The original Castlevania

[Jammajup]

I like most Castlevania games i have ever played but played them in an odd order (prob as i am in UK and had a SMS) i started with Cas IV on Snes and had never heard of Castlevania until then (blush),then years later as a retro gamer i looked back to play Cas 1-3 on Nes.I am not sure of number 2 though it just seems out of place-maybe i should give it more time?.

[DragoonMog]

2 had some good concepts and some nostalgic value for some, but it is not actually a good game. It is one of those games where they changed a bit to much in the sequel, sorta like Zelda II. Maybe they were trying to make it bigger to make use of the Famicom Disk System or something at the time.

[TimeWarpGamer]

Good call. The original Castlevania looks and sounds spectacular, especially if you compare it to other games releases in 1987, which isn't even a fair comparison. The music to this day remains among my all-time favorite chip tunes.

[random_dave]

I've just started giving this a serious playthrough as It's turn for a retro game on my pile of shame.

I toyed with the best way to play it in the modern day, almost picking up the FDS version so that i could use that to save (I want to avoid any save stating that would be available outside of running it on legit hardware - although i'll make exceptions for game genie level selects)

In the end though I've just been playing it on my NES, and leaving it on the Game Over / Continue screens when i run out of lives so that i can pick it up later

Overall although the game is hard, it seems entirely fair, and a lot of advnacement comes down to a mixture of the strategy of what candles definitly need to be avoided to prevent causing yourself trouble (e.g whilst medusa heads fly around) and which enemies to attack aggressively, which to take time, and finding as many secret item locations (especially chicken) helps too

My first really bad struggle has been levels 10-12 (http://telebunny.net/toastyblog/2012...-stages-10-12/)
I figured out that my best bet was getting the holy water in the first section, and then the tricky part was getting through the long flat section without getting out of sequence with attacking the enemies that are dropped, to allow as much energy as possible to kill the stone dragons with the holy water, and then the frankenstein/igor combo with the water which puts them in a 'stun lock' if you spam water at them

I've only had a quick go at the next section for now and to start with it felt like it was taking the piss, but after a couple of lives i figured out a good technique for the first few screens, so hopefully i can have that done and dusted fairly quickly.

Finding it more enjoyable to play the better and more familiar i get with it. definitly a game i will keep in my collection even after i've finished it.

With the ability to play the 50hz one on real hardware and also play the GBA one or emulate it in 60hz on other hardware I wonder if UKmikes distaste for it (especially seem to remember him calling it "sluggish") is down to the 50Hz speed, as the music is a lot less groovy. I quite like having more time for my brain to process a situation though to tell my thumbs to react to it

I found that stages

[Flare]

I was reading Wikipedia and apparently, Europe didn't get Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse until after the European release of Super Castlevania IV.

Man, that must've sucked. Castlevania III is one of the greatest games in the series. I imagine Europeans were furious, seeing everyone else in the world playing this great game for years, and they weren't.

[random_dave]

meh, anyone worth their salt knows the Japan release is the one to get anyway I have no desire to play the 50hz Pal version

[BydoEmpire73]

I played the original back in the day (never finished and didn't own it), but I picked up CV Chronicles on the PS1 a while back so I could replay the original with saves (there's also an easier 'remix' version, which I should have done first). It's freaking hard. I'm at Dracula but I haven't ever come close to beating him. One of these days I need to check out a "how to beat Dracula" video on youtube or something and see how it's done.