Before [I]Castlevania Anniversary Collection[/I], Iāve only dabbled in two games from the franchise: [I]Castlevania: The Adventure[/I] on the Game Boy and [I]Super Castlevania IV[/I] on the SNES. I didnāt finish either one of them, but Iāve always wanted to revisit this series at some point. Little did I know that Iād be doing it on the PC. [I]Castlevania Anniversary Collection[/I] was developed by M2, the team that also gave us [I]Contra Anniversary Collection[/I]. Considering these two collections were released one month apart, and the [I]Contra[/I] collection was merely adequate for an āAnniversary Collectionā, I didnāt have high hopes for this compilation of [I]Castlevania[/I] games. As expected, [I]Castlevania Anniversary Collection[/I], like its Contra counterpart, runs in windowed mode with no clear option to change screen setting, and has a paltry selection of unremarkable border frames. Plus, the graphic design of the game menu and bonus book, titled [I]The History of Castlevania: Book of the Crescent Moon[/I], looks amateurish. Further proof of how lackadaisical development of this collection was is the absence of original game manuals. I excused this for [I]Contra Anniversary Collection[/I], but not for this one. [I]Castlevania[/I] games are action adventures, and itās important to know what the icons means and how the in-game menus work (especially for [I]Castlevania II[/I]). There are abridged manuals, but they arenāt very informative. Plus, the manuals are in [I]The History of Castlevania[/I] bonus book! This means to access them, youāll have to save your game with save state (thank goodness for that), exit the game, scroll to the bonus book, find the entries and read them, exit the book, and restart the game. What asinine design! Ignoring that, however, [I]Castlevania Anniversary Collection[/I] has a pretty decent set of games. It has most of the 8- and 16-bit game console and Game Boy games, but is missing [I]Haunted Castle[/I] (arcade), [I]Rondo of Blood[/I] (TurboGrafx-16), [I]Dracula X[/I] (SNES), and [I]Castlevania Legends[/I] (Game Boy). [I]Haunted Castle[/I] and [I]Dracula X[/I] are in the [I]Dominus Collection[/I] and [I]Advance Collection[/I] respectively, but including them here would have been more appropriate. How much youāll like this compilation highly depends on your appreciation for [I]Castlevania[/I] and/or your nostalgia for this franchise. Here are my impressions of the ones featured in this collection: [LIST] [*][B][I]Castlevania[/I][/B] ā Challenging, especially with the knockback and enemy placement. Very atmospheric, but limited colour palette made some aspects of the environment hard to detect. Truly a classic. [*][B][I]Castlevania II: Simonās Quest[/I][/B] ā I was particularly curious about this title because I read the novelization from the [I]Worlds of Power[/I] series as a kid. Itās an ambitious, but confusing game partly because of the unclear, bad translation. The day/night cycle was poorly implemented, and became annoying quickly. [*][B][I]Castlevania III: Draculaās Curse[/I][/B] ā Very challenging, but highly replayable given the branching paths, companion recruitment, and ability to switch characters. Itās brisk, responsive and fun, allowing [I]Castlevania[/I] to end its NES era on a high note. [*][B][I]Super Castlevania IV[/I][/B] ā The multidirectional whipping and overpowered weapons made this game relatively easy. That, plus the bright, colourful art direction made it feel less like a [I]Castlevania[/I] game. But, itās still very fun, and it holds up well over 3 decades later due to the fluid gameplay and some amazing level designs. [*][B][I]Castlevania: Bloodlines[/I][/B] ā Although this game doesnāt star a Belmont, it allows you to play as either the whip-wielding John Morris or the spear-sporting Eric Lecarde. This offers two unique gaming experiences, making [I]Bloodlines[/I] worthy of replay. [*][B][I]Castlevania: The Adventure[/I][/B] ā Marred by slow speed and clunky controls, this Game Boy title is frustrating to play ā not just as a [I]Castlevania[/I] game, but also as a platformer. If it werenāt for nostalgia, I wouldnāt have spent as much time on it as I did. [*][B][I]Castlevania II: Belmontās Revenge[/I][/B] ā The Game Boy sequel is faster, has more responsive controls, and brings back subweapons. While a vast improvement over [I]The Adventure[/I], it still canāt match its 8-bit peers. [*][B][I]Kid Dracula[/I][/B] ā Kudos to M2 for putting in the extra work to localize this game in English, but this game is not the reason for your buying this collection. Despite the slightly unrefined controls, itās a fine action platformer. [/LIST] [I]Castlevania[/I] is a crown jewel in Konamiās catalogue, and it deserves a better anniversary treatment than this. Seeing the impressive presentation and extra content that the [I]Advance Collection[/I] and [I]Dominus Collection[/I] have, could M2 or Konami have updated this compilation in recent years with better aesthetics and features? Of course! Would they do it in the future? I highly doubt it. This is an unequivocally, woefully subpar anniversary compilation. Itās a shame because being able to play [I]Castlevania[/I], [I]Castlevania III[/I], [I]Super Castlevania IV[/I], and [I]Bloodlines[/I] on the PC makes this collection worth getting. So, thumbs up to most of the games in the collection, but thumbs down on how the compilation was put together. Because of that, I recommend getting [I]Castlevania Anniversary Collection[/I] only if itās on sale.
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