MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania: Lords of Shadow"

At last, I come to Castlevania getting the reboot!

I wish it hadn't.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania Bloodlines"

Finally! A game that isn't a Game Boy port!

It's even a decent game!

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge"

Another Game Boy port? Oh, c'mon! Before you start panicking, this isn't the same Castlevania II as Castlevania II, but I can see where you might think that.

Castlevania II is...well, I was gonna say much better, but...it's not. I mean, it is...but...well, you'll see.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Super Castlevania IV"

I meant to get to this last year, but life unfortunately got in the way. There are officially more Castlevania games than there are planets in the sky by this point. Out of all of those astounding adventures brought to us by Konami...this is one of them.

Don't react angrily too quick, it's also my personal favorite besides Symphony of the Night, the first Castlevania game I ever reviewed back into 2012. Y'know, when I knew nothing about editing!

Amazing how times haven't changed, huh?

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse"

So...anyone notice that the first four Castlevania games have a parallel to many movie franchises nowadays? The first one is the original, the beloved classic. The sequel took things in a direction that nobody liked and was largely forgotten. Now we come to the prequel, Dracula's Curse. With two stories of Simon Belmont under their belt, Konami decided to wind back the clocks to Simon's ancestor Trevor - the first person of the Belmont line to battle Dracula. Hmm...for some reason I feel like I've dealt with this before somewhere.

...nah, probably nothing.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania II: Simon's Quest"

What a horrible night to have a curse.

And I mean the curse of playing this game.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania"

No, no. For real this time.

Castlevania is not a game I ever got to play on the original NES. My parents had one that I got to play games like Super Mario Bros., Zelda II, and even the dreaded TMNT game, but Castlevania was one that I hadn't played or even seen all that much ago. You see, dear readers, I was once a big chicken when it came to horror movies and media. Goosebumps used to unnerve me to no end. Yeah, that's right. Goosebumps. Get your jokes out now.

From MadCap's Couch - "Castlevania" (Season 1)

A show review? I thought that would never happen again after Netflix took off Sliders and I became far, far less than inclined to ever review Supernatural ever again. But it seems that just when I think I'm out, Netflix drags me back in with a Netflix original Castlevania series. Based on Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, but with an art style reminiscent of Symphony of the Night, my favorite game in the whole Castlevania series (that I've played)? I couldn't resist that, could I?

And now, four episodes later, I really, really wish I had.

Let me go ahead and get the things I like out of the way. The animation is phenomenal. It follows on from the art style of Symphony of the Night as I said before and it definitely shows. The voice acting is good. Beyond good, actually. Richard Armitage does a great voice for Trevor Belmont in particular, showing in the The Hobbit trilogy that he has the gravely voice that makes for an excellent vampire hunter.

And now...into some gripes.

The music is composed by Trevor Morris of Dragon Age: Inquisition fame and...none of it is memorable or indicative of Castlevania in any way. None of the music from the games is heard! At all! Though that may be because of the lack of truly awesome moments worth of epics like "Vampire Killer" or "Bloody Tears" as I'll get to in due course.

Another reason this is a full Season 1 review instead of the individual pieces? There are only four episodes as I mentioned above and they're all about twenty minutes a piece. It's bad when the Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy game I've reviewed the first two episodes of a few weeks ago have a greater length than four episodes of this. So, without further adieu...with spoilers to follow beyond this point.

Episode 1: "Witchbottle"
A young woman named Lisa is either brave or stupid enough to march into Dracula's castle in order to learn how to drop science. Sometime later, she's burned at the stake by the Catholic Church because we haven't seen enough of the Catholic Church being dicks in fiction.

Seriously, they've proven more than enough in reality that they aren't on the level. Let's make some new villains, screenwriters.

However, Dracula and Lisa were married and Dracula is understandably rather pissed about the fact that they burned his wife at the stake and...rather generously gives them a single year to leave the area or suffer a terrible fate. They don't, so he kills them all.

Or, if you don't want to read all that: The Catholic Church were dicks and Dracula did nothing wrong. Because, honestly, he didn't.

When Satan tells you to move or die, you move!

Episode 2: "Necropolis"
We are finally introduced to Trevor Belmont, a layabout drunk who runs around in clothing that bears his family crest. The Belmonts apparently having been exiled from Wallachia for reasons that don't exactly pan out because it's the Middle Ages and the Catholic Church are dicks.

Are you seeing a recurring theme here?

But this episode really highlights the main problem with the series as a whole - a lot of talking. A frankly outrageous amount of talking. I'm fully aware that exposition has to get out, but the show itself seems to be built up entirely around just getting out exposition.

The writer of Castlevania is Warren Ellis, who some of my readers will know for his comic book writing (particularly the "Extremis" storyline of Iron Man that was developed into Iron Man 3) and video game writing (Dead Space).  Was he just in a rush with this? If so, I find it hard to believe since this has been in development hell since around 2008.

C'mon, dude. You can do better than mountains and mountains of exposition. That would be like writing paragraph after paragraph of insane rants on an internet blog about geeky B.S. that nobody cares about! Who the hell would want to read that?!

But besides that first paragraph, the only actual thing that happens is Trevor getting to another town where he is given crap by the Church and given an ultimatum to leave, and meeting with a group called The Speakers after saving the Leader, eventually agreeing to enter the catacombs beneath the city to find their leader's granddaughter.

Episode 3: "Labyrinth"
Trevor enters the catacombs and finds a cyclops in what is literally the first Castlevania-esque moment since the first episode. It's a good fight and there had been a few action scenes before to solidify Trevor as a combat badass before, but this is literally the first one where he takes on a monster rather than another human.

Definitely have been getting a Castlevania: Colonial Marines vibe with all the human vs. human fights...

But yes, it's good even if it is surprisingly short. In slaying the cyclops, Trevor releases the Speakers' leader's granddaughter Sypha Belnades from being a stone statue for all eternity. And then, we descend into more talking about the Speakers and their missing "Lost Soldier" who is apparently the only one who will stop Dracula, before the Church starts to come down on the Speakers because of the lie that they're responsible for the plague of Dracula because witchcraft and not anything to do with Christian hypocrisy.

Once again. Anyone? Theme? Do you feel the anvil hitting your head yet?

Episode 4: "Monument"
And now we finally get to something even vaguely Castlevania related. It's here that the show actually shows that it could be something fantastic...and it's a fight between a bunch of townsfolk and demons after Trevor outs the Church for their part in Dracula's mass slaughter in Wallachia.

...at this point, I'll take what I can get.

And it's a good fight, using bits of Castlevania lore to their advantage such as the use of holy water and Sypha's magic. It's only after the fight that we get more and more into the games themselves as Trevor and Sypha have to navigate a deeper part of the catacombs in order to find the Lost Soldier...who is revealed to be Alucard, the son of Dracula and Lisa. What follows it a fantastically choreographed fight that shows Alucard to be a badass where it took Trevor four episodes...and I'm still not very convinced.

But in the end, yes, the three of them band together once Alucard is convinced of their intentions of killing Dracula. And...the season ends.

All that build up. All that exposition. All that distinctive lack of things Castlevania-y...and then it's over. Luckily, it has been renewed for a Second Season with eight episodes instead of just four, so we'll likely get more. Hopefully, they'll work on what has gone horribly not good for the first season as I've described here.

1. Cut down on the exposition. We don't need so much and we don't need to know everything right away and have it repeated over and over again.

2. More monster fights. We have all of two. And they're in the last episode. I don't know anyone who comes to Castlevania to see the Belmonts fight other humans.

3. MUSIC! I cannot stress what a big part of Castlevania that was completely left out of this and it's a major let-down. They were able to use the designs from Symphony of the Night and follow (for the most part) the story from Dracula's Curse, so why didn't the music make it in? Why? WHY?!

If you have Netflix and you want to get into it, go for it. Just be ready for more talking than there is actual monster hunting in a show that is based on a series of games that is literally all about monster hunting.

Castlevania is now on Netflix from Federator Studios, Powerhouse Animation Studios, and - of course - Netflix.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania"

Retro cover, retro caption!

Does everyone remember when I went into the Nintendo Rebirth Universe? Good, then I don't have to explain ti all.  Needless to say, the second offering from Nintendo's company-wide reboot of all of its properties would not have been completely without their acquisition of Konami and their bringing in the Belmont clan to the new multi-game universe they've started up with the new Super Mario Bros. (not to be confused with New Super Mario Bros. a few years ago).

Indeed, our game does begin with the Mario Bros. being brought by the enigmatic Mr. Game N' Watch to a location described as belonging to the "Smash Bros. Initiative" and he shows them a familiar whip and the Belmont family crest, which transitions into a flashback to Transylvania in 1691 and we are introduced to our protagonist, Simon Belmont (voiced by Nolan North) heading into Castlevania proper to tackle the Belmonts' long-time foe Dracula (voiced by Troy Baker). We are looking at a young Simon who has thankfully not suffered from the events of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.  Because, y'know, this is a full on reboot. Although they do have a funny scene when Simon reaches the first checkpoint of a man in the words telling him to "prosess Dracula's rib" before Simon punches him in the face and demands he speak English.

But it seems that the battle against Dracula is not to take place in the beginning like in Symphony of the Night, but is - in fact - a vision of the future given to Simon by a mysterious seer, who sets him on his path to Transylvania.  This time, unlike Symphony of the Night, the entire game does not take place within Dracula's castle, but there are several (admittedly linear) paths to the castle through such scenic locations such as graveyards, forests, and even an underground cave system.

Castlevania makes a smooth transition to 3-D (at long last given the N64 attempts).  Simon controls very well with the Wii U remote. Cracking that whip has never felt more visceral and satisfying as Vampire Killer whacks into an enemy, like any good beat 'em up.  The secondary attack items are very useful in this, and control just as well, though the Boomerang Cross spawns at an admittedly much lower rate than I would like, and you sadly don't get to keep items between the separate levels save for the lead in to the finale fight with Dracula.

If you've played the first Casltevania on NES, then you've pretty much played this with a slightly less nice coat of paint. Each level ends with a mini-boss and the difficult is ramped up as you go on in a way that we haven't seen from Nintendo in a long, long while and it's a welcome change very much in line with what they're bringing with the reboots. So well done, Nintendo.

Also, much like the DC Extended Universe, they're doing plot weaving flawlessly.  Throughout the game, there's hints of a greater evil even beyond Dracula, as well as cameos from Alucard and Simon's ancestor Trevor that warn him of it.  Indeed, even as Dracula is defeated, we get a post-credits scene of several of his minions being led by Death (who is, unsurprisingly, not dead after his particularly difficult boss battle) who are putting away a sarcophagus into hiding that Death says contains the "Master Hand". It's up in the air what he means, but there's no doubt that it's going to be something important to come, as Game N' Watch mentions it to the Mario brothers as well once the game is finished, and it seems to be enough to get them to agree to join the Initiative, ending the game.

However...there is the matter of a little light-blue light that's seen in some scenes with Simon, and is again seen in the present spying on the Mario Bros. and Game N' Watch, and even gets to deliver the last two words of dialogue.

"HEY! LISTEN!"

...gee, I wonder what it means...

Castlevania is now available from Konami and Nintendo for the Wii U.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania: Circle of the Moon"

...Dracula? Again?! Like every Halloween (except, y'know, last year), it seems that Dracula always comes back again to muck things up for the land of the living.  Traditionally, in these situations, it's up to the members of the Belmont plan to lay a smackula down on Ol' Drac.  This time, however, it's not a Belmont but young Nathan Graves who's destined to crack that whip.  Thirty-three years after Alucard defeated Dracula for the totally extremely finally time, honest, Dracula's back thanks to his smexy devotee Camilla reviving him. Before he can return to his full power, however, Nathan Graves, his best friend Hugh, and his mentor Morris Baldwin bust in to stop him.

Nathan and Hugh are almost immediately dropped down into Dracula's castle via a trap door.

Oops.

Nevertheless, it's now Nathan's task to journey through the home of Dracula in the traditional manner, whip and secondary weapons included. Gameplay-wise, if you've played any Castlevania game, you've played this.  However, it also helps if you've played Symphony of the Night, because it runs very similar to that in that someone chucked a bunch of RPG elements into the game.  Nathan kills monsters for experience, levels up, and can find new items lying around (and in the possession of boss monsters) to move himself through previous unreachable areas and on his way to take on Dracula in a final battle.

One of the big draws (or so the game would have you think) is a system based around magic cards that are based on Greek and Roman mythology that can provide Nathan with some minor stat variations and abilities.  All well and good, but not really necessary, per se.

But yes, keep yourself equipped and keep your whip and wits about you and eventually you will prevail against Dracula.  Nathan will be named a master vampire hunter and the day will be saved...and some new modes of play will be unlocked using special codes for the names.  Like with Symphony of the Night, which let you play as Richter by typing in his name after you completed the main quest at least once, you can unlock one of several modes that will play around with your stats and basically send you back through the game with a different playstyle.

Needless to say, I didn't have the want or need to play the game even a second time.

It's not bad, it's just got the same problem that most of the portable versions of Castlevania have had since Symphony of the Night...mainly that they're too much like Symphony of the Night.  Not that that's a bad thing, I loved Symphony of the Night and even said as much.  But lightning does not strike twice and doing the same thing over and over again isn't something one is known for having rousing success with...unless you're Nintendo.

It's not bad, by any means.  But it's really not that great.

Still, Dracula's defeated again...for now.  And as the sun rises to banish the terrible night...reflect on the malice that haunts us always...and have a Happy Halloween, dear readers!

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is available from Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe for the Game Boy Advance.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania Symphony of the Night"

XBLA "Box Art"

Castlevania is one of the oldest series of games that’s still being made today, with the latest game Lords of Shadow having come out a few years ago and a sequel to it – the ingeniously named Lords of Shadow 2 – coming out next year.  The original Castlevania was, to put it simply, hard.  But then a lot of Nintendo games were back in the day to extend their lastability, whether we liked it or not.  Now, I personally wasn’t born early enough to play the original Castlevania when it had first come out in the late Eighties, but I have played the original and Simon’s Quest on ROMs.

And before I go too much further into the review, I’m not a horrendous fan of either of them.  Don’t get me wrong, I like them both in their own ways (the original more than Quest), but I’m barely past twenty and I’d like to keep all my hair in my head to a ripe old age. And so I naturally jumped for this game when it came out on the Xbox Live Arcade, and with Halloween right around the corner, I figured it might just be time to take a trip into Dracula’s castle one more time.

The story picks up with Richter “Die Monster! You Don’t Belong In This World” Belmont, a descendent of Simon and Trevor Belmont, learning of Dracula being resurrected once more by the evil priest Shaft (you’re damn right).  For the prologue level of the game you control Richter with the traditional Castlevania whip and trusty secondary weapons at your side and you battle Dracula and defeat him.  Really, a rather short game, though kind of enjoyable and even in its short time…

…and then awesome ensued.

I was introduced to Alucard, the son of Dracula himself, who decided to come to his father’s castle and put an end to Dracula’s reign of terror once and for all (until the next game).  Instead of a whip, Alucard wields a kickass sword and just tears his way through his old man’s front door and starts taking apart the legions of the damned like a hurricane of complete and utter badass…only to run into Death who takes all his equipment and scatters it to the four winds.  Alucard’s awesome is not at all diminished though as, awesome equipment or not, he remains focused upon his task to take down whatever the malignant force that has taken over the Castle.

One criticism I will give for this game is that the combat can get very repetitive very quickly.  Unlike the old games where non-boss enemies would take a few hits before they died, Symphony runs on a damage system.  This doesn’t become too much of a problem until later, where enemies will take less damage and subsequently more and more hits in order to bring them down.  When I have an Infinity Sword +1, things should not take upwards of nine to ten hits to kill.

And, in a contrast to the Belmont family’s style of combat – e.g. the whip – Alucard has a limited range with his sword, and so it requires you to get in close to hit anything. This, largely due to the aforementioned enemy placement and movement, can be quite the hair-puller in some situations.  Mind you, this isn’t bad per se…most of the time, at least. You can’t just brute force your way through the game, and you really have to think about how you’re going to approach your enemies and take them out in some places.

Another thing I will say is that the music is the stuff of awesome, every single track was memorable from the moment I first set foot into Dracula’s Castle.  It really made the atmosphere at times when the creepiness needed to be turned up and when it wasn’t needed, it was all still very memorable and made the experience all the more awesome for it.  Even the ambient music roaming around Dracula’s Castle was nice and memorable almost everywhere.

Top tip for playing this game: get a walkthrough and stick to it.  I had the fortune of having the internet and thus such a walkthrough was available to me, but I really want to give credit where it’s due to people who played this back when it first came out and the internet was a not so widely available thing, so walkthroughs weren’t exactly just floating around.  Some things are self-explanatory, but certain things in the game (such as the various power ups you get throughout the game) give you no indication of how or where to put them to use.  So it takes a bit of running around and experimenting with, something that you don’t see very often in modern games.

So, does this game get a recommendation? You bet.  True, the combat can get very tedious at times and the roaming around to find everything you need and how to use it can be the cause of many a hair-puller, but in the end, it is a very fun game that’s not dragged down by those shortcomings.  So, have fun storming the castle!

Happy Halloween!

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is now available for download from the Xbox Live Arcade.

This review is based on...well, the Xbox version.