What was it about Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness that made them so bad?

Personally i liked Legacy of Darkness,i still have the cartridge.

The comparison to the glorious and almighty Symphony of the Night (93/100 metascore) that released two years before Castlevania 64 (meta = 73/100).

They weren't bad, they were just...meh. Gamers gained 3D, but the design took a huge step back in the evolution made in the 2D era.

Igarashi's lack of involvement also was highly disappointing back then, I recall when I got my N64 Castlevania games at launch.

You would be more serviced just reading the many old reviews on the games.

They were pretty good I thought.  Fun little romps.  Just lacked any sort of lasting impact on me.  Example being I remember the super badass levels and bosses from Super Castlevania IV and know them inside and out.  The game was just brilliant.  CV64 was fun, but the entire thing felt overshadowed by other platformers in the 3D environment that did what CV64-LoD but better, and the fact that Castlevania was slapped on the title brought about disappointment when it wasn't a carbon copy of the 2D side scrollers.

On a gameplay note, I love Reinhardt's levels.  But the thing that kills this game is the fvcking camera.  The Dark Lord himself could not withstand a 1v1 duel with this beast.  It will be your biggest foe throughout the entire game.  Which leads me into my next gripe, which is the finnicky platforming.  Sometimes the hit detection when grasping platforms is absolutely absurd.  Sometimes I clip through, yet grab it.  Other times Reinhardt/ Carrie refuse to grab it all, and the later levels have some pretty intense and demanding platforming sections, which adds to the frustration.

Besides all that, hey I liked em.

They were, and still are ridiculously clunky.

Castlevania 64 was a good game which got good (though not great) reviews across the board back in the day, its hated on by Castlevania fans now because it doesn't play much like a Castlevania game, thats pretty much it, there are obviously other flaws with the game, but many of these issues took place in 90% of the 3D games coming out at the time.

I used to be apologetic for Castlevania 64, saying "hey, its not that bad!" but now, having since played all of the Tomb Raider games on Playstation I have no qualms saying Castlevania 64 is good, I would rather play C64 than any PS1 Tomb Raider.

I enjoyed Castlavania 64. Never played Legacy of Darkness. But these games were just outdone by the Playstation ones.

I don't think they are bad games, but SotN was put on such a pedestal that they were recieved poorly.

Being the first 3D Castlevanias, I think Konami struggled with capturing the magic of the 2D classics in a 3D world. I believe they owe a debt of success (well at least partial Success) to Devil May Cry who showed that what a good 3D action-based game could look like. They weren't perfect, but the PS2 Castlevania games were vastly better than the N64 games. The N64 games, especially Legacy of Darkness, are decent, but they are probably the weakest games in the entire series.

Just like Solid said, they weren't bad, but not good either. I actually had a good time with both.Dudersaper

Spot on! :P

Castlevania64, at least as I remember, is a fckng joke. You got to remember back then that for some odd reason everything had to be 3D.Heirren

Because 3D graphics were new and exciting at the time; it's no different than all the games now that tack on silly motion controls and voice commands for no absolutely no reason.

This is one of those situations where if they were any other series other than Castlevania, they would have been much better than they actually were. They're pretty solid action-platformers, but they just feel off and dissapointing when compared to the older games. Personally, though, I loved Castlevania 64 when I was younger because it was the first Castlevania I ever played, so I didn't realize how it stood up to the 2D games. After I played the NES games a few years later, I realized how bad it was compared to those.

But, just to answer the thread's question, it's the camera and the controls when hanging on a ledge. I've been killed by those 2 more than the enemies. It took me nearly 2 years to make it past the castle grounds when I was younger because I kept falling off the ledges into the river in 64.

its hated on by Castlevania fans now because it doesn't play much like a Castlevania gameDomino_slayer

I'm going to take this back, I've been searching through Castlevania forums the last couple of days and actually most hardcore Castlevania fans seem to quite like the N64 games, they often talk about how underrated they are (especially Legacy of Darkness).

It actually seems to be mostly mainstreamers who hate on them.