Castlevania Legends
System: GB
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1998
Country: US
Why couldn’t this little Castlevania excursion ended on a high note?
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Castlevania: Dracula X
System: SNES
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1995
Country: USA
I really should have just reviewed the PC-Engine one. Disappointment? Thy name is Dracula X.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Castlevania: Bloodlines
System: GEN
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1994
Country: US
All aboard the Belmont-boat as this train keeps truckin’ on!
Today’s installment gets me to the Sega Genesis’ only Castlevania game, Bloodlines. This game is all but forgotten when people talk about the series, but should it have been? DETAILS AT ELEVEN!
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Kid Dracula
System: GB
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1993
Country: US
Here we go, finishing up the Kid Dracula series within the Castlevania universe. You may have noticed that I skipped the legendary “Rondo of Blood”, but I made an executive decision here. Since that game came out on a disc medium, and therefor is not a ROM, I won’t be reviewing it. I may get to it at a later date, but just not within this incredibly interesting ongoing series.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Super Castlevania IV
System: SNES
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1991
Country: US
Super Castlevania IV, also known as the big budget remake of the original Castlevania. The odds are, this probably mind fudged you graphically the first time you played it.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge
System: GB
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1991
Country: US
I obviously turned this into an attempt to review every “classic” Castlevania game, this is roughly the halfway point, and luckily it doesn’t make me want to kill anyone.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, Movie Reviews, The MaelstROM, Uncategorized, Wrestling
Kotaku helped to broach the subject a little earlier today, and as this is something that I have an opinion on I figured I would throw my hat into the ring also. Although we here at InAnotherCastle are not the largest site, the recent debate on what acceptable reviews are in the gaming world has been odd.
I would first like to point out my opinion; the number given at the end of a review is not nearly as important as the review itself. It is not the reviewer’s fault that gamers seem to be anti-review reading and instead would like to base their hopes, dreams, and opinions on an arbitrary number given to a game that, five years from now, will be viewed as obsolete.
Video games are not necessarily a material item, they are not something like a car or, as GameSetWatch’s analogy goes, a camera. You cannot simply approach a video game from a cold, technical standpoint, but you also can’t write off technical aspects and review it simply as an emotional investment. That is where the medium and its evolution gets confusing and is also where any scoring system lacks. The answer isn’t to find some sort of agreed upon, universal scoring system in order to render sites like metacritic and gamerankings useless, the answer is to better condition readers to actually form their opinions based on the review itself and not the number that brings up the rear.
Posted under Game Features, Games, Internet
Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun!
System: NES
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1990
Country: US
The Castlevania blitz continues with a blast from my reviewing past.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
At around 2PM Eastern Time, gamers everywhere felt a strong, undeniable, and unexplainable joy in their hearts. A few curious souls decided to look into why they were gifted with this euphoria. It was then that GamePolitics.com found the reasoning behind this unprecedented gamer happiness; the Florida Bar will request that Jack Thompson be disbarred for a decade.
Jack Thompson was, of course, angered by the proceedings. He had prepared an incredibly “lengthy objection” in response to the Florida Bar but was prevented from reading it out loud. There is no news as to whether or not Thompson could appreciate the irony of the courts imposed censorship. After things in the hearing continued to go against him, he eventually took his ball and went home.
This all comes a little over a month after the Florida Supreme Court barred Jack Thompson from representing himself in any of his bizarre filings with the court, forcing the lawyer to have to hire a lawyer for any future cases in order to limit the onslaught of Jack Thompson suits . The Florida Supreme Court has already gone on record saying that these cases are “repetitive, frivolous and insult the integrity of the Court.”
The idea of ten years without having to worry about this guy exerting any real influence on anybody is almost staggeringly joyful. Although it would be naïve to think that a little thing like a court decision would be enough to keep Jack Thompson out of the video game industries hair.
SOURCE (GamePolitics.com)
Posted under Game News, Games
The Castlevania Adventure: The Adventure
System: GameBoy
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1989
Country: US
People try and say that the second Castlevania is the worst Castlevania game ever made, but apparently they had absolutely no clue that this one existed.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Well, Turok has finally come out on my gaming medium of choice and I figured I would give it a chance despite already knowing the console versions were silly, broken messes. I mean, come on, the game has been out for a while and porting it to the PC is the perfect opportunity to fix the myriad of issues that existed within this dinosaur killing party.
SPOILER ALERT:
They didn’t fix a damned thing.
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
System: NES
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1990
Country: USA
Not much needs to be said to familiarize you with this game. This is one of those titles that you can use to prove whether someone is a douche or not. Castlevania III is without a doubt one of the greatest games ever made. You don’t even need to read the rest of this review, that is exactly what I’m going to tell you throughout it.
I felt like this game was the perfect game to use as a send off to my old “random rambling” review system. It served its point, but after a while it was actually more boring to write than the structured system I’ll be using now.
Plus I get to use these neat graphics.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROMCastlevania II: Simon’s Quest
System: NES
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1988
Country: USA
Castlevania II was, obviously, the follow up to the surprisingly popular Castlevania. Looking back, while Simon’s Quest held that popularity initially, it added many elements to the series that turned off some gamers. The irony would be that, years later, these elements would come back into play in the newer generation of Castlevania titles.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROMCastlevania
System: NES
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release: 1987
Country: USA
Oh Castlevania, how I love you.
Castlevania shares the distinction of being one of the very first games I ever owned for the NES, I used to play it religiously. I mean, literally, I would chant and take communion from it and everything. I didn’t even sue when late one night, I heard Castlevania enter my room and…
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Game: Zero Tolerance
System: GEN
Genre: FPS
Developer: Technopop
Year: 1994
Country: USA
A first person shooter? On my Genesis?
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Game: Twin Cobra
System: Genesis
Genre: Vertical Scrolling Shooter
Developer: GRC
Year: 1991
Country:
The beautiful thing about the shoot-em-up genre is how simple these games really are at the core, but how awesome some of them end up being in execution. Some just seem to have a x-factor to them that separates them from the (rather large) pack of other more average scrolling shooters. Twin Cobra is one of those games that doesn’t separate itself from the pack. In fact, Twin Cobra may as well be a microcosmical representation of the pack itself.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Game: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Another Story
System: SNES
Genre: RPG
Developer: Angel Studios
Year: 1995
Country:
New rule for these things; I will never, ever, ever play anything remotely related to Sailor Moon. Ever.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROMSystem: SNES
Genre: Action? Or something?
Developer: Namco
Year: 1994
Country:
I remember renting this game from West Coast Video when I was too young to have true taste in video games. I used to be allowed to rent one game ever week or so if I was doing well in school, so it was always quite a decision. I would spend an hour or two in that place just trying to find something that wouldn’t disappoint me and my mom’s two bucks.
The main issue was that, as a youngster, and I didn’t really have the criteria for games that I have in place now. Usually I still ended up with decent games that I still value to this day, but sometimes I would find a game like “Pac Man 2: The New Adventures”. I loved then, but as it was simply “one of those games” I hadn’t played it since I was 9.
Did the game live up to my childhood memories? Or did it just pee on them like so many R Kelly’s?
The short answer is- kind of.
Posted under Game Reviews, Games, The MaelstROM
Game: Gumshoe
System: NES
Genre: Lightgun<3
Developer: Nintendo
Year: 1986
Country:
Usually I pick what I review entirely at random using the awesome feature included with the equally awesome ROM organizer, Quickplay (a must if you have a large collection). This is not the case today, my fair readers, as this is a game that even I forgot about until the other night.
Oh, Turok. You were so good to me back in the 90’s. Well, a little bit good. You were an indian, and you fought dinosaurs. Not only that, but you did it with weapons which I had never seen before. In my youth we spent countless afternoons together shooting exploding arrows into the heads of soldiers and dinosaurs, and we enjoyed it.
Now times have changed. You’ve had some terrible games in the last 7 or 8 years, and by this time I had pretty much forgotten about you, and not really minded. Fast forward to 2008, and you have a new game coming out. I guess I was excited, but more so in the way you get excited before someone punches you in the balls. What, only me?
So after spending some time with the demo today, I compiled a list. I like to call it:
10 Things I Hate About You, Turok Demo!
Number 10: Shut the fuck up, teammate guy.
Number 9: While I’m not one to scoff at spelunking; these dark, windy, cave levels in all games have to go. Demos are supposed to be fun, this is not.
Number 8: Turok, you’re a super space solider guy. I’d love it if you could just try running instead of that light jog.
Number 7: This whole dodge mechanic is retarded. Sure I can avoid that first strike, but I can’t freely look or fire when I do, and by the time Turok is getting back to his feet, a Raptor is already biting his face.
Number 6: Shut the FUCK up, teammate guy.
Number 5: Why is my knife the most powerful weapon in the game? I mean, I know it has Indian magic, but come on.
Number 4: These Dinosaurs seem to not really notice they’re being shot until they die. It’s 2008, where’s the realistic dino-damage system?!
Number 3: Back on the knife subject, when I come to a section of the demo where I am told to take out as many enemies as silently as I can, why are there literally no stealth elements to be found? I appreciate you including lush, thick grass, but if I can’t crouch and hide from enemy view in it, I really have no use for it.
Number 2: The Dinosaurs in this game are pointless. They act and feel no different from any other monster enemy in any other First Person Shooter. You get to make a game about fighting Dinosaurs in the future, guys! That’s why people want to play this game. I really feel like they blew it, especially with the technology we have for AI in 2008.
Number 1: Why does everyone have to look like they were in a deleted scene from Gears of War now? Give Turok his bone shield and blue sweatpants back.
Posted under Game Previews, Game Reviews, Games