Castlevania III is a perfect evolution of the first Castlevania title. You get double, maybe triple the stages. You get multiple different routes to castle Dracula. You even get 3 new and completely different playable characters. It blows my fucking mind that this amount of replayability was put into an NES game, and it blows my mind even harder that this can actually compete against the original in terms of quality, and Castlevania was already one of the console's finest gems.
My only major gripe with the title is just how difficult the American release is. As far as I know, the original version of Castlevania on the FDS maintained the same level of difficulty that we saw in the west (minus a save feature cut out of the American release if you think that counts as difficulty adjustment). In Castlevania III, a lot of the game's balancing is altered to make the game tougher for you to beat. Like Castlevania, enemies all take away the same amount of health based on where you are in the game. It was definitely a flaw in the original, but it's way more noticeable here because the Japanese release was more fair, with health removed being determined by what you were hit by rather than your position in the game. Similarly, the western release alters where subweapons are dropped and what is given, but that's more of a case-by-case thing, and can actually end up helping in places.
So, after almost a week of grinding out the base American copy I own, I decided to apply a patch through my Retron 5 that would turn Castlevania III back into Akumajou Densetsu. I definitely think this is the way to go if you wish to play this game. The game has insane audio-enhanced sound and, as mentioned previously, is much more of a fair challenge.
And briefly on that music, man is it something else. The addition of the audio enhancements within the Akumajou Densetsu cart really makes a difference. It's probably one of the best soundtracks of any game on the console, possibly taking the #1 spot. Hell, even in the downgraded 5-channel American release, the songs still sound fantastic.
Visuals are also as brilliant as those seen in Castlevania. I think a lot of the backdrops look much better here though, most likely a result of more experience considering this is a much later release.
Honestly there's really nothing at all holding the game back from an easy 10/10 score. Even when I was being beaten by the American release, I was having so much fun with it. I think at this point I'm comfortable in saying that this is better than Castlevania. I'm at least confident that the Japanese Akumajou Densetsu is better.
Also lots of points for being the blueprint for the equally amazing Netflix series.
10/10
My only major gripe with the title is just how difficult the American release is. As far as I know, the original version of Castlevania on the FDS maintained the same level of difficulty that we saw in the west (minus a save feature cut out of the American release if you think that counts as difficulty adjustment). In Castlevania III, a lot of the game's balancing is altered to make the game tougher for you to beat. Like Castlevania, enemies all take away the same amount of health based on where you are in the game. It was definitely a flaw in the original, but it's way more noticeable here because the Japanese release was more fair, with health removed being determined by what you were hit by rather than your position in the game. Similarly, the western release alters where subweapons are dropped and what is given, but that's more of a case-by-case thing, and can actually end up helping in places.
So, after almost a week of grinding out the base American copy I own, I decided to apply a patch through my Retron 5 that would turn Castlevania III back into Akumajou Densetsu. I definitely think this is the way to go if you wish to play this game. The game has insane audio-enhanced sound and, as mentioned previously, is much more of a fair challenge.
And briefly on that music, man is it something else. The addition of the audio enhancements within the Akumajou Densetsu cart really makes a difference. It's probably one of the best soundtracks of any game on the console, possibly taking the #1 spot. Hell, even in the downgraded 5-channel American release, the songs still sound fantastic.
Visuals are also as brilliant as those seen in Castlevania. I think a lot of the backdrops look much better here though, most likely a result of more experience considering this is a much later release.
Honestly there's really nothing at all holding the game back from an easy 10/10 score. Even when I was being beaten by the American release, I was having so much fun with it. I think at this point I'm comfortable in saying that this is better than Castlevania. I'm at least confident that the Japanese Akumajou Densetsu is better.
Also lots of points for being the blueprint for the equally amazing Netflix series.
10/10