Retro Review: Castlevania III Dracula's Curse

Velcome back to my home...
With Konami's third installment of the franchise Castlevania returns to it's roots in more ways than one. Dracula's curse introduces us to Trevor Belmont in the year 1476...over two hundred years prior to Simon Belmonts exploits.
At this point in Castlevania lore the Belmonts have been exiled due fears of their mythical powers and Count Dracula is amassing an army to exact revenge on humanity over the death of his wife Lisa, mother of Adrian Farenheights Tepes (Alucard).
So the Church pleads for the assistance of the legendary Vampire slaying clan and Trevor answers the call.
Castlevania III returned to the action/adventure platforming style of the original, everything from player and enemy health bars to the sub weapon window, the timer, the score are faithfully recreated just like the original.
All the game play aspects from the original are intact, whip power ups, sub weapons, double and triple shot, turkey meals, hidden sacks of gold etc.
Konami did a fantastic job expanding the scope of the original Castlevania, in Dracula's Curse Trevor must travel the countryside to reach the gates of Dracula's Castle but here's where Castlevania III truly shines, you don't need to follow the path that leads to the front gate, there are multiple paths to take through the countryside to reach Castlevania! Essentially the short road to Castlevania is the long trip thru the castle and vice versa.

Another fantastic addition in Castlevania III are the three alternate playable characters, Sypha Belnades, a mysterious warrior that battles Dracula's minions with elemental magic, Grant D'Nasty a pirate who's family were victims of Dracula's army, he is cursed by Dracula until Trevor free's him, and lastly Alucard (Adrian Farenheights Tepes) son of Dracula and a human mother, Lisa Farenheights.
Depending on the path you choose you may not encounter all or any of the three alternate characters but there are benefits to finding them as each has unique abilities that can get to hidden area's within the castle and thru areas


that are especially difficult for Trevor.
The additions of multiple paths and three additional sub characters to play with took an already incredible sequel and added enough variety to warrant multiple play thru's. Along with all the new features the game's soundtrack was also notably amazing for it's generation.
Castlevania III: Dracula's curse builds from the original and does a superb job of improving every aspect as well as incorporating worthwhile additions such as branching paths and multiple characters. Castlevania ended on a high note in the 8 bit era but Dracula would return in a few years on the SNES...


10/10

Retro review CastleVania II: Simons Quest

One year after the original Castlevania was released, Konami followed it up with the first sequel, Simon's Quest. Like many NES sequels (SMB2), Simon's Quest didn't follow the original game's mechanics, Konami altered the platforming/action game play of Castlevania by adding RPG elements. Originally collecting hearts was simply for the amount you could use your sub weapon, in Simon's Quest collecting hearts also contributed to building your health bar and was used as the games monetary system. The game also adds NPC's to purchase items and weapons and get clues to next objectives.

One of the most prominent changes in Simon's Quest was the exploration aspect which had the player traveling the Transylvania countryside to find five mansions to reclaim five body parts of Count Dracula; his rib cage, heart, eye, nail and ring (not a body part). Each of these items had special attributes to help Simon on his....erm quest, the rib (cage) could be used as a shield, the heart was used to make the ferryman take you to an otherwise inaccessible area, the eyeball showed hidden items, the nail enables Simon's whip to break thru some walls that were otherwise inaccessible, and Dracula's Ring grant's the bearer access to Castlevania.

Other noteworthy new aspects of Castlevania II was the game had a quasi 24 hour clock that shifted from day to night and kept track of the players progress. The game also had three different endings based on the completion time which was pretty rare for console games at that time.

I remember being very excited on my way home from Software Etc. back in the day when I got Castlevania II and being a bit turned off at the radical change from the original, I also remember struggling with some of the games "puzzles" such as finding Rover Mansion under Yuba Lake and passing over Deborah Cliff to reach Bodley Mansion. I remember getting very frustrated because the info the NPC's gave me either was misleading or altogether useless...I think that can be attributed to poor English localization. Konami took a risk by departing so dramatically from the original; Simons's Quest may not have been perfect but it paved the way for one of the most popular titles in the series...Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Castlevania II had enough fresh idea's added to the core action to keep fans of the original cracking that whip, and the next Castlevania would see a return to the series roots and introduce one of the series most popular protagonists...that wasn't a Belmont!

8/10

Retro Review: CastleVania

I remember the first time I played CastleVania, it was at a classmates house and a bunch of us played alternating when one of us died. We finally reached the Count at midnight after hours of epic fails. The sense of accomplishment was incredible at the time the castle seemed huge and the boss fights were exciting and challenging enough without being cheap.

CastleVania was just one of the many Konami titles that solidified them as a leading game company. The games graphics were fantastic, the game utilized the 8 bit color pallet to the best of it's ability. Each stage was well designed with fantastic atmosphere thanks to the visuals and soundtrack, each stage had a definate distintiveness that enhanced the scope of the game, giving it the sense that the castle was labrynthian in size. Each of the six bosses felt right at home in their stage, starting with the large Vampire Bat to the Mummy, Frankenstien and the Grim Reaper. These bosses would become permanent residents of CastleVania in subsequent sequels, and the stage design would be enhanced and expanded upon in later sequels also.

Simon Belmont paved the way to become the first in a long bloodline of Vampire slayers, but he wouldn't be the first chronologically, long before George Lucas began the prequel craze in Hollywood, Konami introduced fans of the series to Trevor Belmont in CastleVania III...

Aside from the esthetics CastleVania had fantastic gameplay, Simon's primary weapon could be "powered up" for further reach and power and the effect was noticeable, CastleVania also had sub weapons scattered thruout the game, Battle Ax, Holy Water, Dagger, and Boomerang, these weapons could also be upgraded by double shot and triple shot giving Simon a virtual endless supply of weaponry.

On top of all this the boxart was amazing also!

CastleVania trully earned the Nintendo seal of quality, awesome graphics, soundtrack, gameplay, playability, boxart.

10/10

Retro Review: Super Dodgeball for NES

Another trip down memory lane! 1989
Super Dodge ball was one of my favorite "sports" games for the NES....who doesn't love dodgeball!?
Super dodgeball had two modes, the first was World Tour Mode where you controlled Team USA and battled teams from around the world like England, India, Africa, Iceland, Japan, and the USSR.
The second mode was a versus mode where you could go head to head against a friend.
The game was simple fun that became immensly more enjoyable when played with a friend. I remember choosing the Indian team and playing against a friend and talking trash with an Indian accent.
This game actually may have been the inspiration for some aspects of 1992's Arcade Smash Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Both games have you traveling around the world fighting people from different countries, and both games gave unique special attacks to the representative of their country.
I don't think Tecmos is around any longer but there is definately potential for an online multiplayer sequel here! Character creation, customizable uniforms, special moves, "super moves"....see where I'm going with this folks!? Super Dodgeball II: Balls of Fury

7/10

Retro Review: Predator for NES

Seems I'm stuck in the 80's this week...
Another game I had for the NES was Activision's Predator, the first game I ever had based on a movie and well we all know now how well those turns out...
The game put Dutch in a pair of pink pants and had him run thru 30 stages of platforms...sounds fun no? To break the redundancy up a bit each stage has two modes! Side scrolling platformer (Jungle Mode) and a side scrolling zone versus waves of floating orbs and a Predator (Big Mode).
That's it....
No jungle slip n slide of a cliff
No giant vagina jokes
No cigar
No booby traps
No sneaking
No getting to the choppah
I bought this game slid it into the NES and I was transported to a world of hurt

3/10

Retro Review: Athena for NES

Long before Kratos went postal on Zeus and the gods on Mt. Olympus Athena was battling "strange and fearsome creatures" on the NES.

Athena is a side scrolling platformer that has the player fighting enemies and "breaking bricks" to pick up armor and weapon upgrades. There were four weapon types Club, Arrow, Magic and Blade. The first three had three levels of strength the Sword had a forth level.

Athena can pick up Armor, Helmets and Shields to protect her against the "strange and fearsome creatures" in the game.

The game also has many items Athena can use to help her such as Pegasus wings, Harp of Protection and umm a Sailor Fuku O.o and a few that actually make the game even more infuriatingly difficult like the Broken hourglass, Goblin Hand and Skull Shield.

SNK could've had a decent game here if there was some QA involved, but regrettably this game suffered tremendously because of non existant hit detection, incredibly poor enemy AI and a zero tolerance learning curve.

The graphics were decent for the time, and the levels had enough variety to keep the player from feeling the repetitious nature of the game. The boss's were large and hard as hell if you came unprepared. Getting to the boss's was challenging enough, if you died you were whisked back to the start of the level with none of your equipment or weapons.

Athena has eight worlds to play thru (good luck!) and the final world actually incorporates a game mechanic any Megaman fan will instantly recognize, the final world in Athena has the player battle all 7 previous boss's in short succession before finally facing the final boss Dante.

The story itself is absolutely ridiculous...a goddess gets bored living in a castle and sneaks out to fight "strange and fearsome creatures". Not exactly Edipus Rex...

Later Athena made the transition from platformer to fighting game vixen in SNK's KOF franchise.

Athena's debut game gets a 3/10

RetroN3 console

Introducing the RetroN3 game console from Hyperkin. For little more than the cost of a PS3/Xbox360 game you can relive your 8/16 bit glory days!

The RetroN3 supports many NES, SNES and Genesis games, has 2 controller ports for each of the 3 systems and comes with 2 wireless controllers designed after the Genesis controller.

I hope this console does well, the design alone shows that some thought was put into it and that there are people out there who still play these games. In todays day and age though this console will have a difficult time selling because it really caters to a small niche market, the retro gamer that has their entire library of NES, SNES and Genesis cartridges. Most people have emulators of these games. The other issue is where are consumers going to be able to find the games if they wanted to play them? Since Funcoland was merged into Gamestop back in 2000 I really have no idea where to find retro games anymore. Regrettibly your best bet to find retro games is the interbebs like craigslist or ebay. I did find one site online that looks promising: http://www.consolepassion.co.uk/ but it's from the UK so you're gonna have to pay S&H on top of the cost of the game cart.
The RetroN3 is a terrific gift for that retro gamer or any gamer that wants to go old school but can't DL the game onPSN, XBL or Wii marketplace.

Hyperkin website: http://hyperkin.com/index.php/retro-system-retron-3.html/

Retro Review: Life Force

In a remote quadrant of the universe there was hatched a hideous creature. His proud parents, Ma & Pa Deltoid, named their only son Zelos, which in alien lingo means "one mean son of a gun."As Zelos grew into an adult space monster, his appetite turned ravenous, his temper became ruthless, and his
name proved an understatement. It didn't take long for Zelos to leave the nest and go out on his own, devouring everything in sight, including three galaxies, four hundred planets, two trillion life forms and a side order of stars.Then your innocent galaxy appeared on Zelos's menu, and he chowed on an entree of
roast Gradius, with the planet Latis for dessert. Now, the only chance these civilizations have of escaping from his digestive tract lies with you and your starfighting partner.



In 1988, one year after Konami released Gradius the Vic Viper was once again needed against a new galactic threat, Zelos!
Life Force contained six levels, four from the arcade game and two for the console version. Life Force offered a much different experience from Gradius and could almost be mistaken for a different game altogether. Levels one, three and five scroll horizontally like Gradius but levels two, four and six scroll vertically. Life force has a much more organic feel to the majority of the levels and some of the levels seem very out of place in this "space shooter", most notibly levels 4 and 5! Fying thru intestines, a gold rib cage and the boss is a floating skull that uses it's eyeballs as projectiles or an Egyptian pyramid and battling King Tut in space >O.o<

The power up system from Gradius was retained for the NES port. Power ups available were Speed, missile,ripple laser, option and force.

Another original aspect was cooperative play in Life Force, two players teaming up to destroy Zelos, one piloting the Vic Viper and the other piloting the Lord British!

The following score is based on my memory of the game and is compared to games of that period.

6/10

Retro Review: Gradius

Lets keep it going old school for awhile, the next review is one of my favorite space shooters of all time, Gradius! Introduced around 1985 by Konami, Gradius became one of their most popular franchises in the eighties. The first game had you piloting the Vic Viper in a battle against the evil Bacterions....yeah yeah it sounds really corny but back then you didn't need a script and Hollywood voice actors to make a great game all you needed was great game play a unique soundtrack.

Gradius offered six power ups via red orbs attained by shooting certain enemy vessels or a squadron of Bacterion fighters.

1. Speed up: Increase the velocity of the Vic Viper
2. Missile: Vic Viper drops missiles that fall to the ground and travel until they reach a target
   
3. Double: Shoots two shots diagonally forward
   
4. Laser: Duh
   
5. Option: Gives you up to three orbs that follow you and shoot when you shoot
6. ? : A powerful blast that would clear the screen of all enemies.
   

You couldn't have all six power ups at the same time so there was a hint of customization. The levels were very unique and each challenged more than the last as squads of Bacterion ships zipped past in formation and ground troops would spray the air with shots, players needed strong hand eye coordination. Gradius had very well drawn and animated sprites and the bosses for each level were large and formidable, defeating them took time and patience as you needed to shoot thru multiple defense barriers to reach it's core, when the core turned red victory was imminent.
Konami's Gradius was so successful in Japan and the US that the series had many sequels over the years and has spawned a cultish fan base. ^ ^ v v < > < > B A

The following score is based on my memory of the game and is compared to games of that period.
9/10

Retro Review: Zanac

Occasionally I wax nostalgic with my years of playing video games, and for some odd reason this game came to mind the other night. It was released on the NES way back in 1987! And from what I remember it was one tough mother, in fact I don't think I ever beat it! I made it to the 12th and final level but the "system" was too difficult for a skilled pilot like my self to defeat.

Back then stories were much less developed and this one was no exception and the localization was so poor it reduced the need for a story to just above pointless. The basic gist was;

a long time ago, an unknown alien race created a tiny device known as
the System containing boundless wisdom and knowledge, but also vast destructive
potential. If properly opened it would grant access to untold wisdom and
technology, but if improperly accessed it would unleash almost unlimited
destruction. Mankind attempted to access the System and failed, and the System
began to spread out from the tiny Icon that contained it. Spreading throughout
known space conquering and destroying all in sight, it posed a mortal danger to
all life. Mankind discovered how to properly access the knowledge and technology
within the System, but could not shut its destructive expansion down because of
its vast tactical systems.
The System threatens to engulf the entire galaxy
and destroy all life. However, the defenses of the System are designed around
destroying and overcoming entire fleets. In theory a lone star fighter may be low
enough priority to the defenses of the System to allow it to fight its way into
the heart of the System and destroy it. AFX-6502 "Zanac", the most advanced
star fighter ever produced, is launched on a desperate mission to fight its way
to the heart of the System and shut it down forever.

The game difficulty is directly attributed to it's enemy A.I which rivals some of today's games. It was actually very simple, there were eight different power ups;

1. All Range: the player could control the direction the AFX-6502 Zanac fired
2. Straight Crusher: a slow moving shot the destroyed enemies weapons
3. Field Shutter: a shield
4. Circular:a type of shield that rotates around the ship
5. Vibrator: O.0
6. Rewinder: I can't remember
7. Plasma Flash: cleared the ships and shots on screen
8. High Speed: rapid fire

Depending on what power up you had and how much you used it the System would counter your powerups with increased enemies to the point where the screen was inundated with enemy ships and shots. By level 10 the basic enemy attacks would have you seeking power ups like a crack addict...but most of the time it would worsen your situation. Zanac was probably the hardest scrolling shooter I ever played.

Scoring these old games is gonna be tough considering some of these titles are over 20 years old.

But from what I remember it was challenging with decent sound effects, not much story and poor localization. If I were comparing it to games of it's time like Dragon Spirit or Ajax (vertical scrolling shooters) I'd say it was average but with a challenging A.I.

5/10