Overall=7.5

Castlevania II is kind of the odd duck in the NES trilogy. They were trying to make the game non-linear and free world and I think they failed at that. Non-linear should not mean without direction or a guide or some sort. It should be more like the Mega Man games,you can tackle the stages in any order you wish. The graphics are nice and spooky for an NES game,the enemies are a bit repetitive if not typical. The bosses seem a bit on the lazy and sluggish side. The sound is good and I like the music. Now the game has multiple endings,depending on how fast you finish the game.

Graphics=8

The graphics are nice and the atmosphere is spot on. The castles are creepy if not stereotypical. You do have phantom blocks in the castle,but a decent way to find them is use your holy water to see where they land. You also have walls that have to be destroyed by holy water,which is somewhat counter-intuitive to anyone that played Castlevania. The enemies are nice if not expected. You move nicely and look good cracking the whip,especially the later whips.

Sound=8

The sound is pretty good and the tunes are catchy and memorable. The effects are nice and you can tell what happened by the sound. The music is nice,but you will hear them in the town theme,the exploration theme and the castle theme. But if guys like BrentalFloss can make a song about it and a video,then you know the original creators did something right.

Addictiveness=7

It is a fun game. Now the AVGN did paint a bit of a harsh picture of the game and it does deserve some of the strikes against it. No game will ever be perfect. People will always find something to whine about,from it's too hard,it's too easy,it's unfair,and so on. Now I do hate the knockback that happens when you are struck and it always seems to be near a ledge or another enemy. But if you can gird your lions and summon the spirit of gamers past,this is an enjoyable trek through Transylvania. You have multiple endings,depending on how fast you finish the game and that is incentive to do better. Be warned: This is most assuredly a Nintendo Power-type game,you will need a walkthrough to help you conquer Dracula.

Story=6

The story kinda makes no sense,Dracula is beaten,but you are cursed whenever night falls. To break the curse,you must find all of his body parts,reassemble him,and fight him again to lift the curse. I mean,if you find the body parts,why not just pour oil over it,light it on fire and be done with it? But the exploration is fun and is filled with all sorts of enemies that want payback on Simon Belmont. If you can put aside the silly premise,you should have fun with this game.

Depth=8

You are always looking for items for sale,new whips,new weapons,and the body parts. You will need a walkthrough to help beat this game. The items are all scatted throughout the game and if you want to stand a ghost of a chance you have to find them. It is also a bit of a grinding game,you have to collect hearts,which act as currency. When night falls,the enemies are twice as tough and if you are in a town,you have to beware of zombies and bats. The day/night system is fun,but you will see that "What a horrible night to have a curse." text  pop up at some of the worst times.

Difficulty=8

One of the biggest gripes I have with the game is that Simon is kinda stiff,the controls are serviceable but it feels like you are wading through syrup and the jumping can be a bit of a pain,especially some of the floating blocks and ledges and you have little room for error. You have to time it perfectly to make the jump. The day/night thing is done well and it seems about even,but you will be praying for the "The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night." text. You will need a walkthough to navigate the non-linear gameplay. Think of it like Zelda II,when they tried to do something new. This was a lesson in, "If it ain't broke,don't fix it." I give them props for trying something new,but this is when they should have stuck with tried and true. If you can summon the spirit of a true gamer and have the will to keep slugging though,this game is fun.

Thanks for the review. I hope you find it useful.

You did a good job reviewing the game (man, I have to try them one day!), having a solid structure, good details and comparisons to other Castlevanias. However you could have used more details; how do graphics and music compare to the original Castlevania? Did the original game have a knock back too?

I would put more details,but I do not think people want to read a 3,000 word review on a game,lol.

To answer your questions:

1. Graphics=better than the first.
2. Music=about the same.
3. Yes,all 3 NES games had a horrible knock back.

Thank you for your kind review and thoughts and stuff I missed.  Another point I missed with the hearts is they are used when using some sub weapons. This is a classic game that needed Nintendo Power to get through. I do enjoy the leveling up,there is nothing better than you are low on health and you kill a monster,collect the heart,and your health is restored. This is why you cannot have a completely non-linear game. It tends to make a mess for a gamer to know what to do.

"You also have walls that have to be destroyed by holy water,which is somewhat counter-intuitive to anyone that played Castlevania" This sentence made me laugh out loud at work. I'm not sure how it makes sense, but we'll go with it.

I know others have said you needed more details, and a few minor corrections given, but I think the review was solid. I haven't played this one (I played the new one for PS3 a bit ago, I enjoyed it), and I can say that I understood what you talked about here.

Endings does add more insight where the story can get confusing though, so good team work haha!

Anyways, good review in my opinion. I know that Castlevania's are a loved game series, so it's nice to get a peek into where it started.

Nice review. I personally don't hate this game as much as the average person does. I like the fact that they tried to do something different. Were all of the new features successful? No. Was the game as good as 1 and 3? Again, no. But is it a HORRIBLE game like many make it out to be? Not by any means.

Really the only really annoying thing about the game is the day/night transition and how it pauses the game. This is amplified because of how often it happens.

The "secrets" in the game are pretty much similar to a lot of the secrets in early NES days. You had to talk to a bunch of townspeople and pay attention for clues. Many of these clues could be considered as "cryptic" but again, this was common for early RPG games of it's time. Unless you had a guide you pretty much had to exhaust all options until you figured it out.

I also found it strange regarding the fact that there were not many bosses in the game and the fact that dracula was so easy to beat but I don't want to write a whole book explaining my feelings on the game.

Thank you for the kind review. I do appreciate that they wanted to try something different and I think the basic idea was sound,making it completely non linear was a mistake. The AVGN may have influenced some people saying it is a bad game,but you have to take a chance to see if something can work.

That is true,I do like the day and night system,but it does happen a bit more than I would like.

The clues kinda make no sense and truthfully you needed a Nintendo Power or an FAQ to get through this.

The bosses were a joke,like the Reaper. In the first game he was a freaking nightmare to fight.

Oldschool777 : This review is not good. Right away I notice the lazy and uninspired title, and who could forget, the lack of Gameplay explanation. There's also grammar flaws, too, that you may want to address. You're not hopeless, (Duh!) but you do have some things you need to seriously polish and improve on with your reviews.

On a side note, there's a good reason why the AVGN dislikes this game; it's cryptic, unforgiving, tedious, grind-heavy, and overall just not comfortable to play. He does praise the visuals and audio in Part 2 of his Castlevania marathon, though. Personally, I hate this game and that it deserves (almost) all the hate it gets and none of the praise. It's not a fair challenge, it's a tedious and unforgiving cryptic mess that was way too ambitious for it's own good.

But yeah, until the improvements are made, this review is really bad.