Review #275: Castlevania Chronicles

 Because sometimes, just sometimes, games hate your guts.

 Castlevania Chronicles is the remake of a remake. Sort of. Y'see, Castlevania for the X86000 was sort of a remake of Castlevania NES. Sort of. Castlevania Chronicles is a compilation of both the original X86000 game and its remake.

 You see, Castlevania X86000 was brutal. It IS brutal, and it is available in all of its original glory as 'Original Mode'. But the game is incredibly hard, due to enemy placement, stiff movement and the amount of damage you take. 'Arrange Mode' is the remake, which not only offers a new sprite for both Simon and Dracula, but it allows you to customize the difficulty setting: Easy, so that you can cruise through the game, Normal, which is about as hard as Rondo of Blood and Hard which is almost as hard as the original game on the X86000. But you can further customize the challenge by disabling the timer or upping your life stock to 5. If you ask me, 'Arrange Mode' is the best way to experience the game, Original is way too hard and the pay off isn't worth it. And that's about all the differences between both versions, from now on, everything refers to both games.

 Chronicles is what I like to call a Classicvania, a 2-D sidescrolling platform game. Simon, the hero, can jump, attack with his whip or use sub-weapons on his way to Dracula's abode. It sounds simple and it is simple, X jumps, Square attacks. Unlike most Classicvanias, you can actually adjust your jump trajectory mid-air, as well as whip downwards from the air. But that's as agile as Simon gets, y'see, the game is ridden with ladders, which you climb up or down by holding, well, up or down on the D-Pad. While on stairs you can't jump off them, so you are basically a very slow, huge target for mobile enemies. Even better, holding up and pressing square uses your sub-weapons, so its entirely possible to mess up and consume your sub weapon energy by accident. And like a ton of vintage platform games, there's quite a few pixel-perfect jumps standing between and Dracula, so good luck.

 To add insult to injury, level design isn't the best. Sometimes. particularly on vertically scrolling levels, enemies will pop up from the sides without even giving you a chance to dodge them, and there's a few obstacles that will catch you off guard the first time. The funny thing, all of these will either drive you away or, if you are an oldschool gamer, entice you to try it out. Yes, the game is Nintendo-hard, and if that's your jam, this is your game.

 When it comes down to it, Castlevania Chronicles is a good, but dated game. It's definitely not a game for everyone, and not worth the high price it commands now a days. But hey, you can buy it off PSN if you are feeling for a hardcore, oldschool platform game. And if you are just curious, there's always easy mode.
 7.0 out of 10