It's pretty sad when the box art is the best part of a game. And in this case, it absolutely is. Seriously that is some of the sickest box art Castlevania has gotten, in a series that has a lot of really good box art. Shame the name's positioning makes it look like it says "The Castlevania Adventure".
This game is noooot good and it only takes playing through the first level a little to get through. First, Christopher Belmont walks as if he did not have legs. He is UNBEARABLY slow and it is probably the worst thing about this game. Not only does it make trudging through every level feel like walking through molasses, it means that fighting literally anything that can move is ridiculously frustrating. You simply do not have the movement speed to deal with stuff in a way that actually feels fun even when you see it coming. Not only is this not enjoyable, it also means enemies by and large have very simple attacks / patterns. Most of the difficulty in this game comes from fighting the terrible controls.
This is not helped by the jumping, which is bad. Castlevania jump physics are stiff, that's fine, the games often gear themselves to that, but this is TOO stiff. You WILL initially find yourself having difficulty doing a single jump onto a platform because ol' Christopher doesn't want to move. It IS something you can get used to, but it never feels truly consistent, and combined with your non-existant horizontal movement means the way to take every single jump is to get as cloooose to the edge as possible and leap. I will say right now I heavily save stated playing this game unlike NES Castlevania, because extra lives are very hard to come by and it is way too easy to die to the controls. Bosses are largely extremely easy though, with the exception of the second stage boss...which is still easy if you do it right, but if you do it wrong and a single one of whatever the hell they are gets out it becomes very hard because they move fast and you can't really dodge move fast consistently.
There's no sub-weapons in this game, but given this is a near-launch title on a crunchy lime-green original Game Boy I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is your whip upgrades going DOWN when you get hit. Castlevania games and Mario games have pretty different designs, and Castlevania's doesn't work well with it I feel...but especially not in a game as stiff as this. There's also the fact that it isn't like the whip attack "eats" damage like a mushroom in Super Mario, you just also lose it and your health. Maybe it's because the Flame Whip is OP here? At least the bosses give you a free whip upgrade before they start.
This game does have a little bit to it that is innovative, such as an extended section involving running away from a spiked floor and then spiked wall. It's pretty common but a bit novel for an original Game Boy or old Castlevania game, I feel like the segment would have been kinda fun if the movement speed wasn't so bad. The spike platforms are a bit neat I guess? Okay yeah there isn't much, just a tiny sliver, but ay. Soundtrack is a fairly poor early GB soundtrack, it largely gets repetitive in a bad way when you are dying so often. The graphics aren't that good, but I submit the fact that it is on the original ass green Game Boy and only like 3 months after release means it isn't bad for the time it was made, and honestly I'd take how it looks over something like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
So, yeah, Castlevania: The Adventure isn't good! It is slow, sounds bad, unnecessarily difficult in a way more unfair than challenging, and I would essentially only recommend it to people very interested in Castlevania's full history (like me), the original Game Boy's history or if you got it via Castlevania Anniversary Collection and figured "eh, why not". An unworthy game.
This game is noooot good and it only takes playing through the first level a little to get through. First, Christopher Belmont walks as if he did not have legs. He is UNBEARABLY slow and it is probably the worst thing about this game. Not only does it make trudging through every level feel like walking through molasses, it means that fighting literally anything that can move is ridiculously frustrating. You simply do not have the movement speed to deal with stuff in a way that actually feels fun even when you see it coming. Not only is this not enjoyable, it also means enemies by and large have very simple attacks / patterns. Most of the difficulty in this game comes from fighting the terrible controls.
This is not helped by the jumping, which is bad. Castlevania jump physics are stiff, that's fine, the games often gear themselves to that, but this is TOO stiff. You WILL initially find yourself having difficulty doing a single jump onto a platform because ol' Christopher doesn't want to move. It IS something you can get used to, but it never feels truly consistent, and combined with your non-existant horizontal movement means the way to take every single jump is to get as cloooose to the edge as possible and leap. I will say right now I heavily save stated playing this game unlike NES Castlevania, because extra lives are very hard to come by and it is way too easy to die to the controls. Bosses are largely extremely easy though, with the exception of the second stage boss...which is still easy if you do it right, but if you do it wrong and a single one of whatever the hell they are gets out it becomes very hard because they move fast and you can't really dodge move fast consistently.
There's no sub-weapons in this game, but given this is a near-launch title on a crunchy lime-green original Game Boy I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay with is your whip upgrades going DOWN when you get hit. Castlevania games and Mario games have pretty different designs, and Castlevania's doesn't work well with it I feel...but especially not in a game as stiff as this. There's also the fact that it isn't like the whip attack "eats" damage like a mushroom in Super Mario, you just also lose it and your health. Maybe it's because the Flame Whip is OP here? At least the bosses give you a free whip upgrade before they start.
This game does have a little bit to it that is innovative, such as an extended section involving running away from a spiked floor and then spiked wall. It's pretty common but a bit novel for an original Game Boy or old Castlevania game, I feel like the segment would have been kinda fun if the movement speed wasn't so bad. The spike platforms are a bit neat I guess? Okay yeah there isn't much, just a tiny sliver, but ay. Soundtrack is a fairly poor early GB soundtrack, it largely gets repetitive in a bad way when you are dying so often. The graphics aren't that good, but I submit the fact that it is on the original ass green Game Boy and only like 3 months after release means it isn't bad for the time it was made, and honestly I'd take how it looks over something like Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle.
So, yeah, Castlevania: The Adventure isn't good! It is slow, sounds bad, unnecessarily difficult in a way more unfair than challenging, and I would essentially only recommend it to people very interested in Castlevania's full history (like me), the original Game Boy's history or if you got it via Castlevania Anniversary Collection and figured "eh, why not". An unworthy game.
FallenGrace
2 years ago