Castlevania

The Good
Castlevania 64. Is it a good game or a bad one? I wonder. Probably the best thing in this game is the music. Yes the music is amazing and it adds to the atmosphere, the other major element of the game. I can name enough great games that don’t have any atmosphere at all. Good for the game that it has one. The two playable characters and the different stages depending on who you choose to play are also a plus for the game. But are these enough to justify the hysteria of the people around me that were crazy for this game and considered it a masterpiece? I don’t think so.

The Bad
The graphics were not as good as other games at the time of its release. Apparently the transition from 2D to 3D wasn’t the best choice for the series. The absence of a plot was another miss for the game. The developers could focus more on the backgrounds of the characters and the reasons that led them to begin their ‘’crusade’’ to defeat Dracula. It would certainly give a more mature feeling to the whole game. The gameplay had problems too with the camera movement and angles not being so helpful in certain places. Another thing I noticed was that the steps the characters did didn’t match the sound they were supposed to do. You may thing that’s a detail but when you have to make a precise jump – and in Castlevania you have to do that a lot – it’s pretty confusing and annoying especially if you lose because of that. Still the final blow is the options at the beginning. If you choose the Easy mode you’ll only be able to play half of the game and you’ll just get a notice saying that if you want to play the full game you have to choose the Normal mode. When I saw that I wanted to break my console. I mean, is Konami mocking us or what?

The Bottom Line
This game is for the fans of the series and casual gamers since it’s more action oriented. On the other hand I’m sure that many fans will be disappointed. Pretty bad considering that it could have been a much better game than the one it is.