honestly a very inventive and entertaining take on the castlevania formula, even if marred considerably by technological constraints. design-wise this thing is pretty damn airtight, its faults lying almost entirely with stuff like the control physics and hit detection (you can go some ways towards mitigating the kinaesthetic deficiencies with romhacks, but definitely not all the way). the enemy designs however are solid (better dracula fight than on the nes dont @ me) and the levels well constructed, with tons of clever moments packed in, not to mention well considered from a conceptual perspective - it's very refreshing to see a break from the rote repetition of the original game's level ideas that the series sometimes has a habit of falling into. you go downwards to reach dracula this time! how cool is that? the fire whip is also a respectable attempt at making the upgrade system actually have a meaningful impact on the gameplay, and its inclusion helps make up for the omission of sub-weapons. game boy sequels to established console franchises infamously tend to contain lots of odd novelties that distinguish those games from the main-line titles, and this game is no different in that regard. while it makes for a very charming experience, the game doesn't quite amount to an underrated masterpiece on the level of, say, metroid 2 - though i think it really could've been, had the developers managed to better overcome the limitations of the system. someone should really get working on an am2r style remake of this game (and yes, i'm aware of the adventure rebirth).