Castlevania (1999)

Castlevania 64 isn't nearly as smooth of a transition from its 2D roots, but has enough interesting action-adventure elements going on to still be worth a try.

The player selects either a young magical orphan or a whip-wielding heir to the Belmont clan to stop Dracula's return after a century of dormancy. Starting in the grounds around the castle estate, the player makes their way through several areas and many demons to finally throw down with the lead vampire himself.

Combat is now based in 3D, with a long range and a short range attack with basic targeting and three different camera views (normal, action, and battle). The player may jump and even slide, with ledge climbing that feels inspired by the Tomb Raider titles. The execution of each of these aspects is relatively uneven - the player has extra attacks and special subweapons but after a certain point one can only rely on charging or spamming a specific attack to get through (Carrie's charge orb, anyone?). The game is also very intent on throwing instant death pits and falls with platforming that can feel slippery to jump along (especially with Carrie). While it's not a total dealbreaker, expecting many a frustrating death between saves that can make the relatively short runtime feel a little sloggy.

There are also a variety of interesting segments and items spread throughout - while the player is just getting started the item management and terrifyingly tough enemies (i.e. the maze garden) can even give the game a legitimate survival horror feel, and puzzles are simple but split up the pace a decent bit. If the player's gone through the game as one character it'll be relatively breezy as the next, but the game has some interesting character-only areas that encourage playing as both. There's also a day/night cycle but it's largely used to gate areas and has items to "skip" from day to night and vice versa as necessary, rendering it mostly pointless.

With that survival horror atmosphere, the game does its best to bring the moody Gothic atmosphere of Castlevania to 3D, primitive looking skeleton meshes and all. There's a smidge of moody lighting to help hammer it home but nothing too dramatically impressive. The game feels relatively baroque with some video game-y synth, coming off as atmospheric but pushes to the forefront in some areas like the Castle Center.

Overall Castlevania 64 has some really interesting elements to it but because of the frustrating platforming and janky combat can be a tough sell. Perhaps the survival horror-ish elements will be worth the try?