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?

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Castlevania 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.

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Castlevania
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…

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Game: Zero Tolerance
System: GEN
Genre: FPS
Developer: Technopop
Year: 1994
Country: USA

A first person shooter? On my Genesis?

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Game: Twin Cobra
System: Genesis
Genre: Vertical Scrolling Shooter
Developer: GRC
Year: 1991
Country: USA

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.

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Game: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Another Story
System: SNES
Genre: RPG
Developer: Angel Studios
Year: 1995
Country: Japan

New rule for these things; I will never, ever, ever play anything remotely related to Sailor Moon. Ever.

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System: SNES
Genre: Action? Or something?
Developer: Namco
Year: 1994
Country: USA

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.

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Game: Gumshoe
System: NES
Genre: Lightgun<3
Developer: Nintendo
Year: 1986
Country: USA

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.

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Game: Musashi No Ken
System: NES
Genre: Action/Platformer
Developer: Taito
Year: 1986
Country: Japan

Anytime the luck of the draw bestows upon me an older game that was never released in America, I begin to get that glimmer of hope that I may be playing an unknown gem; a classic that was kept from American audiences for reasons unknown to us jaded gamers. Then I realize that, although some games were unfairly kept from our golden shores, others were kept away because, well, they sucked floppy. 80% of the time it is just fucking mahjong anyway, or some indecipherable “Guess Your Fortune” nonsense. Other times it is a game like Musashi No Ken, a game so bland and lifeless that you can’t help but hope it wasn’t very popular, for the sake of the children.

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Hello dear readers. This was the name that was e-mailed to me that I liked the best for this column. I felt that “Retrograding” was probably taken somewhere else at this point, and calling it the “Rom-A-Day” was pretty much a blatant lie, so here we are. MalestROM. It is just dumb enough to work.

Anyway, todays game? Dark Lord.

Dark Lord
NES, JPN
Data East
1991

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Game: Knight’s Quest
Company: Taito
System: GB
Genre: Traditional RPG
Release Year: 1991

This was actually one of the first RPGs I can remember playing. Surprisingly enough, this game still holds up as a decent and entertaining, if only bitesized, RPG.

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I remember a long time ago, possibly in a far away galaxy, I used to write for my own website. Those days seemed long gone, but now… they return, and in order to appease you all, and punish myself, I bring to you not one…

Not two…

Not three…

Not four…

But FIVE whole ROM reviews.

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