deKay's Gaming Diary

This is really more than a bit good, isn’t it? I mean, it’s a bit like Mario 64 in that each level has to be completed multiple times to get different treasures in different ways, but obviously in 2D. And it’s more puzzley. But the idea is still the same.

I’ve collected about half the treasures so far, and opened up quite a few levels meaning I was wrong with the 4-levels-per-world statement in my last post. At least one world now has 6! I only have 2 or 3 (it’s difficult to tell on the screen) bits of the musical box though.

Hello! No, I’m not dead. I’ve just had no time to game, no unpacked consoles to game on, and no internet access to update my diary even if I did have both of those.

For reasons I don’t really understand, I started playing this yesterday. On an actual Game Boy Colour as well! How exciting! I’d never played it before, but have played, and completed, the second and fourth games in the series and enjoyed them. This is more like the second, as it doesn’t have the silly race-out-the-level Wario Land 4 had, and is the better for it.

There seem to be 4 worlds, with 4 levels in each world, and 4 treasures to get in each level. So far, I’m on World 3, having got at least one treasure on each level so far. I don’t know if it’s necessary to do the lot to complete the game, but we’ll see!

Another day, another completed Castlevania! So this was a fair bit easier than the last one, although there was a tricky bit near the end with ropes that move up and down and then change direction, with the cogs on either end killing you.

The end-of-Dracula’s-castle boss wasn’t Dracula, but Solieyu Belmont, the son of the main character (Christopher Belmont). He was under Dracula’s power, or something, and was actually bloody hard to kill, what with his whip and stuff.

But kill him I did, and then it was the shortest of short levels before I had Dracula himself to kill. He was pretty easy, once I’d figured out you had to whip him in the face.

Game Over, then!

No sooner was the first GB Castlevania over and done with, I moved straight onto the sequel. And guess what? It’s ace. Not Aria of Sorrow ace, or even Super Castlevania IV ace, but it’s certainly waaaaay better than The Castlevania Adventure. Yeah, so it’s still slow (although not quite as slow), but it’s easier (so far), not jerky, has more detailed graphics and there aren’t any pixel-perfect jumps! BEST.

You have four castles to tackle, before moving on to a fifth, housing (I assume) Dracula. I’ve already completed the first four, finding them fun to play and not console-smashingly impossible, and the bosses are much better too.

And the game has a password system, so I can stop and continue later. Which I will do!

Oh my! Only four levels? Just as well as if there were any more, things may have been broken on purpose.

Level 3 is the real killer. The spikes are really rather hard to get past. Once you do, however, the rest of the game is pretty easy in comparison. The boss at the end of Level 3 was some sort of Harpy, who was easy to dodge, and then it was on to Level 4. It looked like there was going to be a SuckySuck(TM) bit, with all the previous bosses one after another, but thankfully it was just the first one. Again. And again. And again. I must have killed him about ten times on this level alone.

After some more spikey bits (which were actually pretty easy), I finally made it to Dracula. And killed him on my second attempt. He turns into a bat after you die, but thankfully he’s not too difficult.

So that’s the first Game Boy game I’ve completed in years, and the 9th game this year so far. And the 5th Castlevania title this year too. I’ve got the second Game Boy Castlevania lined up now too!

What? In? Hell?

This has to be the slowest, hardest, most irritating game ever made. Ever. Your character (Simon? It doesn’t tell you) moves as a snails pace. You have no subweapons. You can’t jump very far (and the game is full of pixel-perfect jumps), you only have three lives, often when you die you go back miles, and the whole game jerks and judders all over the place.

Ace!

So I spent AGES trying to get past the Stepping Stones of Doom (pixel-perfect jumps) near the end of Level 1, and finally made it. Then Level 2 threw up some heads that spit balls which aren’t nice, and boomerang men, before finally making me kill a load of moles. Which I eventually managed. But since when did Dracula have moles?! Bats and zombies and rabid dogs, yes. Moles?

Now I’ve just got past an awful forced-scrolling vertical run-from-the-spikes bit, only to think “Phew!”, and then have another forced-scrolling horizontal run-from-the-spikes bit. With pixel-perfect jumps! Hurrah!

I’m this close to smashing the game into a billion pieces.