An SNES upgrade of the original Castlevania with more movement and attack abilities. The former feels particularly necessary, kind of like the plunging attack in Dark Souls—you don't realize how much you miss it, and you're in for a really rude awakening playing the original and discovering you can't land a jump on stairs, which is like muscle memory for me at this point, or in Demons Souls finding yourself in the middle of a group of enemies you thought you had the literal jump on. The whip spinning is really useful for certain enemies, and it's just fun to whip that thing around, but it doesn't feel exactly as necessary as the multi-directional whip attack.

I tend to prefer the simpler Castlevania games, so I had a blast with this one. No character switching, no back tracking. Just pressing right to watch megachad Simon amble towards Dracula's castle like Michael Myers with a whip. It's challenging, and some of the difficulty can feel like bullshit. But I have no qualms about using save states to alleviate this.

I really liked the soundtrack of this one, particularly 7-1 and 8-1 (so chill), and how during the Dracula fight it switches from the tense Carpenterian synth to Simon's theme when the Count is on his last legs.