Castlevania III - Beat the game with Alucard

Someone once remarked off-handedly (I think it was Jeremy Parish in a retronauts podcast) that playing with Sypha in Castlevania III was like playing in hard mode. Though I have yet to beat the game with Sypha, I have played the first five or so levels taking her path and I must disagree. Hard mode is playing with Alucard.

Easy mode is most certainly Grant. His high-jumping, ability to control jumps in the air, and sticking to walls basically breaks the Castlevania platforming paradign allowing you to do things that weren't ever intended. His dagger is slightly less powerful than the chain whip and doesn't have nearly the reach, but he attacks fast - there is no need to wind up his attack so when you press the attack button, the knife goes out right then.

Alucard does give you the ability to get out of some tight jams with his ability to turn into a bat and fly around, but I only found that useful once. Most of the times, the extra platforms you reach by turning into a bat generally aren't worth the hearts wasted in getting to them. His attack is the weakest of all the characters. While it has good range, there is only a small subset of enemies it kills in one hit. You can upgrade it, so that you get two or three balls of energy, but they are all pretty weak so that often two of them have to hit an enemy to kill it. Also, the only sub-weapon he can use is the stopwatch.

I figure I may as well beat the game with Sypha now so I see all the levels.

Castlevania III - Beat the game with Grant

I think one of the reasons I wasn't so into Castlevania III is that there is a significant lull in the middle levels. The early are work well. They aren't too challenging and get you used to what is coming up ahead. Also, the music is pretty nice. The late levels also work very well and have some of the old school Castlevania challenge that I am used. I had a ball on the final level and in beating Dracula in his various forms. Also, there the music definitely improves (even if some of it is remakes of tunes from earlier games).

Anyway, I adored the final level. It had just the right amount of pattern recognition and staying on your toes that I want in a platform game like this. After having such a good time at the end of the game, I am sorely tempted to go through it again with a different helper. Probably Alucard, since I haven't tried playing with him yet.

Castlevania III - Stage 8

I'm slowly coming around on Castlevania III. It still doesn't feel as fun to me as the original game. This isn't nostagia, because I didn't play the original Castlevania until 2002 or 2003. I still can't put my finger on why the game isn't doing it for me as much as it should. Part of me wants to say that it is the difficulty. It is a difficult game, but in a way that is different from the original Castelvania and thus is actually harder to me.

I started the game over from the last time I played and picked up Grant this time. Now I have a character who has different platforming moves from Trevor Belmont. Grant's ability to grab onto walls, jump higher, and even control his jumps while in the air make some sections much easier. There are other parts, though, that were designed to be gone through with Belmont-like stiff jumps and trying to jump through these with Grant can be fatal.

I took Alucard's path to get to Dracula's castle. Level 6 was the first level that required many tries to get through it, but I did. Level 7, though, almost had me tearing my hair out. The level has a ton of platforming elements. From navigating a room of blocks as acid eats them away, to jumping from moving platform to moving platform as bats fly at you, to climbing up blocks as they fall down on you, to navigating the flipping floor while medusa heads fly at you, to attempting to climb up the screen before it scrolls upwards and sends you to your doom, this level is tough.

I finally got through it and level 8 is an awesome remake of the first level from the original Castlevania along with the original music. Thus, the level itself isn't too difficult. The difficulty is the end of stage boss(es). You face the grim reaper, and while I have managed to beat it with some health remaining (Grant with axe and double shot rocks), you immediately face the next boss (a floating skull) that always gets me because I only have enough health to take one hit.

If this game follows modern Castlevania convention, facing the grim reaper means that I am almost at the end of the game. So, I may only have one more level before the showdown with Dracula. And after that? Do I want to attempt to beat the game with Sypha and Alucard as well?

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Beat the game

Man, that last case is a long one. I certainly have no complaints about the length of this game after going through that.

The last case also seems a bit less well put together than the previous ones. It was made just for the DS version of the game. It has some neat features, like manipulating evidence and dusting for prints that make use of the touch screen. However, I also noticed about the same number of typos/grammatical errors as in the previous cases combined. And there were many more moments when not only was the right evidence to present at the right time in a case not obvious, it didn't even make that much sense once I'd done it.

Still, a very fun game and the best classic adventure game I've played in awhile. Too bad the sequel isn't supposed to be as good.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts - One Credit Challenge, Level 3

This is definitely an old-school game where you can memorize the sections and, in that way, find the best way to get through a level. The randomly spawning enemies just make it that much more difficult.

I greatly impressed myself by getting to level 3 on one credit. Getting the right weapon helps tremendously. For pretty much all of Level 1, I like the bow. For stage 2, the axe is probably the best weapon in the beginning, though just about any weapon but the bow will do (unless you have one of the armors that powers it up). In the second section of level 2, the dagger is definitely where it's at. The dagger remains pretty good for the beginning of stage 3, in the second section you want the bow again.

After losing my last life toward the middle of stage 3, I continued and kept playing until I beat the stage. Stage 3 actually isn't that difficult and I have hope I can make it to stage 4 on one credit before the week is out.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Finished Turnabout Goodbyes

This game has a definite charm about its characters and their actions. I think a lot of that is because the game, even though supposed moved from a Tokyo setting to a Los Angeles setting, still feels very Japanese. Not only are there some concepts that weren't localized for a North American audience, sometime the way the characters speak or interact feels more Japanese. After having played two DS games recently with amazing localizations (Contact and Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime), this game is a little disappointed. It isn't bad, and I only noticed two typos/grammatical mistakes in the game, but it prevents total immersion.

Still, presenting the cases in court is a blast and the tension you feel when having to figure what is the right piece of evidence or the right conjecture is great.

The next case is the special, new DS-only case that takes more advantage of the DS features. I am looking forward to it.

Super Castlevania IV - Review

Castlevania's first foray onto the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was a fascinating one. It was a remake of the original game. Well, remake may not be quite the right word, perhaps reimagining is more correct. There are several more levels and few follow the layout of the levels in the original. The bosses from the original are pretty much all there, but not on the same levels. The "story" as it is, is the same: Dracula is terrorizing the countryside and only Simon Belmont can take him on. The gameplay, though, is quite a bit difference due to one major change.

Since the story in Super Castlevania IV is nonexistant, the gameplay is what drives it. Like previous Castevania games, you jump and whip. Candles in the levels give you points, health, hearts, subweapons, and a few other goodies. The subweapons (knife, axe, holy water, cross, and stopwatch) are (with the exception of the stopwatch) all distance weapons that let you hit heart to reach enemies. They deplete your hearts (which are not health) when used.

The control innovations in this game over is predecessors are twofold: First, you have some some control over your jumps. You can turn around during them and have some influence on how far you jump after you are already in the air. Second, and most hugely, you can now whip in any of eight directions around you. For those who didn't realize how huge this is, previous Castlevanias only let you whip horizontally. Which meant that a good part of the challenge of the game was figuring out how to get next to enemies and hit them without getting hit/falling. In a way, the omnidirectional whipping makes the game much easier. You can take out foes above (and to some extent below) you without quite getting to their level. It really changes how levels and enemies can and should be designed. Along with the omnidirectional whipping, they decided to take a page out of Bionic Commando's book and provided certain hooks in the game that you can latch onto with your whip and swing from.

The levels you trek through are very reminiscent of older Castlevanias. The first few levels are outdoors as you work your way toward the castle. Then you head indoors and move through various parts of the castle. Finally, you climb the tower and approach the final battle with Dracula. The levels have the block platforms and stairs familiar to older veterans. Many levels, though, involve more organic elements. The ground you walk on and paths you tread aren't always discrete blocks. There are gears, conveyer belts, spiky mashers, decaying platforms, and flipping platforms that return from earlier games. There are new environmental hazards, like quicksand-like ground, falling rocks/spikes, and large moving portions of the levels. There are also the new hooks that you must whip onto and swing from and many levels have unique elements such as huge swinging chandeliers you cross, a spinning razor blade that chases you upwards, and a room that rotates around you.

The enemies generally show less innovation than the levels. The bats, skeletons, axe knights, and medusa heads all return from previous installments. There are some new enemies such as slimes, ghosts, and gargoyles. Since most enemies are dispatched by a crack or two of the whip and since you can whip in many directions, it is generally not difficult to defeat them. Still, there are quite a few sections that combine precise platforming and enemy killing that work very well, even if there is only so much inspiration in the enemies. The bosses, though, show great inspiration. The remakes of the original Castlevania bosses all have very nice touches added. Frankenstein's monster now hurls potions. The giant bat is now made of gold and gems. The new bosses are all very bright and colorful. Some are not much bigger than you and are just expert swordsmen or axemen. Some are huge, taking up a good portion of the screen. Some take advantage of SNES effects to grow and shrink or appear and disappear. Like many games of this ilk, the bosses are the highlight.

Largely because of the omnidirectional whipping, this game is much easier than its NES counterparts. I didn't really start to have any trouble until level 7. Level 8 is where the levels start being downright difficult and level B made me pull my hair out. Fortunately, despite the initial challenge, the game is quite fun. You feel accomplished when you are taking down enemies and jumping from platform to platform.

Part of what makes this game so entertaining is the amazing graphics and sound. The enemies are all crisp, clear, and detailed. The bosses especially so. The levels are crafted with care, with details and animation in both the foreground and background. The game makes great use of transparency in both enemies and backgrounds to achieve amazing effects. There is also plenty of Mode 7 (sprite scaling) used. To complement the beautiful graphics, the soundtrack is, as usual, wonderful. At first, I was a bit put off by the music. Not because it wasn't good, but because it wasn't the gothic style of the NES games. Many of the levels sounded like they would be dungeon or cave music in an RPG. They are extremely well done compositions and once I got used to them, I greatly appreciated them. The remixes of music from previous games at the end also worked well.

It really amazes me that this was one of the early releases for the Super Nintendo. Konami must have put all their programmers into figuring out how to get the most from the SNES. While the gameplay has its downsides, especially the uneven difficulty, the entire package of the game is quite impressive. Super Castlevania IV is still great to play today.

Rating 8 / 10