This is a desert island game for me. The music rips: The baroque Bach organ jams that inspired 1980s heavy metal shredding guitars in turn inspired Castlevania’s composers to make some of the best electronic music ever committed to a chip. Giant boss sprites pop off the screen with lively animations that you are *just* fast enough to outmaneuver. It demonstrates total mastery of NES hardware and game design: Backgrounds and settings don’t repeat but instead hint at the larger world, with late-game bridges and towers looming in the distance, painted in vivid blacklight poster colors. Here are mini-reviews for each of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection games: Castlevania The original Castlevania is the best game in this collection. Finally, there’s Kid Dracula, a fascinating spinoff that never came to the US… until now. ![]() At the other end of the spectrum are two poorly programmed Game Boy games that just don’t work. The 16-bit games are also great Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania Bloodlines show off now-outdated but once-impressive graphical effects that are fun to revisit. Castlevania and Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse are masterpieces: Gorgeous, goofy, twitch-fast platformers, as fun and accessible today as they were decades ago, matched only by the Super Mario and Mega Man series from the NES era. ![]() The GamesThe Castlevania Anniversary Collection is full of fun, interesting games spanning the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. ![]()
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