Castlevania Chronicles (2001)

I started the original mode and beat the first level easily enough. Then I kept dying at the vertical wooden raft part in level 2; that was absurdly difficult and reminded me why I prefer to play this type of game with save states. I started over in arrange mode easy with max lives and no time limit. What followed was a mostly frustrating slog of failed platforming, taking cheap damage, barely scraping by most bosses after many attempts, and following a walkthrough. It was not too difficult until the clock tower. I still failed several times on that water raft, but the dragon boss was easy. The wizard boss was easy too, though medusa took a couple tries. The werewolf though was too fast and kicked my ass so many times. Eventually I got her by keeping away and throwing daggers. This reminded me why I tend to also play these games at slower framerate. The next level and doppelganger boss was a welcome reprieve from the previous hellscape; just duck and tank. The end levels were more about combat than platforming, so they were more enjoyable. Though I failed that god damn jump near the end a few times. Death was another huge struggle that took many attempts. I finally won by being aggressive and chucking crosses. Then Dracula took several attempts. I remember doing the first phase before so it only took 1 attempt to get the timing down. Then on my first try I got the second form down to 1 hit, argh so close. I tried a couple different things but finally won by coming in with almost full health, chucking crosses, and crouch tanking the hits, only moving when he jumped. I have no desire to play any harder than this.

While this was a classic game it was too difficult for me to really enjoy without some combination of save states, slow motion, infinite lives, or other cheat. The game would have been better with the removal of all instant death (instead just taking health damage), hearts restoring health instead of being ammo, and being able to carry all sub weapons; use select or L/R to switch and give each pick up a limited number of uses. Still, I have to appreciate how this remake was more accessible than the original. Missed opportunity to add new vastly different play modes and control schemes though.

7.0/10

I got a x68000 emulator going and it wasn't working quite right so i came across this and thought i'd give it a shot. I managed to get through the first two areas on the x68000. The controls were much more squirelly, the music and sound wasn't synced right, the timing of the CPU Would jump and shift. Still, the game looked nice. I was quite pleased to see everything in the original mode of CC was looking proper and very close to the original ( i couldnt tell any difference despite having just played the first two areas) the sound was good and the timing was as it should be.

This game has a pretty cool intro (And ending) video. I actually played the 'new arranged' mode and really enjoyed the electronic/rave type soundtrack as it is really unique! i spent some time in classic mode just listening to the sound test. This really is a nice game in the sense it archives effectively a very old title that is a really good game and lets people experience it through the PSX (Something people actually have access to)

The game is fun, the difficulty isnt too bad (at least at first, i found the later areas fairly hard) this is worth playing if you like the Castlevania series and while it isnt a very long game its decent to experience. It's not the same as Castlevania on the NES but a lot of the same areas, maps and some of the bosses are pulled from this (but also Vampire Killer, though i haven't played that one...). If you really like the NES you really should play. The screen posted here is from an interview about the game, which is nice.

I am really looking forward to playing Symphony of the Night soon