18 reviews liked by LimBreakRevo


That Raven Beak's a real bastard, man.

Ska-badabadabadoo-belidabbelydabbladabbladabblabab-belibabbelibabbelibabbelabbelo-doobelidoo

I'M A S.C.A.T. FAN!

Still don't know how an arrow became more travel efficient than a jet dog

I remember beating this as a kid, and being pissed that you couldn't play as all the aliens.

I WANTED TO PLAY AS GREYMATTER DAMN IT!!!!!

This shit goes hard at Olive Garden

I'm not even white why am I playing this.

The game is honestly not that bad. It is definitely plagued by feeling very slow and having some pretty challenging jumps that are kinda hard to tell if you will make it, but it is otherwise a pretty short and straightforward game. The bosses were kinda cool since all of them were new as far as I can tell, and the last two levels were pretty well-designed. Stage 3 in particular was really cool, since you are constantly running away from spikes that are coming from the walls or the floors, making it pretty intense. That being said, it's not a bad portable Castlevania game, just not one I'd say is that good either.

Heartwarming: this one weird jump arc produces enough zoomer tears to provide water for an entire village.

Dying 9 times in a row because i forgot to memorize the exact pixel in which a rock will fall from the celling is okay because the longest boss fight in the game takes like 20 seconds.

Here we have a game I didn't really want to play in the past. It just never really interested me especially after playing the Rebirth version but I decided to do a very scruffed (aka using a lot of save states sorry...) playthrough of the game just to look at it.

Now I knew one thing going in, this game was hated immensely in the community. I've seen reviews like Stop Skeletons From Fighting (Formally known as Happy Video Game Nerd) and Jeremy Parish talk about the game both disliking it. There's also the many negative reviews of the game on GameFAQs and this site. There's even a page for this game on the Bad Game Hall of Fame website. While it's probably not the most hated game...actually what is the most hated game in this series? Is it Haunted Castle? Is it the MSX game? Is it this?? Actually it could be that one mobile game did anyone even play that? It looks pretty bad.

So this game is called Dracula Densetsu in Japan. It's interesting because the up and coming 3rd was called Akumajo Densetsu. Wonder what was with them wanting to use the word Legend for the title. Dracula Densetsu stars a completely new Belmont named Christopher Belmont. Though honestly you wouldn't even notice unless you looked it up. It's not even mentioned in the US release to my knowledge. Still regardless of his name, you'll be traveling through 4 levels and yes it's really only 4.

Christopher has very different physics to Simon which is to be expected as it is a Game Boy game. He is very heavy in this game and moves very slow. I've heard this was meant to be helpful with the screen when playing on the original hardware so I guess props to them if it was the intention. You can still whip and use sub-wait there are no subweapons?? Well that's pretty lame.

Now let me talk about something I've always never understood about this series. In many of the older games you could grab this item to upgrade your whip up to level 3. This mechanic is stupid because most of the time they give it to you early enough for you to never worry about a weak whip. Why even have this if most of the time I'm gonna use the best one anyway? This game tries to give this more of a purpose by making the level 3 really good like it gives you a projectile but now there's a catch. Each hit = a downgrade in level. Now look I can appreciate them trying to balance this but this ends up hurting the game more then helping it. I especially hate when the game eats my input from the frame drops and I get hit and it's just bye bye to that. I could see this working if it was more refined but it ends up being more annoying then anything for me.

Level design though actually can be fun at times. I find the choice to use ropes interesting. Stairs are usually hated in the Famicom games so I like the change and it brings new ideas to the levels. What I don't like though is the obsession of one tile platforming and platforms that fall when you land on them. They use this throughout the game and the worst part is it's so stressful. I always get too scared ill press the button too late and end up dying anyway. I think it's too strict personally. Though I'll give the game this, I do like how they least let you practice the one tile platforms near the end of stage 1 even if this section is hated by many.

Can I just say I love the idea of level 3. It's not much about fighting tough foes but instead fleeing from instant death spikes, it's perfect in striking fear with your slow running and climbing skills. You're constantly looking at them to see if you even have a chance of surviving. What could be a decent challenge for a platform character like Mario is now a huge challenge with a Belmont like Christopher. Though I do think the controls being not amazing hurt this level but I'd argue it's the best level in the game though I'm sure most would disagree with me. Also M2 why didn't you bring this back for Rebirth? Would have been perfect there...

I think another thing I appreciate is you can tell the team did want this to be a good effort. None of the levels feel like anything the previous games did and whether or not you dislike them doesn't mean they didn't try to give it an identity of it's own. Even most of the enemies and bosses are different giving this a feel of it's own. While there are bad parts to this game like I'm not a fan of stage 2 and especially some parts of stage 4, I'd rather take this then just the first game again but worse.

I think this game has limited continues but I kept trying to game over and it never seem to end so if anyone knows the answer to this let me know. Those bosses are also kind of weird now I think about it, especially the 2nd one. It feels like you're just fighting a lot of easy small enemies. They also poorly balance them out as they die really quick to a fully powered up whip. They even bring out the first boss three times in stage 4 which reminds me of the giant bat in stage 6 of the first game. The 2nd form of Dracula is hard btw, if there is an easy way of beating him then I don't know it. Though I eventually got a good pattern on him and then got awarded the ending which shows by the end that Dracula escape? Maybe that's for Dracula Densetsu II to continue with.

The music is soooo good in this game. I always love to gush over how Konami does music for their older games and this is no different. You really can't go wrong with any of it and it's probably the one thing everyone can agree is amazing. The visuals also don't look bad either with some good spritework and areas to appreciate. Man I miss when Konami did cool things.

Despite all of it's issues and how much people hate this game. I for some reason can't say it's bad. Don't get me wrong there are bad parts for Dracula Densetsu and some moments can feel fury inducing at times but for a team that probably lacked what they needed to make a great game I think they did an okish job at making it at least playable. I'm not a fan of this game but I admire the effort. It may not be a Legend for most but sometimes you just aren't destined to be loved.

Ok but like can we still talk about how Rebirth just barely takes from this game like why even base it off this game? Now I feel like I have to redo my review of that one now...but my Wii is in such poor shape nowadays. Surely hit a roadblock here..AH! I'm rambling here for no reason, bye for now!