When most folks think of difficult games, many of them are from the 8-bit era...One often set near the top of the list is the original Castlevania. Castlevania is a game where you wield a whip and attempt to slay Dracula...but along your way, you’ll meet various creatures and bosses that’ll try and prevent you from reaching your goal. It’s a difficult journey to the reach end, but does the difficulty hinder the game? Well, let’s find out, shall we?
The gameplay of Castlevania is done pretty well. In the beginning it’s mostly just simple ‘kill the enemy and keep walking’ stuff...But as you advance on, the enemies are more difficult to kill, harder to hit, and the levels involve some good platforming skills, as well. A lot of the difficult parts of the game can be overcome by simply taking a little time to observe patterns in the enemy behaviors, such as timing a platform jump in order to avoid a Medusa head flying your way. Other times, however, you’ll have to just plain rely on some good skills, like when you face Death and have to whip and hop over sickles as you attempt to get a clean hit on the boss. The game never really feels cheap; it always feels as if you can get by an obstacle on a second attempt...Even if it can sometimes take many more attempts than that.
There are also hidden items within parts of the levels that can help you adjust to the difficulty of the harder levels. By whipping everything in sight, you may be able to find a turkey to replenish some much-needed health, a secondary weapon that can often come in handy (especially during the final boss fight), or an upgrade for your whip...which is pretty much a necessity if you hope to survive until Dracula is slain. Also, if you can manage to get past the difficulty and make it to the end of the game, you’ll be rewarded with something similar to a New Game + where you start from the beginning with your current secondary weapon and score still intact. Of course, the second time through is much more difficult, so if you’ve mastered the original part of the game, the second playthrough will continue to offer you a challenge.
Graphically, the game is pretty beautiful. For its time, each and every level in the game looks pretty nice. On top of that, each enemy is unique...You won’t be finding the lame re-coloring of enemies here. They aren’t just unique by appearance, either. Each enemy has their own tactics and abilities...It’s not just the bosses with unique attacks and looks. This graphical variety is quite a nice thing to see. The audio isn’t quite as impressive as the graphics, but it’s still pretty solid. Many of the songs are pretty catchy. Even if you haven’t played the game since it first came out over twenty years ago, if you played the game today, you’d likely remember quite a few of the songs within the game. Some of the songs aren’t quite as strong as others, but for the most part, everything in the audio department is done well.
Castlevania was the first game in a series that is still alive and well today. Yes, it was difficult and yes, it’s no Symphony of the Night...However, for its time, it was one of the absolute best games available on the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was a very solid start to a very beloved franchise. Castlevania may be difficult, and yeah, it had some room for improvement, but in its rookie appearance in video games, Castlevania wowed those who played it....And today, over twenty years after its initial release, the game is still just as fun (and just as difficult) as it was the day we first cracked a whip in Dracula’s pixelated castle. - Ape
May 1987
February 5, 1993
December 19, 1988
