A much flashier experience than other Castlevania games, Bloodlines absolutely nails the presentation across the board. While most other games in the franchise up to this point had a dark and gothic look to them, Bloodlines is bright, vibrant, and colorful, easily standing out as the most visually unique game so far. All of the effects in this game are amazing, from simple things like the shattering of glass to insane shit like a spiral up a tower or a room who's visuals are fractured in pieces, and they're all accompanied by fantastic music and sound effects.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure this always translates to great level design. A lot of these attempts at creating memorable visuals and set pieces make for annoying gimmick sections like the constantly rising water in stage 2, or the previously mentioned room with fractured visuals. None of this is helped by how long most of the levels are. I suppose this was their way of countering the fact there's only 6 stages, but some of them like the boss rush in stage 6 are just way too long and tedious. Seriously you have to fight like 8 bosses in a row at the end, it's absurd. The subweapons in this game are also a bit disappointing. Unlike in other Castlevania games where you start with 5 hearts (or in this case jewels), you start with none in Bloodlines. It honestly might not sound like much, but it really restricts how much you get to use them, especially during boss fights. The limited continues is probably the biggest blight on this game, and it's obviously meant to compensate for the otherwise short runtime. Even if there's ways to mitigate this nowadays with things like save states, it's still a hassle. I actually cheated and gave myself infinite continues with game genie codes, but that made the game a bit too easy because of how generous the game is with the checkpoints.
All that being said, I hate to sound too negative with this review. The game is good fun despite my issues with it, and worth a trip through just to see the Genesis hardware put to superb use.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure this always translates to great level design. A lot of these attempts at creating memorable visuals and set pieces make for annoying gimmick sections like the constantly rising water in stage 2, or the previously mentioned room with fractured visuals. None of this is helped by how long most of the levels are. I suppose this was their way of countering the fact there's only 6 stages, but some of them like the boss rush in stage 6 are just way too long and tedious. Seriously you have to fight like 8 bosses in a row at the end, it's absurd. The subweapons in this game are also a bit disappointing. Unlike in other Castlevania games where you start with 5 hearts (or in this case jewels), you start with none in Bloodlines. It honestly might not sound like much, but it really restricts how much you get to use them, especially during boss fights. The limited continues is probably the biggest blight on this game, and it's obviously meant to compensate for the otherwise short runtime. Even if there's ways to mitigate this nowadays with things like save states, it's still a hassle. I actually cheated and gave myself infinite continues with game genie codes, but that made the game a bit too easy because of how generous the game is with the checkpoints.
All that being said, I hate to sound too negative with this review. The game is good fun despite my issues with it, and worth a trip through just to see the Genesis hardware put to superb use.