Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (1991)

The best thing I can say about Belmont's Revenge is that it's better than the first GameBoy Castlevania game. Given my impression of the first game was pretty negative, that doesn't say much. But credit where credit's due, it's clear more thought went into this sequel's design. This game added the sub-weapons noticeably absent from the first game. As well, the levels are accessible through a level select screen that allows you to choose your path of progression. I also found the bosses and levels to be a bit more interesting. But also the difficulty is a touch more manageable, even if I still needed to use some save states here and there to make it through.

All that said, the biggest issues with the first game persist in that the brutal difficulty of these earlier games is all the more frustrating with the slower pace and weaker aesthetics of a GameBoy title. Your character moves incredibly slow, making the action of the game feel like a slow-motion replay. The game is also still quite short and even with a relatively high death count, isn't much longer than a couple hours. I don't see much replay value outside of speedruns. I think it's neat we got a game like this on the system, but in retrospect, it's hard to see much reason to play this beyond its place as a curiosity.

Preliminary: I didn't like the movement or platforming of the first one, but uh, this level select screen and its music bodes well

Wow great music for the Crystal Castle stage. And this feels like an actual Castlevania game (so far) unlike the first GB one. The well-placed whip smack makes me happy :) I do wish the Castlevanias would update their jump mechanic, but this is surprisingly solid so far.

Day 1

They really seem to load you up with special attack weapons in this one compared to the others! And the Axe and Holy Water ones too, which are nice. I do wish I moved faster, but other than that, this is really promising. I can only imagine how great it felt to have Castlevania in your pocket!

Nice! You can turn and attack while on a rope (and the rope mechanic is better than the mainline Castlevania stairs mechanic up to this point >.<) And you can hit away most enemy projectiles which I always like.

Pro-tip: when dealing with those pesky spike walls, and in general, you can zoom down the ropes much more quickly by holding the jump button as you press down. Love that I found that out on my own, love an intuitive pick up and play game, and Castlevanias are particularly great at that! Tho gosh this guy is sluggishly slow.

Darn this whole time I was keeping my Holy Water, ignoring all the Axes I found, and now I get to the Crystal Castle boss and feel the Axe would've been better cuz the boss floats :-p Cool that there are bosses and enemies unique to this game! Figured they'd just be rehashes of the mainline games.

Wow I can't put this down like with the first Castlevania. Tho I really am going to after this second stage cuz I wanted to do some active Ironman playing on OSRS. This really just keeps impressing me. The controls feel much more like the NES Castlevanias than the messy first Gameboy Castlevania. Relatively tight and some QoL features like the rope mechanics rather than stairs. I really liked the spider enemy mechanics too. Ok time to finish up this level and call it for the night.

These first 2 bosses were quite "easy" but in a good way. I'm really digging this so far. And I suppose they aren't "first" but I did Crystal Castle and Plant levels first. Wow and I just peeked at the next level I'm doing (Cloud Castle) and wow. Another great tune! (I also am grateful that special weapons and whip upgrade etc carry over between levels, but you restore your health. How forgiving for a Castlevania game!) And to think my next game is FF4 which I'm excited for as the first SNES FF. Then Legend of the Mystical Ninja, which I've always been curious about. Then the sequel to the Bonk game I loved! Ah! 1991 is perking up!

Ugh I just can't put this away! My poor neglected Ironman lol. The dark segments are rough in this, but it makes sense--I was being greedy getting the big hearts, and without any candles, of course it's dark! Haha.

Day 2

Still just absolutely loving this. Proud that I came up with my own solutions to the enemy mechanics like the ones that jump back and forth throwing swords at you. I wasn't able to take many screenshots but the Look was honestly impressive for a Gameboy game

Ok that dragon snake thing that came from the ceiling and wall was super hard. Otherwise the bosses had been very doable. I had to abuse savestates at the start and even in the middle of the battle to succeed heh. Fortunately the death mechanic is reasonable but I only have an hour to game tonight and I'd love to see the final 2 bosses tonight!

Unfortunately the Dracula's Castle tunes so far have not been as good as the earlier songs. Still, overall an excellent game so far. Possibly even a Favorite! Oh me and Castlevanias... The buildup segment to the final bosses, though, were great tunes and great Look

Ok the last area bosses are obnoxiously hard ngl. Maybe there's a way to cheese them but I tried playing this without a guide or anything. Argh. Looks like savestate abuse it is. I finally beat the Belmont Son boss guy! Gah that was hard! It helps that I got better at dodging the swords. My hour is up sadly but I may get a bit more time later to play. I assume I go straight to Dracula? Or maybe there's another whole area gah.

Great look for this final stretch tho

Ok returned to it now and yea. How. Definitely abusing savestates for Dracula. And at last. Gosh the number of times this castle has been destroyed! lol.

Ok sheesh the text goes on and on lol. But still, a nice ending screen and jingle.

Look: 8.5/10 Some particularly good screens, otherwise just classic and good Gameboy Look.

Sound: 8/10 Decidedly better than most GB games. Got a bit meh at times but for the most part very good and the other tunes may grow on me.

Play: 9/10 Good ol Castlevania fun. It got a bit too hard at the end for it to earn the perfect Play rating that some other Castlevanias have, but it really is excellent for a GB Castlevania. Great work with the enemy mechanics and unique level mechanics like the up and down ropes.

Feel: 9.5/10 Good ol Castlevania, finally properly brought to a handheld console.

Attachment: 9/10 This surely made the list of Castlevanias I will replay again and again throughout my life.

Overall: 8.8/10

Completion: Main Story

Playtime: ~1h 45m (largely thanks to abusing savestates for final 2 bosses, otherwise who knows how long this would've taken me lol)

History:

I've played one Castlevania game on a handheld, not counting Symphony of the Night PS1 Classic on the Vita, and this was not it.

Expectations:

I've seen a bit of this game while flipping through random CGR Undertow videos, and it looks decent enough. As long as I get some solid level design without too much frustration, I'll be happy.

Day 1:

Yep... this is a hard game.

Not Castlevania III hard, but hard enough. The game has you navigating four sub-castles before finally moving on to Castlevania itself, and I'm happy to see that all the castles offer varied environments and challenges. I'm going ahead and doing them in the order the game gives to me, which means starting with the Crystal Castle, which wasn't too terribly hard once I learned you can slide down ropes.

The game plays like a super slow version of the first game. And you only get the throwing ax and holy water. And you level 3 whip shoots fireballs...

Your character moves at the speed of smell, and the jumping is as unwieldy as ever, but it all still manages to work.

The first castle ended with a boss fight against the Weather Wizard, or something. It only took getting hit once to learn the pattern and take him out without much difficulty.

The second castle was much more difficult, and had some neat mechanics where knocking out candles would make the room go dark until you either found another candle, or threw down a holy water. It was a neat concept that worked out really well, and added a lot of distinction and atmosphere to the rocky underground themed castle.

The boss here was harder than the first, but equally as manageable.

After that I spent some time in the Plant Castle, but had to call it quits after a few deaths. Luckily the password system in this game is very simple, so I'll be able ot easily pick things up again tonight!

Later...

Playing with a controller really didn't make the game much easier, but I was able to get through the Plant Castle an ddefeat the surprisingly easy boss on my first attempt.

The final castle was no joke, built mostly around crazy rope, chain and pulley sections, I found myself dying here A LOT.

The boss was pretty easy though, despite eating a couple lives before I figured out how to beat him. After that it was a long trek through both sections of the final Castlevania stages until I eventually found myself face to face with Dracula himself!

This guy...

I wanted to quit so many times. I can't remember how many game overs I got here. What this boss boiled down to was a memory game: Remember where he teleports to, remember where to stand in response, remember where to stand next. The pattern never changes, so all it takes is repetition. Lots and lots of repetition.

God forbid I wimp out of actually have to learn a fight, so I stuck with it, until eventually...

Conclusion:

In the end, I'm actually left feeling a bit underwhelmed by this game. The challenge was good, the level designs were okay, the controls were manageable, and the final boss fight was fun and memorable. Still, it's just not a game that's going to sit on my mind, let alone warrant another playthrough anytime soon.

Aside from the slow controls and iffy jump mechanics, there's not a whole lot to complain about. I guess my biggest issue is that for a Castlevania game it's incredibly average.

Liked:

- Classic Castlevania gameplay pulled straight from the NES
- Easy to use password system, and otherwise solid game length.
- Fun and challenging final boss.

Disliked:

- Nothing particularly exciting about the game, and no real reason for me to come back and play it again.