Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

"Just keep throwing the garlic at the boatman....trust me..."

Konami kept creating Castlevania games well after the release of the original, and in this sequel to the super smash hit, they created a game that was no longer contained to just a Castle, but to an entire land. Taking control of Simon Belmont once again, you must find the body parts of the evil Count Dracula and ultimately destroy him before his curse destroys you! In this outing, you’re no longer just playing through a Castle, and you aren’t limited to what you find in whipping different objects of enemies, but rather you must work with a clock and against it as well. Several instances of the game will remind most of a Role Playing style that revolves mainly around keeping up with the time and figuring out the puzzles and not so much the action of killing everything in sight.

The game play has changed drastically from the first, in which you are no longer confined to just one area of the game. You can now travel from place to place, working with not only a whip but with a clock that determines just how hard the game is going to be for you! Instances of this come with the time of day that you’re playing in the game, in which at night there are enemies that are harder than hell to kill but during the day, they are push overs to defeat. No longer are you limited to how you upgrade your whip in finding the upgrades, but now you have to buy those upgrades in order to create a better weapon! Talking to people is key in finding out clues on how to figure out certain puzzles, although at a certain part of the game, unless you have a proper item, you can’t get a right answer even if you try.

Item finding and puzzle solving are what the game really is in terms of how you complete it. In order to bypass certain parts of the game, you must defeat a boss and find one of Dracula’s body parts to get through a certain puzzle. Some of these parts can only be found at certain times of the day, and something that most gamers will see is that the bosses are pretty much push over figures that present more of an appearance factor than a challenge! The puzzles in some parts of the game are nerve wracking and in some cases damn near impossible to figure out unless you use logic to get through them. You’ll find that again, without certain items and otherwise, you can’t pass a certain section of the game, which can cause severe frustration, and cases of controller throwing.

The control is something that really hasn’t been changed much since the first game, save for the fact that you now have menus to work with instead of just an interface that lets you go through and play without thinking. In certain cases of the game, you’ll have to use items and timing as well as have infinite patience in order to complete some of the platform jumping that you may encounter. You’ll also find that the game has plenty of things to whip and kill, which are easily done with enough simply by standing still and throwing the whip out! The bosses of the game don’t really require a lot of skill nor anything super special, so just enjoy the game and wander through the lands.

Visually, the game has taken on a slightly different feel and look than the last game has. You’re still in a side-scrolling world, but it is a world that is rather expansive and detailed in several cases. You’ll find that the people who you come into contact with are faceless, but have a small amount of detail to them that just adds to the overall visual quality. The bosses are also well designed, with the Grim Reaper and Dracula being two instances of what detail and visuals can really accomplish in a game of this type. The different areas that you travel through tend to look alike, but the time of day that you travel in determines what you see and how you see it! There is the fact that time does effect how the game looks, in which at night, everything is muted and dark while during the day allows you to see what it is that you’re traveling through.

Audio wise, the game is perfect in the way it makes you feel while playing. The sheer amount of highs and lows as well as the different effects that time has on your music makes this one of the rare cases an NES game has left an impression on me. Traveling through some of the more secluded places with the music available in the game gives that feeling of exploration and adventure while not becoming too overbearing on the ears and detracting from the game play! The sound effects are also just enough to keep your interest and add to the game without becoming overwhelming. There is probably room to improve, as there always is in a game like this, but playing through the first few times really doesn’t leave much that you can complain about.

Overall, Simon’s Quest is a game that offers up a new style of Castlevania that was finally realized fully in Symphony of the Night. With the emphasis of the game being on exploration and puzzle solving instead of just straightforward action gaming and platform jumping, you’ll find a whole new adventure in this game. However, with the amount of enemies that you face, and the difficulty that you may find in the later stages that include facing off against enemies at night, you may be turned off by the simple way that bosses are defeated. Some of the more interesting points in the game have to do with the ability to upgrade and buy items instead of just finding them, truly making this more of a Role Playing type game instead of a straight action game. For NES fans and Castlevania fans alike, you’ll find that picking this game up in the local gaming store is well worth the couple of bucks and simply adds to the legend that is Castlevania!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/01, Updated 11/26/01