After recently beating Castlevania 1 and 3 for the first time, I was very excited for this - and rightfully so. The graphics, of course, are superb. The pixel art still looks phenomenal, and the atmosphere is absolutely captivating. I can't imagine what it must have been like to play this back in the days.
The gameplay feels a lot more polished, though not as much as I had hoped. Being able to swing the whip in 8 directions was great, but especially whipping down-left or down-right while jumping was kinda clunky.
Speaking of clunky - the stairs are a lot more manageable, though still a little annoying. I wish they functioned a little more like in Super Mario World, for example, for I found myself often sticking to them when actually trying to jump over them.
This might be controversial, but I didn't enjoy the OST as much as in the NES games. They opted for a lot of rather ambient tracks, while I loved the many thrilling jams of the older games much more. Even the tracks that are supposed to feel thrilling sound a little dull to me, compared to the NES games. Guess I just don't like the soundfont.
What I also didn't enjoy as much was the inclusion of traps that you can't react to quick enough. Of course, it makes total sense for Draculas castle to have these kind of traps - gameplay-wise, I don't enjoy random deaths to stuff I couldn't see coming. Reminded me of I wanna be the Guy, but there you at least don't have to restart the whole level over again.
Still, the difficulty was much more managable compared to the NES titles. The difficulty curve felt quite well crafted, an exception being a few annoyingly hard difficulty spikes throughout the game.
The highlight of the game - as it should be - was the finale. The small boss rush before Dracula, the music, the torches that flare up as you walk past them - masterfully executed, and it really got you wrapped up in the atmosphere and hyped up for the last fight of the game.
So, although I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected, thanks to some leftover-jank and unfairness, this is rightfully considered a must play for the SNES.
The gameplay feels a lot more polished, though not as much as I had hoped. Being able to swing the whip in 8 directions was great, but especially whipping down-left or down-right while jumping was kinda clunky.
Speaking of clunky - the stairs are a lot more manageable, though still a little annoying. I wish they functioned a little more like in Super Mario World, for example, for I found myself often sticking to them when actually trying to jump over them.
This might be controversial, but I didn't enjoy the OST as much as in the NES games. They opted for a lot of rather ambient tracks, while I loved the many thrilling jams of the older games much more. Even the tracks that are supposed to feel thrilling sound a little dull to me, compared to the NES games. Guess I just don't like the soundfont.
What I also didn't enjoy as much was the inclusion of traps that you can't react to quick enough. Of course, it makes total sense for Draculas castle to have these kind of traps - gameplay-wise, I don't enjoy random deaths to stuff I couldn't see coming. Reminded me of I wanna be the Guy, but there you at least don't have to restart the whole level over again.
Still, the difficulty was much more managable compared to the NES titles. The difficulty curve felt quite well crafted, an exception being a few annoyingly hard difficulty spikes throughout the game.
The highlight of the game - as it should be - was the finale. The small boss rush before Dracula, the music, the torches that flare up as you walk past them - masterfully executed, and it really got you wrapped up in the atmosphere and hyped up for the last fight of the game.
So, although I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected, thanks to some leftover-jank and unfairness, this is rightfully considered a must play for the SNES.