A few weeks ago Playstation put out a game on the Playstation network by the name of Castlevania Chronicles. This game was never released outside of Japan until 2001, and was originally released on the Sharp68000 which is apparently a home computer that was also only put out in Japan. It is the second remake of the original game, Castlevania IV being the first remake. In all of the above mentioned titles you play Simon Belmont, and fight a vampire named Dracula.

I was surprised to find out that this game was released after Super Castlevania IV because this game doesn’t look as good, and they also take away a lot of the whip functions that they introduced in Castlevania IV. I also think that Castlevania IV sounded a lot better. (I have never got over how great it feels to hear the sound of grabbing a boss orb in CV4.)

Now if anyone remembers Castlevania IV, it is a difficult game. In a lot of ways it is just as hard as the original. It seems to me that the reason that the original is so hard is that Dracula is so tough to kill. Castlevania IV’s Dracula is also pretty tough, but most of the challenge comes from the levels and getting to Dracula. Castlevania Chronicles puts both of these games to shame. In the original mode released on the S68k, it is plain fucking ridiculous. Luckily for us, in the U.S. versions they have two game modes, “original” and “arrange”. In arrange mode you can select a difficulty level of easy, normal, or hard. Also you can change the amount of lives you get per continue. 2,3, or 5 I believe. I played on normal, with the standard 3 lives, and it was still tougher than the other two games. (This was only after playing the first four stages of the original mode, getting frustrated, and then giving up.)

Normal mode, seems to be exactly half as hard as the original mode, although original mode seems plausible the more I think about it, it is just terribly frustrating. Although in all fairness that could be a lie. Because there were at least three times during the normal play through that I felt like throwing in the towel.

The biggest disappointment was actually Dracula himself. Getting to him was the hardest of all the Castlevania platform games that I’ve played to date, but other than Castlevania 2 this was the easiest Dracula. (On original mode perhaps the 2nd hardest?) The toughest being Dracula X’s.

I would rather be raped by Large Marge –Slugtron ~when asked if he would fight Dracula X.

I thought this was a good Castlevania game, it had all of the hallmarks of the other games, but it definitely had it’s own unique feeling at the same time. Especially the difficulty of the levels. It feels to have a bit more of a set pattern then the others do, so once you memorize exactly what terrors you are going to face, devise a plan, and take your time, you have a fairly okay chance to come out of it at the end.

All in all I really like this game, it’s more challenging than it is fun, but at the end of the day this is what I like about video games the most. I hate to go off on a tangent about games not being like they use to, but here we all are.

I am sick of new video games that kids are playing today, like the lego ‘whatever’ series. Designed to be fun for a six year old, because you have infinite lives and there are only two buttons that you need to press. When I was six every game was so hard it took years away from your life, hell even Micky Mousecapades would put hair on your chest. The point I am trying to make is my six-year-old robot nephew plays twice as many video games as I did when I was his age, but they make games so easy now that he has no patience for a challenge. When I pop in any of the old NES games I used to play, he gives up after five minutes. Even the new Castlevania games fall under this net a little bit. (They usually offer modes that are very challenging) But in all the old school games you have at best 4 hit points, and there are serious consequences to continuing. It is a rarity that you have to figure out a boss pattern now a day! I don’t mean to be Billy Mitchell here and I feel this argument could go on for a while, and so I just want to end it now by saying ‘fuck lego games’

If you own a PS3 and have a internet connection, you can buy Castlevania Chronicles for 6 bucks!*note: If you don’t have a PS3 then the investment looks more like $406 buckaroonies. It is really good and really challenging I highly robot recommend it!

Also if you buy it for the PS3, and have a PSP you can download it, and play it on the PSP as well. What a deal!

Dr.Cyborg gives this title 241 out of 256 stars. Thats pretty good. Murder all humans, why not?