If you are a hardcore Castlevania fan and you must play all Castlevania games, this is for you.
This game is set in 1576, 100 years have pasted since Trevor fought Dracula in CV3 and Hector went against him in CoD. Now that the cycle have started and Dracula rise again, another story start and a Belmont is call to grab his Vampiller Killer......
Gameplay: 6/10. Control scheme is very simple (is a GB afterall): you walk with the CONTROL PAD, jump with A and attack with B; START will pause the game.
Christopher movement here are really limited and slow. It is a GB game but even compare with others of the time, our character feel like have pounds and pounds of weight on it pockets. You can forget about mid-jump control. As in CV1 for NES you can whip just in one directions: in front of you. Your whip will level up by taking CRYSTAL BALLS; but unlike CV1 NES on this installment you will be able to trow a ball of fire from the tip of the whip when is fully updated (3-4 upgrade). There are no subweapon available. You will also be able to grab HEARTS to restore your health, COINS for the clas.sical of old-school castlevania`s points count, and 1-UP which will add 1 extra life.
You will go trough 4 levels, which varies in the amount of "rooms" they each have. Going from @10 small, easy rooms in level 1 and 2 to 4 more complex and hard rooms in level 3 and ending with @15 hardcore hard in stage 4. You also have some Hidden path/rooms to discover.
You will encounter 10 different enemies + 4 bosses trough out these levels. Something that I did not like was that one of the bosses repeat as a regular enemy on later stage.
Graphics: 5/10. As expected from a GB game, the graphics are simple and in gray scale. Now the problem with this game is that it seems that Konami did not try much in adding details, even to the main character which looks almost without distinction from Simon in CV NES.
I guess they did what they could with the tech at the time, but even thus it feels is missing a LOT of work. The levels are plain, background are equal to empty. Thus I may say that some of the enemies actually look pretty good.
Sound: 7/10. The soundtrack is limited, but with such a short game you can not ask for more. You have about 1 song per level, couple of theme for Dracula fights and the ending song. Even thus no much to take from, they go with the atmosphere, being DEATH FAIR (stage 3) my favorite.
Story: 6/10. The story is straight forward, you are an Belmont and you have to make your way defeating enemies to ultimately defeat Dracula. Now this game have something that CV1 NES did not, the ending is a bit more, lets say intriguing.
Value: Well if you can find a copy for or less than US$5 and you are a fan of the series I`ll say go for it. If not save your money.
The game is short and even thus it difficulty increase towards the end it would not take you more that a couple of hours to complete it. This plus the average graphics and music, as well as the clunky, simple gameplay do not make it worth it, unless you are someone like me; someone that must play all CV games and hopefully one day will own them all.
Hope this review helps you and you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Enjoy gaming..