Psychedelic Kimchi: Architecture of Epiphany

October may have come to its timely end, but love for the Castlevania series transcends all constraint. With that in mind, I treat you, defrocked reader, to a collection of gameplay footage, taken from several entries.

I'm going to start from somewhere in between, because that's where the juice really flowed for the series. This is not to say that the current crop of Castlevania games is a paltry bunch by any means, but I would contend that they are a different kind of Castlevania (and that's not an inherently bad thing). The N.E.S. games, alongside others from the 8-bit era, were great, but the game systems lacked the capacity to present a (more) detailed world that could suck a player into its fold.

The 16-bit glory days, for your viewing pleasure.*

(Super) Castlevania IV: Simon Belmont, whip in tow, going for blood against Dracula's henchmen, in a remake of the original 8-bit icon. No gratuitous display of Mode 7 graphics, thankfully (which was something the Super N.E.S. excelled at excessively displaying), but you can catch a glimpse of some fancy abilities involving the whip itself. It's a pretty sight.



Castlevania: Bloodlines: The first, and only, Castlevania game to appear on the Sega Genesis. Fifteen years ago, I thought this game was rather entertaining, but it certainly hasn't aged well. In this title, players had the option to select a character that wielded a spear, which, you know, should explain the spear. Also, I'd like to apologize in advance for the giant moth boss.



Akumajō Dracula X Chi no Rondo / Dracula X: The last of the traditional Castlevania games, in which the hero would traverse through several horizontally -and vertically, if you want to get technical- scrolling stages (no backtracking allowed!) with a limited number of lives and 'hearts' to use for secondary weapons. The guy in blue is Richter Belmont, and he knows how to handle a horse-drawn carriage. The video was lifted from the TurboDuo incarnation of the game, as it is superior to the Super Nintendo version in virtually every regard.




Nathan Graves


* If you're unfamiliar with the concepts of 8-bit and 16-bit, then you should have just glossed over this post. Forgive me?