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Upon hearing about a new Castlevania game for the Nintendo 64, I became quite excited, partly due to my fondness of the Castlevania series, and partly due to the fact that I liked the previous game for the N64. After playing the game for a short while, I realized that the game is more similar to the first Castlevania (for N64) than I expected. The storyline is a bit different. Your goals are different, and you can play as more characters. Like Castlevania 64, the adventure is different depending on which character you choose. After finishing the game, you can play as a character named Henry, and your goal is totally different than with Cornell (the default character at the start of the game). While the game isn't an entirely new game altogether, it is does boast improvements over the first game. This Castlevania is controls similar to Super Mario 64. It's a 3-D world, not a 2-D side scroller like the NES and Super NES versions. The graphics are quite stunning, and this Castlevania takes advantage of the Expansion Pak, making the visuals that much more crisper and clearer. I haven't played the first game in quite a while, so I can't tell you exactly how much it improves the visuals, but I'm confident that it makes it appear a bit clearer. The sounds are just as they should be for Castlevania: eerie and frightening. It definitely sets the mood for the game. Like the previous game, battle is done in real-time, via a lock-on system. The result is a mixed bag of good and bad. At times, it's quite easy to defeat enemies, fortunately. Other times, however, like when there are multiple enemies on the screen, you often can't control which enemy you attack. The camera is also a problem, at times. The camera cannot go through walls, so when your character gets too close to a wall the camera stops. You can't see what's out in the room. Also, the camera angle takes an "auto" viewpoint occasionally, which also makes things a bit disorienting. It's too bad that Konami couldn't fix these problems for this version of Castlevania. If you've already played through the first Castlevania for N64, you may not want to get this one. It's just more of the same. If you are a Castlevania fanatic, however, this may be right up your alley. There are a few wicked new levels that were not in the first game, and this may make it worth a rent or purchase for some players. I give this game a 9.0 rating, due to the fact that's it's quite similar to the first game --- still a good game, but no huge improvements. Click here to see the Castlevania 64 review. |
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