I'm not sure when it became vogue to dump all over Castlevania IV, and I don't really get it either. I've seen people say diagonal whipping is disruptive and antithetical to Castlevania's design, and others who think there's too much held over from the NES games which results in too many cheap deaths and artificial difficulty. The latter one is especially weird to me as I think Castlevania IV is the perfect series starting point, easy to get into and finish in a single session, and a portent of better games to come.

The core gameplay of Castlevania IV is as simple as it's ever been: you jump, you whip. Strut your way through levels filled with spooky skelemen and ghouls, then whip the ever-loving crap out of a boss. Repeat. It's the good sort of simplicity, though. The kind that makes it extremely easy to sit down during an empty afternoon and just play. I enjoy Castlevania IV like I enjoy a hot bath, one frame at a time.

So, performance is a problem. There is a lot of slowdown, especially against some of the bosses and any set piece using Mode 7. To be fair, Mode 7 was flashy but rarely ever facilitated good gameplay. There's notable exceptions of course, like F-Zero and Pilotwings, and I can't imagine the SNES without it, but it does Castlevania IV no favors. The section where you're rotating the level around and taking out medusa heads isn't difficult or anything, it's just tedious, and that tedium is made worse by how slowly it plays out; and of course there's the spinning tower you find yourself in shortly after runs at a cinematic 6 frames per second.

My only real gripes from a game design standpoint are towards the very end of the game. The clocktower is a nightmare to navigate, and the vertical scroller that leads into the boss rush requires a level of precision the game simply does not expect from you until that point. Otherwise, I find IV to be a remarkably smooth game, at least as smooth as it can be for something that is still so decidedly stiff. Weapons have a great punch to them, there's some fun set pieces, the visual design makes everything feel suitably dreary, and the soundtrack is one of my favorites on the console.

I sure hope it's not a Weatherby Hot Take that Castlevania IV is a good game, but if I hear any of you say so in the comments I'm going to call Grant DaNasty and give him your home address. The complaints levied against this game are doubtlessly valid to those expressing them, but they've always come off a bit exaggerated to me. Game just feels good! I like it.