Topic: Gigantor Thread of Bigass Castlevania Hugeness

[K-man]

And yeah I agree.  I've listened to the japanese soundtrack and prefer the NA version to a lot of it.  Could be because I'm used to it, though I think a lot of the NA version is superior.

[Cobra951]

Either Grant helps a lot with that part, or you don't go through that level if you choose him.  Now I forget which is true.  I do remember it's all a rigid pattern.  Learn it, and get the moves & jumps right, and it's not too bad.  I guess I was lucky to choose the Clock Tower path first.  Grant is a very agile character, and the only one with a jump that can be controlled in midair.  Alucard's bat transformation is sweet too.  If you ever fall into a bottomless pit with him, you haven't practiced enough changing into the bat in midair.  Did Sypha have a floaty jump?  I may be thinking of the princess in Mario 2 (USA).

[K-man]

Either Grant helps a lot with that part, or you don't go through that level if you choose him.  Now I forget which is true.  I do remember it's all a rigid pattern.  Learn it, and get the moves & jumps right, and it's not too bad.  I guess I was lucky to choose the Clock Tower path first.  Grant is a very agile character, and the only one with a jump that can be controlled in midair.  Alucard's bat transformation is sweet too.  If you ever fall into a bottomless pit with him, you haven't practiced enough changing into the bat in midair.  Did Sypha have a floaty jump?  I may be thinking of the princess in Mario 2 (USA).

Sypha had magic and could move decently fast.  Could also do stuff like freeze rivers so you could walk across the top of them.

[Cobra951]

Right.  I remember her better now.  She was no better than Trevor in the jumps, which made her my least favorite companion.  It's the falling off the screen that I hated the most.

[Quemaqua]

Damn guys, stop making me want to play that one.  Still got two games to finish!

I fibbed.  I'm trying to do the rest of Ecclesia now that I found the secret exit from the castle that opens up the Training Hall and the Large Cavern.  Training Hall was brilliant and so fun... Large Cavern is pretty rough.  I was doing okay until they threw two of those crazy guys with all the swords at me.  I bit the dust fast then.

[K-man]

This is ridiculous.  In preparation for the arrival of my new 72 pin connector last night was spent watching comedy central and clearning EVERY NES game I own with alcohol and q-tips.  Cleaned my N64 games too for good measure.  Took most of the evening as I have a TON of NES games.  A few took a while to clean too because by the looks of the q-tips someone used the carts to wipe their asses with.  I also took apart both of my NES', removed the connectors, and gave them both a good cleaning.  Also took this opportunity to wash and dry the tops overnight.

One thing of note:  I grew up in a smoking household.  My mother and father both smoked, but not in my room.  I was EXTREMELY anal about taking care of my NES/games.  Yet I cracked my childhood NES open last night and there was a layer of tar-infused dust on everything.  I cleaned it the best I could, but there is still some left.  That made me sad. 

[Quemaqua]

I guess that's a good way to prove the insidiousness of secondhand smoke.  Either that, or you actually breathe tar and you're unaware of it.

[K-man]

Yeah it really drives the point home.  I smoked for ten years, and quit nearly two years ago.  I've tried to smoke a few times since and can never make it past the first or second puff.  I can't imagine how I stood cigarettes long enough to become addicted to them.

[Cobra951]

That may also explain why some people (like me) never had any trouble with the NES.  Smoking was not allowed anywhere I ever had it.

[K-man]

Well, I had never taken my NES apart.  I bought it in 1989 originally.  Even though I took a lot of care in making sure the machine was clean the contacts inevitably corrode and get dirty over time.  I rented a lot of games too, and we all know how dirty those things can be.  I scrubbed the connector down last night and I'm going to see if just cleaning it really well makes any sort of a difference.  I laid them in front of a fan all night just to ensure that no water was left behind.

We'll see.

[Quemaqua]

I can still smoke and enjoy it (the only reason I ever smoked was because I enjoyed it, not because I needed it), but I smoked for long enough to know first hand why it's bad, and I still feel that when I smoke even just one now, so I almost never do.

[K-man]

New pin connector is in.  No problems with actual NES games but my two Tengen carts still won't boot.

Everything's well and good, but you almost need a pair of pliers to get the game out.  those pins are TIGHT.  That'll subside over time though

[gpw11]

Don't carts like the Tengen ones create a voltage spike in order to knock out the protection chip and boot?  That could have something to do with it I'd guess.  It wouldn't make sense for the pin connector to actually be the problem.

[K-man]

Actually Tengen (Atari Games) was smarter than that.  instead of using that method (and avoiding potential liability due to damaging consoles), They actually obtained a copy of the patent on the lockout chip from the patent office, saying they needed it for pending litigation.  They copied the chip and put it in their games.

[gpw11]

Oh, interesting.

[K-man]

After visiting six used game stores and finding one copy of Curse of Darkness for xbox (for 25 bucks!!), I caved and just ebayed a PS2 copy for 20.  Prices are insane.  Some are selling for 15-20 and others are selling for 40-60.

Oh, and I'm fighting drac on the original Castlevania using an emulator.  Yeah, I'm finding him much more difficult than Castlevania 3's final boss.  I haven't even made it to second form yet.

[Cobra951]

Drac in 1 is very tough.  I discovered Castlevania with III, and the other 2 NES entries were a bit of a letdown after that.  1 seemed crude and short by comparison, and 2 was too different from what I had come to expect.

[K-man]

I was actually lucky enough to play them in sequence.  III is the only one I ever obtained new though.  I rented III and hated it initially.  Apparently it eventually grew enough on me to ask for it for Christmas one year.   It's funny, I was reading an article on why game sequels were so much different than their predecessors, and it was a widely held belief that consumers did not want more of the same.  Instead they thought the best way to keep up sales was to mix it up.  Which is part of the reason we got games like Zelda II, Castlevania II, and Mario 2.

[Cobra951]

Funny you should mention those.  I was just checking through my NES ROM collection, and ran across Doki Doki Panic, which was a Famicon Disk System release.  Except for the 4 playable characters, it looks, sounds and plays exactly like Super Mario 2 USA.  The real SMB 2, later released here as The Lost Levels in an SNES compilation, looks and plays like SMB 1, but is much harder.  That too is an FDS game (which probably explains why it took so long to see it available as an image for emulators).

I also ran across Akumajou Special - Boku Dracula Kun, aka Kid Dracula, which was never brought here as a NES game.  If you're on an 8-bit Castlevania kick, you may want to play it as a change of pace, or for completeness.  It may look cutesy, but it's a fairly hard game.

[K-man]

Yeah, I downloaded the Japanese SMB2 on the Virtual Console.  We were given Doki Doki Panic in part because Nintendo thought the real game was too hard for American audiences. 

I really like the American SMB 2 though.  I thought it was pretty neat and it makes for a real interesting story about the origins.

[K-man]

Well I did it.  I finally conquered Castlevania.  That does it for the first three, next up is Castlevania IV.

[K-man]

Curse of Darkness arrived today!  Can't wait to dig in.

[K-man]

I progressed to just past the first boss last night and so far I'm enjoying it.  The PS2 is definitely starting to show some age though.  Regardless, the battles are fun and the weapon crafting is pretty neat.  Looks like it's going to be a good time.

[Cobra951]

I watched a long trailer for Curse, and it seems to use the same engine as Lament, which Ive grown bored with.  I got all 5 orbs, but now I feel little motivation to finish the game.  It all bleeds together after a while, and there's so little character progression that it just stays too samey.  The forced-perspective 3D doesn't work too well either, and I hope they improved that in Curse.

[K-man]

Curse doesn't have a fixed perspective, so it's a bit of an improvement.

I really enjoyed Lament despite the obvious limitations.

[Xessive]

Robot Chicken finally made a Castlevania sketch

[K-man]

hahahahaha!

[Quemaqua]

Haha, nice!

[TheOtherBelmont]

Robot Chicken finally made a Castlevania sketch

Hahaha that's awesome!

[K-man]

Was gonna start a Castlevania thread, but remembered this one.

I finished Portrait of Ruin a week or two ago, and finally delved into Order of Ecclesia.  Game's legitimately difficult.  I have trouble with almost every level I discover.

[MysterD]

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow being shown off NOW on G4.

[Pugnate]

I have never in my life played a Castlevania game.

[K-man]

You sir are missing out big time

[Pugnate]

I sold my PSP a few months after I bought it. I noticed the thing on PSN. Is there are version for the PS3?

I will get a 3DS when it comes out, so if it is on that, I'll get it.

[TheOtherBelmont]

There no new Castlevania games developed for PS3 yet.  I think the only two Castlevania games you can download on PSN are Symphony of the Night and Chronicles which were both PS1 games.

[Quemaqua]

If you've never played SotN, you're seriously missing out.  Seriously.

[K-man]

Yeah but if he has any interest in them he needs to start with the NES titles and then try IV.  Makes the significant shift in SotN all the more impressive.

[idolminds]

I tried the NES games and I just didn't care much for them. I didn't have SOTN, but I did have the GBA games (which are more similar to SOTN than the NES titles) and I actually liked them. So...don't think you have to play the NES games to appreciate later games in the series.

[K-man]

We'll have to agree to disagree there.

[Cobra951]

I think Dracula's Curse (III) is essential, at least.  The first 2 games were less impressive.