4

Really, I'm not the biggest Castlevania fan. Between the newer games which I played, which required incredible amounts of grinding, to Simon's Quest, Castlevania isn't on my list of favorite series. So, some might argue that I'm not the correct person to review this game, but it doesn't matter:even most Castlevania fans don't like it. Let's see why...Graphics - You require practice

While the graphics aren't truly bad for being released in the same year the Game Boy was released in the US, they're quite lackluster by the Game Boy's standards. Christopher doesn't have much detail beyond being a basic human shape, and there aren't too many frames of animation. The backgrounds are detailed enough, though.Music/Sound - The high point

Really, this game's music is the best feature, believe me. The music is easily some of the best on the Game Boy, with Bloody Tears(the first level's music track) being especially good, to the point where the fans who got this game wanted it to return in later installments. The sound effects are typical Konami fare, except they were working with a new console, with less audio capabilities, so they had to make an entirely new sound engine.Gameplay - Here's the kicker...

Of course, the graphics and music don't matter, compared to the gameplay. And this game is thoroughly unenjoyable in that regard. And what's a game good for if it's not enjoyable or engaging?First of all, the controls really suck. Christopher moves like he's crippled, barely jumps high enough to do any platforming at all, much less what is expected of the player, and it takes even longer to swing your whip than ever before. Climbing up ropes is also a hassle, especially getting off of them, due to the fact that instead of jumping off, you just drop right off the rope.The level design is fine, until you need to platform. You see, with the way the platforming is designed, due to the controls, you have to jump RIGHT at the edge of most platforms, and you have to almost perfectly time your jumps on falling platforms. This means that you will lose most of your lives from falling into pits.The difficulty is, well, let's just say that it's far too high. While there may only be four levels(hence the score of 1 in depth), I guess they're trying to make these the hardest four levels on the Game Boy, which they failed at, especially due to the fact that the difficulty is due to slow controls and unfair level design.Now, let's detail on some of the major issues. So, there's several different powerups you can get from candles. These include hearts, coins, crystals, and 1-Ups. Notice that there's no sub-weapons whatsoever? That's because Konami forgot to include them. I know that you're experimenting with a new system here, but really, why did you leave out one of the defining features of Castlevania? That's just a baffling decision. Since there's no sub-weapons, the hearts just restore health, which seems out of place in a Castlevania game. I guess that since this game takes place 100 years before the first Castlevania game, the Belmont family hadn't developed a taste for chicken because Dracula apparently hadn't been hiding it inside walls. The crystals upgrade your whip, and this brings me to one of the biggest issues of the game:your whip gets downgraded whenever you get hit. This doesn't seem so bad, until you realize just how rare crystals are, and just how hard it is to dodge anything, due to the controls and Christopher's slow walk speed.The bosses include a massive, beefy man(?) in about 200 pounds of armor, who can still move faster than Christopher, for some reason, wielding what appears to be a grappling hook, a bunch of moles jumping out of holes, so that you're essentially playing Whip-A-Mole, what appears to be some kind of gargoyle, which also loves diving at you, and Dracula, who even savestates didn't get me to.Now, it's time for an overview of the stages...Stage 1 is outside the castle, and has you mostly going in one direction while whipping fleamen, mudmen, and crows. Of course, this is the first instance of the platforming, containing a bunch of precision jumps which you have to make without missing one, or you have to start again, along with the falling platform fiasco. It's worth mentioning that this stage seems to have a decent amount of effort put into it, as it has the best music track in the game, along with the game's only two secrets. There really isn't much else to say about this level.Stage 2 is inside the castle, where there's bats in positions where it is impossible to avoid disturbing them. This is bad due to the fact that the bats are faster than Christopher, and they can fly right through walls. They also love going places where there is no way you can hit them, while they can still hit you. This stage also introduces two new enemies:Zeldos, which throw boomerangs at you Goriya style, and take a decent amount of damage, and Punaguchis, which shoot large, fast-moving fireballs at you, and take only a little less punishment than Zeldos to destroy. Then, there's more platforming, including an almost-impossible jump where you must be pixel-perfect to make it. Stage 3 is probably about as far as most players make it, due to having probably the hardest section in the game. The level isn't too hard for the first half, considering I didn't die at all, and there's no platforming, but the second half is like a slower version of the Bike Race level in Battletoads. There's spikes rising up from beneath you, and you have to constantly climb upwards to keep them from killing you. There's also a few enemies, which are positioned to drain your health and slow your climb, as well as to knock you into the spikes. You basically have to be perfect throughout the entire section, or the spikes will kill you, due to Christopher simply being too slow. And after you make it through that part, you get chased by another spike wall, which is coming at you from the right, and you have to be basically perfect again. Then, mercifully, the level itself's over, and you have only the boss to deal with.Stage 4 was simply too difficult, even with savestates. First, you pass by sets of armor, some of which will attack you, and take two hits to kill without an upgraded whip(by the way, there's no difference between the two kinds of armor). Then, you fight a Zeldo, and you refight the first boss again. You basically need an upgraded whip, due to the fact that the boss takes a large amount of damage to destroy, though not as much as it did the first time it appears, and this game has Respawning Enemy Syndrome. In other words, if you go too far away from an enemy's spawn location, it will respawn. After that, there's a room which resembles a room from IWBTG, with how many spikes it has. This level was simply too difficult, and I didn't make it to Dracula.In conclusion, while this game has its fans, it's a quite flawed game. It's still technically enjoyable, but it's hampered by the difficulty, controls, and level design.Final Score:C-(Playable, but many flaws)Bottom Line:Unless you're an avid Castlevania player, and you're also a hardcore gamer, you probably don't want to try this game...

3.5