Castlevania 4
Reviewed by Daniel
Castlevania 4 was one of those show-stoppers at the summer
CES of Chicago (that's the predecessor to today's E3) the year
Sega brought Sonic out. After the saddeningly overwhelming
good press Sega took, you could take comfort in seeing the
prescreens of Castlevania 4, this is seriously one of those
5 Super NES games that really have marked me.
Graphics 9 out of 10
Picture this, the only cool effects of the Super NES you've seen are
pilot wings and F-Zero, then you get to level for of Castlevania,
and the whole room starts spinning around you as if the backdrop
was a tube that you were walking through!! This is really one of
the games which make me yearn for the years when Capcom and
Konami brought out the nicest 2d graphics, they are so beautiful.
Music and Sound 9 out of 10
There are a few things which have trade marked the Castlevania
series, the most important being the music. It's as if the composers
said "wow this sound chip is better than the NES let's see what we
can add" and the producer walked in saying "right the music as if it
were for CD and I don't care how, but put it on cart!" And I swear this
is full on gothic tense orchestrated style music. the sounds aren't
that exciting but when you're dealing with whips and axes instead of
plasma guns it's not that easy to come up with much. A nice touch is
hearing the sound of machinery in the room next door before you've entered it.
Game Challenge 8 out of 10
It's quite hard, nothing incredible but just hard enough that you can
get your ass kicked by the same boss a million times in a row, yet
still convinced that "this time I'm going to beat him" as opposed to
"what am I supposed to do!! There goes my controller against the wall!"
What's also good is that the levels do get harder and are at times
more challenging than the boss. If you get stuck against the very
last boss, here's a hint go "the title of a very well known red hot
chilli peppers song".
Game Play-Fun 10 out of 10
This is the key of the game . You know how you can spend a white
night with a friend just playing one game all night long, one life/level
each, hugging when you beat a boss (but jealous when your friend beats
him), with a quick couple of street fighter 2 VS matches here and
there to relieve the tension. And during these few days that you're
playing with it's all that you think of, anything other than playing it
is time wasted when you should be playing. Honestly this is one of
the best ever games you'll find, and if like me you yearn for the days
of 2d sidescrolling 16bit graphics, and you want a pure action, unsubtle
completely linear piece of mindless fun, then this is the best game there is.
Replayability x out of 10
Hard to say , whenever I finish it, I don't touch it for about a year,
and one day I'll pick it up and get completely into it again. Once
you've finished it , you probably won't play it much at all, just something
like once a year, the time to forget how good it is, what it's like and most
importantly what to do and how to beat the bosses, then you pick it up
and IT'S STILL AS FUN This is not a game you can sell
Game Value 10 out of 10
Yes yes yes yes YES, one thing you lucky Americans don't realize is
that in Belgium a new Super NES game would cost $100 You know some
series of games, if you haven't tried them you really feel like you're
missing out on a bit of gaming history , this is one of them. Call me
narrow minded, but you cannot consider yourself a Nintendo fan
without trying this one
Overall 95 out of 100