Castlevania

"N64 Castlevania bleeds us dry"

Ok, so imagine we're back in the mid 90's. Nintendo has finally triumphed over it's long-term rival, Sega, by releasing the N64 (I know that Sega came out with the Saturn and the Dreamcast, but let's not kid ourselves, those systems were damned from the outset.) To seal its' complete dominance over Sega, Nintedo released what I recall to be the 3 most popular games ever on the N64: Mario 64, Starfox 64, and Ocarina of Time. The new 64 bit techonolgy allowed Nintendo to take their old favorites to new heights, and all the world was pleased by these great accomplishments. Changing them to 3D (Or in Starfox's case, upgrading 3D like crazy) gave everybody at Nintendo a big head. This led to some of our favorites getting 3D makeovers they weren't ready for, and would never recover from. These included Bomerman 64, Mystical Ninja 64, and (shudder) Megaman 64. Into the midst of this awful "hit-or-miss" era came Konami. They had been champing at the bit to test out Nintendo's advancing technology, since Super Castlevania 4 and Dracula X were such powerhouses and Symphony of the Night (Which was only 32 bit) had been so fantasic, they were bloodthirsty to sink their fangs into 64 bits. Only to have THIS come out.

You can play as either Reinhardt Schnedier (Not Belmont, big mistake!) or Carrie Fernandez (Who is somehow related to Syfa from Castlevania 3, what with all the magic).

Graphics 2/!0
Right away, you can tell what horrid drudgery this game is going to be. It looks awful! The Characters look awful and blocky (Even for the N64) and the details on the enemies are horrible. Effects such as fire and lightning are shallow and boring, and the color palate really almost prevents anything from being scary.

Music 1/10
Castlevania is known to be able to make music both haunting and catchy, so what happened here? When there actually IS music in this game, you'd rather be without. Sound effects are awful, I hate that damn walking noise, and the boss music is the same 4 notes over and over again. After playing this game a awhile, I shut the music off.

Gameplay 1/10
Here's the big sticking point for me. This game is AWFUL to control. All I can say is that without the targeting to lock on to enemies, this game would be completely UNPLAYABLE. Reinhart's whip is awkward to use and has too much recoil time, and Carrie's magic, though a bit smoother to use, seems to be a lot weaker and rarely knocks and enemy back as the whip does. Also, her short range attack has a lot less range that does Reinhardt's sword (Although a minor gripe, I would like to mention that He never unsheathes the sword when he uses it, he just kinda rips open the sheath)

To sum up, I would like to state that I am a HUGE Castlevania fan, but this game simply dropped the ball. I hate this game, and I wish it had never been made.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/08

Game Release: Castlevania (US, 12/31/98)