October 29, 1993
Action ( Import )
Super CD Rom 2
Konami
Review By Nate VanLindt
There's
no better Castlevania game than Castlevania: Shadows of the Night
for PSX, right? Wrong! Look at it this way…Castlevania: SOTN
is Metroid with whips and vampires. Deal with it. But why am I talking
about Castlevania: SOTN while I'm reviewing Castlevania X? Well,
in Japan, SOTN is called Dracula X and Dracula X is also called
Dracula X. Confusing isn't it? Just one of the irritating peculiarities
that comes with import gaming. But no matter how you slice it (or
should that be whip?), Castlevania X: Rondo of the Blood (hereby
referred to as Castlevania X) for Turbo Duo is probably the best
Castlevania ever!
Now
I hate to sound like I love every game…cause I don't. A lot
of games I can't stand. But Castlevania X certainly isn't one of
those. What it is, it the ultimate level based platform Castlevania.
I know that's a bold statement, but it really is that good! In comparison
to other games in the series, Castlevania X is much easier than
some, but harder than others. Probably about a 5 on the Castlevania
difficulty scale, whereas Castlevania IV (for SNES) is an easy 1
and Castlevania 3 (for NES) is a challenging 10. That's not to say
that Castlevania X is easy, but if you're good at platform games,
you should sluice right through it. The enemies, especially bosses,
are fairly weak, and some of your special abilities are all too
powerful, but it's a fun play, so the ease of it really doesn't
matter unless you're looking to be challenged. Make sense so far?
You're
sitting there at your computer wondering why I have such glowing
praise for this game, aren't you? Well...first off, it's beautiful!
Castlevania X has stunning level designs with high levels of detail,
wonderful flowing waterfalls, creaking stairways, quasi-3D pixels,
and backgrounds that break away as enemies pop out of the woodwork...literally!
For a game from 1993, you'll be amazed how current it looks. In
fact, I've seen good PSX games that looked much worse. In one level,
you're on a pirate ship, and the ship bobs gently up and down in
the water as you fight it's skeletal crew, being shot by muskets
and dodging hawks. In another, You climb up a conveyor belt of dripping
barrels, dodging the ceiling spikes, and find yourself on a bridge
where a giant sea serpent whips around the bridge, and even behind
it, trying to crush you to dust and ichor. The sheer amount of detail
and impressive sprite work in this game is almost mind numbing!
Oh…and did I mention the cinema cut scenes? Ok...they're not
the best cut scenes on the planet, and they're barely animated.
But it is the only Castlevania with any cutscenes! And they're cool
anime ones to boot! I can tell, you're not impressed yet. "So
it's pretty" says you, "Big deal." Well…there's
a bit more to it than that.
Not only does Castlevania X look great, it sounds great too! It
has stunning CD quality music that never lets up. While all the
Castlevania games have distinctive music, Castlevania X is one of
the best I've heard. In fact, the soundtrack to it currently sells
on eBay (if you can find it!) for over $100 a copy! It's that good!
But in addition to the excellent music are great sound effects.
Piercing wails, groans, and creaks abound, Castlevania X is loaded
with awesome sound effects. As you walk down a sidewalk, the tinkle
of glass lingers in your ear as skeletons jump out of windows, shattering
them! Sadly, you die, but you're blessed with a wicked cool scream
at least! Those are just a couple of the sound effects, and they
get better as you play on!
So
it's a pretty game that sound nice. Ok…but what's great about
it? Well, greatness is in the details (so is the devil but we won't
go there). And Castlevania X is full of awesome details, such as
all the cool special moves. Richter Belmont (the main character)
can not only jump onto stairs, and whip in both directions, but
he can walk backwards, as well as performing a double jump backflip…a
very useful move to avoid getting hit! The control of Richter is
tight, and allows for nice precision jumping and attacking. But
you don't just play Richter. Hah…caught you off guard didn't
I? IN addition to Richter Belmont, you also get to play Maria, the
younger sister of Richter's girlfriend. Maria was captured by Dracula
to
lure you into his lair, and you fell for it like the sap you are.
So once you rescue her, you get to play a little girl. But Maria
is a very cool little girl. She's about half the height of Richter,
so attacks go right over her. She can also do a sliding attack that
slips right under enemies and amusingly looks like she's having
a temper tantrum. She can also double jump, allowing access to sections
of the game that Richter can't visit. Her weapons are completely
different, and include, cats, birds, dragons and turtle shells,
and when she collects food, it's cake and lollipops rather than
the traditional leg of pork. Both characters can also use a nifty
attack called item crash or item crush. When wielding a special
weapon, hit select to use it's powerful special attack. I won't
spoil them for you, but the item crashes are very cool!
So
now we have two playable characters in a platform , level based
Castlevania game. But we haven't addressed the levels yet. The levels
in Castlevania X are what really make the game shine. With the exception
of Level 0 (yes really) and the boss fights at the end, almost all
the levels in the game have multiple paths to follow. Every level
has a hidden path that branches to a separate boss, and often times
takes you to another hidden level! So when you play level 1, you
go one way and the game branches to level 2, and the hidden path
that takes a whole different route branches to level 2'! Every level
has at least one branch. If you're good, you can get to levels 2',
3', 4', and 5', as well as 2, 3, 4, and 5. These levels are entirely
different than the normal levels as well. A lot of them are well
hidden, and can only be found by, for example, jumping off of a
precipice that leads to certain doom, or attacking a spiked ball
trap that should have no effect on the ball. What ends up happening
is that playing back through levels to find hidden pathways is almost
more fun that trying to beat the game!
With
all it's hidden pathways, awesome graphics, cool sounds, and multiple
characters, Castlevania X provides one of the least repetitive and
most exciting plays of any Castlevania game. I find myself coming
back to play the same levels and finding all new things every time!
It's really an ingenious game design and a true pleasure to play.
However...fair warning to those who try to buy the SNES Port called
"Castlevania: Dracula X". While the game is a port of
the Duo version of the game, it lacks the sound quality, graphic
quality, cinemas, control, and even some of the levels of the Duo
version. The SNES version also does not allow a level or character
select like the Duo Castlevania X, and doesn't have a save game
function. It's just not nearly as good. While Castlevania X: Rondo
of the Blood averages $100+ per copy on eBay, it's well worth the
high ticket price for such a great game, whether you're a fan of
Castlevania or not. Castlevania X for Turbo Duo is simply one of
the best games around for the Turbo Duo. Period.
There's
no better Castlevania game than Castlevania: Shadows of the Night
for PSX, right? Wrong! Look at it this way…Castlevania: SOTN
is Metroid with whips and vampires. Deal with it. But why am I talking
about Castlevania: SOTN while I'm reviewing Castlevania X? Well,
in Japan, SOTN is called Dracula X and Dracula X is also called
Dracula X. Confusing isn't it? Just one of the irritating peculiarities
that comes with import gaming. But no matter how you slice it (or
should that be whip?), Castlevania X: Rondo of the Blood (hereby
referred to as Castlevania X) for Turbo Duo is probably the best
Castlevania ever! 
