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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by PartridgeSenpai Wed Oct 23, 2019 5:00 pm

Ack wrote:Wow, I don't recall Circle of the Moon nearly so harshly, but then I played it upon release and never really delved into the handheld games that followed. I'm guessing it's more of a stepping stone to what would come later, both for the series and for the GBA in general. Would you say it's more of an experiment to see if that style would work on a handheld?


I would call Harmony of Dissonance (the next game that Igarashi produced after SotN and the next GBA game in the series) is more specifically a narrowing down of SotN specifically onto a handheld. It removes a LOT of the fluff, no familiars, smaller castle, heck it doesn't even have breakable walls, while adding only really the ability to forwards as well as backwards dash, to try and fit a nicely animated SotN-style experience onto a GBA.

Circle of the Moon comes off to me as not just an attempt to get Castlevania on a handheld, but a different kind of Castlevania onto a handheld. I was being serious when I said that this feels like someone looked at Castlevania III and wanted to inject some Metroid-y elements into it. It's almost like a refutation against SotN against what this new style of Casltevania can and should be presented as. I'm sure plenty of compromises around CotM's design can be chalked up fairly easily to a dev team still getting used to the GBA and on a time crunch by Konami to have something ready to go for launch, but some aspects I don't think are quite that simple to dismiss. Given the large number of fans the game still has on here (AJ played it not that long ago and quite liked it), I think it's more down to stylistic preferences why I don't like it. This isn't at all what I like Castlevania to be, and I'm happy that Igarashi was given the chance to continue the series in a more SotN-esque direction rather than the slower CotM-style.

And a note that Maru brought up in the Slack chat: It's very possible that slowdown issues are something down to the Wii U's emulation. He says the GBA version doesn't have any problems with that, so it could just be down to a sloppy port job by Konami. I've never had slowdown problems like that with any other GBA game I've played on the Wii U, so I have to assume it's down to the specific port in this case.
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by prfsnl_gmr Wed Oct 23, 2019 10:43 pm

First 50
1. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary (NDS)
2. Reigns (iOS)
3. Castlevania: The Adventure (GB)
4. Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge (GB)
5. Castlevania Legends (GB)
6. Yankai’s Triangle (iOS)
7. Mega Man III (GB)
8. Mega Man IV (GB)
9. Mega Man V (GB)
10. Sin & Punishment (N64)
11. Love You to Bits (iOS)
12. Mega Man Powered Up - Old Style (PSP)
13. Mega Man Powered Up - New Style (PSP)
14. Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA)
15. Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis (NDS)
16. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (NDS)
17. Detective Pikachu (3DS)
18. Super Fantasy Zone (Genesis)
19. Fantasy Zone Gear (GG)
20. Fantasy Zone - The Maze (SMS)
21. Fantasy Zone (Famicom)
22. Fantasy Zone (NES)
23. Kung Fu Master (2600)
24. Kid Dracula (Famicom)
25. Kid Dracula (GB)
26. Fantasy Zone (TG16)
27. Double Dragon V (SNES)
28. Fantasy Zone II (Famicom)
29. Street Fighter: The Movie (PS1)
30. Fire Fly (2600)
31. Pac Man (2600)
32. Extreme Sports with the Berenstain Bears (GBC)
33. Fantasy Zone (PS2)
34. Space Fantasy Zone (TG16)
35. Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf Fantasy Zone (Genesis)
36. Mega Man (GG)
37. Konami Pixel Puzzle (iOS)
38. Qix (Arcade/NES)
39. Congo Bongo (Arcade)
40. Phantasy Star Gaiden (GG)
41. Phantasy Star Adventure (GG)
42. Panzer Dragoon Mini (GG)
43. Spartan X-2 (Famicom)
44. BS The Legend of Zelda: The Ancient Stone Tablets (Super Famicom)
45. BS The Legend of Zelda (Super Famicom)
46. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem! (NDS)
47. Double Dribble (NES)
48. Super Pro Football (INTV)
49. Indy 500 (2600)
50. Tecmo Bowl (NES)

51. Ninja Gaiden (GG)
52. SonSon (Arcade)
53. Wonder Girl: The Dragon’s Trap (iOS)
54. Minit (iOS)
55. Ninja Gaiden (SMS)
56. Surround (2600)
57. Pocket Bomberman (GBC)
58. Shadowgate (iOS)
59. Kuru Kuru Kururin (GBA)
60. Metroid Prime Hunters - First Hunt (NDS)
61. Mekorama (iOS)
62. Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
63. Akamajou Dracula Peke (TG16)
64. Darius Burst (iOS)
65. DoDonPachi Resurrection HD (iOS)
66. Vigilante (TG16)
67. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is a fine game, but a pretty bad LoZ game. It has great art direction and music, and it features great combat. Moreover, some of the dungeons are really inspired, and it features some of the best boss fights in the entire series. It is painfully, painfully linear, however, and it never, for even a minute, let’s you forget what you are “supposed” to be doing to progress through the game. As a result, the game loses most, if not all, of the sense of adventure and exploration that defines other entries in the series, and as a result, plays like a forty-hour list of chores. Some people may enjoy this game, and I certainly enjoyed parts of it, but it replaces Spirit Tracks at the bottom of my “rank the series” list. On the bright side, it is clear that mechanics in this game inspired BotW, and BotW contains some of the settings found in this game. Accordingly, if the worst game in the LoZ series was a step toward the creation of the best game in the LoZ series, it can’t be all bad...
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MrPopo
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by MrPopo Wed Oct 23, 2019 10:59 pm

Skyward Sword was advertised as "the overworld areas are dungeons", and it shows.
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by prfsnl_gmr Wed Oct 23, 2019 11:05 pm

MrPopo wrote:Skyward Sword was advertised as "the overworld areas are dungeons", and it shows.


It does. The “overworld” in this game is really the sky, but there’s just not a lot to see and d up there. There also really isn’t any reason to revisit the dungeons/overworlds once you’ve completed them.
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Sarge
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by Sarge Thu Oct 24, 2019 5:05 pm

MrPopo wrote:Skyward Sword was advertised as "the overworld areas are dungeons", and it shows.

That's the best part, in my opinion. I'm much more a fan of the dungeons than anything, so having it be "oops, all dungeons" was a blast.

I even enjoyed the little bit of poking around in the sky area, which really just functioned as a sort of hub before going back down to the surface.

Breath of the Wild, while having lots of mini-dungeons, leans the opposite direction. While I enjoyed it, too, I wish the "main" dungeons had been better. As it was, I mostly explored to find shrines, which were basically my reward for poking around the overworld.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by pook99 Sat Oct 26, 2019 7:48 am

@partridgesenpai: Nice reviews of the GBA castlevania's, the only one I ever played was circle of the moon, I remember enjoying it but it has been a long time. The other 2 have been on my bucket list forever, I meant to play Harmony for this years summer retro challenge and just never got around to it because I wound up getting sucked into playing a bunch of castlevania romhacks. I will eventually play them(I think). I did play dawn of sorrow on DS and I loved that game, except for the stupid drawing of symbols required to beat the bosses but thankfully that wont be an issue for the GBA prequel.
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by REPO Man Sat Oct 26, 2019 8:00 am

The Mummy Demastered for PS4, but I'm not 100% yet. It's an awesome Metroid-style game based on a movie that, from what I heard, is a by-and-large disaster. Ironic since normally it's a good movie getting a bad game and hear it's reversed.

Also, The Birdcage for Android. It's no The Room (NOT the movie).
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by PartridgeSenpai Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:02 am

pook99 wrote:@partridgesenpai: Nice reviews of the GBA castlevania's, the only one I ever played was circle of the moon, I remember enjoying it but it has been a long time. The other 2 have been on my bucket list forever, I meant to play Harmony for this years summer retro challenge and just never got around to it because I wound up getting sucked into playing a bunch of castlevania romhacks. I will eventually play them(I think). I did play dawn of sorrow on DS and I loved that game, except for the stupid drawing of symbols required to beat the bosses but thankfully that wont be an issue for the GBA prequel.


Thanks! It's been both fun and interesting playing through them again. I'm a bit exhausted from a long day right now, but part of that long day was also putting the last hour or two I needed into finishing Harmony of Dissonance, so a review of that will likely be coming tomorrow.
Aria of Sorrow is fantastic. If you liked Dawn of Sorrow, you'll like Aria. Dawn is definitely the more polished experience, but Aria is still great~
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by pook99 Sat Oct 26, 2019 12:16 pm

1. Kung fu z (android)
2. Celeste
3. Dead Dungeon
4. Defender Faith
5. The Messenger
6. Eroico
7. Awesome Pea
8. Vosaria: lair of the forgotten
9. Vintage Hero
10. God of War (ps4)
11. Legendary Wings (nes)
12. Tiny Toobs Busters hidden treasure (genesis)
13. Johnny Rocket
14. Spider-man (ps4)
15. Ori and the blind forest
16. Rude bear resurrection
17. Shining Force (genesis)
18. Mega Man 5 (game boy)
19. Panzer Dragoon (saturn)
20. Shadow of the Tomb raider
21. The Painters apprentice
22. Tower 57
23. Dragons Lair (switch)
24. City of Heroes (openbor)
25. Callys Cave 4
26. Double Dragon (nes)
27. Duck Souls
28. Jumping joe and friends (switch)
29. Zombie Panic in Wonderland dx (switch)
30. Jackie Chans action kung fu (nes)
31. Strider X (openbor)
32. Daggerhood (switch)
33. Donkey Kong Country 2 (snes)
34. VOID
35. Ravva and the cyclops curse
36. Devil May Cry 5
37. Outrunner 3
38. Way of the passive fist
39. New Super mario bros deluxe(switch)
40. Mechstermination Force (switch)
41. Pewdipie: legend of the brofist
42. Robonauts (switch)
43. Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 (3ds)
44. Ikao: lost souls
45. Contra: spirit of war
46. Katana Zero
47. Pixel Devil and the broken cartridge
48. Fate of Nimi (android)
49. Mega Man Powered up (psp)
50. Riddled Corpses EX
51. Mike Tysons Punch Out (nes)
52. Mercenaries Saga: will of the while lions (switch)
53. Martial Masters: new Legend (openbor)
54. Battle Princess Madeline (switch)
55. Contra (nes)
56. Super Punch out (snes)
57. Mega Man 2 (nes)
58. Overdriven: reloaded (switch)
59. Mega Man 3(nes)
60. Bloodstained: curse of the moon
61. Slime adventure
62. Aggelos (switch)
63. Castlevania (nes) (probably really fired here)
64. New Super luigi dx /(switch)
65. Super Double Dragon (snes)
66. Super Castlevania 4 (snes)
67. Battletoads (nes) (Fired around here)
68. Battletoads and double dragon (nes) (cheats)
69. Necrolance
70. Oniken
71. Final Fight (snes)
72. Castlevania 3 (nes)
73. Streets of Rage 2 (genesis)
74. Ninja Gaiden (nes on switch)
75. Gunlord X (switch)
76. Mega Man 5 (nes)
77. Super Mario RPG (snes)
78. Castlevania empathy (nes hack)
79. Uncharted: lost legacy (ps4)
80. Guns, Gore, and cannoli 2
81. Double Dragon 2 (nes)
82. Punch out (wii) (end of school year, would replay many more this summer)
83. Super Punch out (snes, 2nd time)
84. Blaster Master Zero 2 (switch)
85. God of War 2 (nes hack)
86. Jackquest: tale of the sword
87. Owyns adventure
88. Fight n Rage
89. Invasher
90. Wulverblade
91. Darkwing Duck -new levels (nes hack)
92. Randall
93. Mega Man 6 (nes)
94. Castlevania: Dracula X (snes)
95. TMNT: fall of the foot clan (game boy)
96. Blazing Chrome
97. Castlevania: Holy Relics (nes hack)
98. Phreds punch out 2 turbo (nes hack)
99. Batman: Dark Knight (nes hack)
100. Punch-out (arcade)
101. Super Punch-out (arcade)
102. Runner 3
103. Rad Rogers
104. Castlevania: Blood Moon (nes hack)
105. Thunder Kid
106. Superstar Mario World (snes hack)
107. TMNT: turtles in time (snes)
108. Mega Man 7 demake
109. Gunforce 2 (arcade)
110. Super C (nes)
111. Mega Man 4 (nes)
112. Damsel
113. Mega Man Eternal
114. Super Saurio Fly
115. Battletoads/Double Dragon (nes, no cheats)
116. Actraiser 2 (snes) (easy)
117. Castlevania: Bloodletting
118. Parasitus: Ninja Zero (xbox 360)
119. Almost there: the platformer
120. Creepy road
121. Dead Effect
122. Battletoads/DD the revenge (openbor)
123. Empire of Steel (genesis)
124. Donald Duck Going Quackers (ps1)
125. Skylar and Plux: adventure on clover island
126. Wicce
127. Pressure Overdrive
128. Armored Police Metal jack (snes)
129. Congos Caper (snes)
130. Cybernator (snes)
131. Final Fight 2 (snes)
132. Return of Double Dragon (snes)
133. Contra 3 (snes)
134. Ikeda: the scrap hunter EP
135. Ghost sweeper Mikami (snes)
136. Go Go Ackman 3 (snes)
137. C: Contra adventure (ps1)
138. Double Dragon 4
139. Super Mario 2(nes) (final interview, also punch out wii)
140. Contra (nes, again)
141. TMNT (arcade)
142. Mega Man 11
143. Poppy's nightmare
144. Whipseey and the Lost Atlas
145. Nefarious (switch)
146. Vectorman (genesis)
147. Resident Evil 2 remake
148. Sword of the guardian
149. Jera
150. Ninjin: clash of carrots
151. Radical roach remastered
152. Willful
153. Karma Miwa
154. Rush Delta z(didnt actually beat, totally impossible)
155. last hours of jack
156. Double Dragon 3 (nes)
157. Ninja Gaiden 2 (nes)
158. Scary girl
159. Strange Brigade
160. X-men (arcade)
161. Dead Cells
162. Gears 5
163. Metaloid Origin(swtich)
164. Guacamelee 2
165. Blair Witch
166. Mega Man 9 (wii)
167. Punch out (nes, non mike tyson)
168. Valfaris
169. Bionic commando (nes)
170. Mega Man (nes)
171. Gunvolt chronicles: luminous avenger ix
172. Dragons Lair 2 (switch)
173. Creepy Brawlers (switch)


173. Creepy Brawlers (switch)

I always find it fascinating what games get emulated in the modern indie scene and what does not. Most people would agree on what games are considered classic and you always see the same games cropping up in every best of list: Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, Contra, Castlevania, punch out, Final fantasy etc etc etc

In spite of all these legendary franchises sharing the same status some games, for whatever reason, just get copied more nowadays then others. In another thread I rattled off over a dozen mega man clones that I personally played and enjoyed, yet how many contra clones can you name? How many good ones? The only 2 that immediately pop into my head are super cyborg and blazing chrome, but it seems good contra games are just really hard to find.

Of all the emulated classics there is one that stands out as a game that is just never cloned and that is punch out. Even in its heyday, you just don't see games that play like punch out. Sure you have a few that share the perspective of punch out, but dont really play like it, but the only game I can think of that is really a punch out clone is wade hixtons power punch on GBA.

Which brings me to creepy brawlers...the first good punch out clone I have played in my life.

Apparently creepy brawlers is actually a homebrew nes game that came out about 2 years ago, but got ported over to the Switch earlier this week.

There is a story, your a guy who is in a movie theater and get sucked into the screen and then have to battle a bunch of movie monsters such as a zombie, an alien, vampire, the devil, a clown, a jason lookalike, and a few others.

The game plays very similar to punch out, a and b are your respective punches, you can press up and punch to do a jumping punch to the face, left and right dodge, and down blocks attacks. There are no star punches or stamina bar here, instead dodging sequences of punches will light your gloves up for a counter punch that deals nice damage and stuns enemies. Also, when you block attacks you only take half the damage of the normal attack but also lose your counter punch opportunity, so there are only a few situations when blocking is ideal.

The game is laid out exactly like punch out, there are 4 circuits, the first 2 have 4 opponents, the last one has 5 opponents, and there is a final fight at the end. Just like punch out, you will fight some enemies twice and they are typically harder than their first go round.

The boxers are all fun to fight and have a nice set of original moves. Just like punch out, many of them will defeat you the first time you fight them but learning their patterns makes them a breeze. You only get one life to get through each circuit but when you die you can enter training mode and practice that monster until you learn its patterns which is definitely a nice feature that alleves frustration.

As much as I loved the game I do have a few complaints about it. First off, the game lacks the satisfying punch feeling that all the punch out games have. The sound effects when you land are just flimsy and the enemies flash as you hit them as opposed to just looking dazed like they do in punch out, not game breaking but I would have liked more satisfying punches.

Second, and I'm not sure if this is intentional or just a bug on the switch release, but there is no save feature. When you click chamionship mode there are 4 tiers, 3 of which are locked and will unlock when you make it to that point in the championsip mode(just think of them as the circuits from punch out) but if you close the software and re-open it all the tiers will be locked again which is just annoying, it is slightly alleviated by the fact that switch has a sleep mode, but it is annoying in a modern release.

Overall though this is definitely a game worth playing if you are a punch out fan. It is not as hard as any of those games but it still presents a nice challenge and is only $5 on the switch e-shop, at that price I can't imagine not giving it a chance.
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PartridgeSenpai
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Re: Games Beaten 2019

by PartridgeSenpai Sun Oct 27, 2019 12:55 am

Partridge Senpai's 2019 Beaten Games:
Previously: 2016 2017 2018
* indicates a repeat

1. Night Slashers (Switch)
2. Bye-Bye BOXBOY! (3DS)
3. GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Xbox 360)
4. Katamari Forever (PS3)
5. Detention (PS4)
6. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) *
7. OctoDad: Dadliest Catch (PS4) *
8. FlintHook (Switch)
9. God of War (PS4)
10. God of War HD (PS3)
11. Tiny Barbarian DX (Switch)
12. God of War 2 HD (PS3)
13. Starlink (Switch)
14. Shin Gundam Musou (PS3)
15. Battle & Get! Pokemon Typing DS (DS)
16. Banjo-Kazooie (N64) *
17. Super Mario 64: Rumble Edition (N64)
18. Mario Party 3 (N64) *
19. Paper Mario (N64) *
20. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) *
21. The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (GBC) *
22. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (GBC) *
23. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (GBC) *
24. Yoshi's Island (SNES) *
25. Super Mario World (SNES) *
26. Super Mario RPG (SFC) *
27. Kaeru No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru (GB)
28. Final Fantasy VI (SFC) *
29. Final Fantasy IV (SFC) *
30. Final Fantasy V (SFC)
31. Final Fantasy III (Famicom)
32. Mother 2 (SFC) *
33. Mother 3 (GBA) *
34. Hebereke (Famicom)
35. Donkey Kong Country 2 (SFC)
36. Donkey Kong Country 3 (SFC)
37. Donkey Kong Country (SFC) *
38. Wario's Woods (Famicom)
39. Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)
40. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)
41. Luigi's Mansion (3DS) *
42. Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS)
43. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga & Bowser's Minions (3DS)
44. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story & Bowser Jr's Journey (3DS)
45. Tomato Adventure (GBA)
46. Corpse Party (PSP)
47. Rave Master: Fighting Live (GC)
48. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) *
49. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA)

50. Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) *

Rounding off my adventure through the Japanese versions of the GBA Casltevania games by playing this also on my Japanese Wii U's Virtual Console, with its very cool Japanese title "Concerto of Midnight Sun". I've always like this game better than CotM, and while I still do after this playthrough, I don't think it's by quite as large a margin as it used to be. It took me around 7 or 8 hours and I got the best ending.

Where Circle of the Moon was handled by another team, Harmony of Dissonance put Igarashi back in the driver's seat (where he would stay until the last Metroid-y Castlevania game was released), and it really shows. Where CotM kinda plays like a refutation to Symphony of the Night's design in many ways, HoD feels more like a refinement by necessity. They obviously couldn't put something of SotN's scale and visual quality on the GBA, so they took the elements from that game that were most key to the experience and made an experience that, while still feeling like a more simplified version of the experience, feels far closer than SotN than the NES Castlevanias.

The narrative is similar to CotM, but the presentation and dialogue feels closer to SotN. It's once again a story about two friends who come to take down Dracula and save someone they care about but who Dracula manipulates to drive apart, but there's a bit more dialogue in this. Not THAT much more, but Juste and Maxim have a more interesting (albeit slightly) dynamic than Nathan and Hugh, and Death makes for a much better supporting villain in this than Camilla did in CotM. It's really nothing special either way, but I felt it worth mentioning here. I could definitely understand if some people feel that after this point the series becomes a bit long in tooth in terms of how much story it puts into the games, but I like how games after this (especially Soma Cruz's games) take the lore in weird places rather than treading over the same ground over and over.

The biggest reason I like this game over CotM is the controls. No double-tapping to run, the whip goes off a bit faster, and they added dashing back into the game. And not just back-dashing, but forward-dashing as well, with L to dash left and R to dash right. It makes going through the castle way faster, and allows you to maneuver much easier in boss fights. That said, I do have a couple of tiny complaints compared to CotM. First, Nathan (in CotM) has a little bit more play control over his jumps than Juste does, as Juste really commits to a jump once he makes it and you often can't change direction mid-air. The second would be that you ALWAYS get knocked back from a hit in HoD, where in CotM if the damage is minimal enough, it doesn't break your stride.

Presentation-wise, this feels far more like SotN than CotM. HoD's music isn't as good as CotM, as it opts for more original tracks than remixes of old tracks, but that's really the only place where it falters. CotM almost looks like a GBC game on a GBA at times, and that is far from the case with HoD. The game runs way better, Juste has a lot more frames of animation (his movement is SO Alucard it's almost comical) as do all the enemies. Sprites are also much more detailed and the enemy variety is also higher. There are also a lot more bosses in this game, some even entirely optional (in a SotN-kind of way), and although a fair few are very easy, the game itself is far from a cake walk if you don't take time to utilize your front and back-dashes correctly.

The only real criticism I have on this game design-wise is the castle. The gimmick of this game is that the castle has a front-half and a back-half (not unlike SotN's two castles, but these ones are just different versions of the same areas, not upside down). The overall castle designs are much better than CotM's corridors upon corridors, and areas feel different to traverse in a way that's interesting to go through. It's a good thing they're interesting to go through as well, because this castle has no warp system the way the other Metroid-y Castlevanias do. There are a couple one-way warp points between a spot in Castle A and a spot in Castle B as well as several spots to change between the same point in both castles, but no castle-wide warp system exists. This can make back-tracking for collectibles a real pain in the ass, even if the addition of the frontwards dash does make traversal a little bit faster. The game also has one or two really poor bits of signposting, especially one where it is not at all obvious that a certain item is in fact a key, but only if you equip it.

Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. There are certainly better Casltevania games to occupy your time with, but this one is a fine entry. It's not really innovating anything particularly interesting, and it shows its early place in the series pretty easily with its rougher bits of design. That said, it still plays really well and has some great boss fights and visual design, so if you're in the mood for some Metroid-y Castlevania, this is one that isn't too hard to enjoy.
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