Castlevania's Anniversary- Saturday 9/26

Short version: I was familiar with the Castlevania games on Nintendo consoles and handhelds growing up, but I never actually played any of the games until I was a senior in high school. I wanted to play something like Super Metroid so I bought and the Xbox 360 version of SotN when it was a new release as my first digital purchase. Been a fan ever since and I picked up a bunch of other titles in college.

Long version: I as a Nintendo kid growing up and I read a lot of Nintendo Power. I was familiar with the two N64 games since they were the big new Castlevania titles back then since they got a fair amount of coverage and I was aware of the NES and SNES games. What really grabbed my attention was Circle of the Moon on GBA. It was being touted as one of the big GBA launch titles because detailed graphics, it was a handheld game the size of some N64 cartridges, and I had an issue of the short-lived "Nintendo Power Advance" that had a guide/map of CotM and I became enamored with that.

The main reason I didn't play any Castlevania growing up was because my parents tried to take responsibility with the movies, tv shows, and games I watched/played and paid attention to the content and ratings. They didn't like the idea of me watching or playing anything horror-related and CotM was rated T for Teen, and being 12 at the time I knew I would be unable to pick it up at on the GBA's launch day (or any time soon).

I don't remember reading as much coverage over Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow, so I have little to no memories of those games during that time besides hearing that HoD wasn't as good as CotM.

When I was 14 and a freshman in high school I stopped subscribing to Nintendo Power and started getting my gaming news and info from the internet. I absorbed a fair amount of information about Castlevania as I was read about gaming in general. I learned that SotN existed and it had the upside-down castle, the N64 games weren't that great, and how the games were made by a crazy Japanese guy who wore a cowboy hat and carried a whip. I also missed out on the DS's heyday entirely and didn't pay attention to news about it because I didn't have one. I got an Xbox 360 instead.

As I look back on everything, this was also the turning point where I focused more on western games than Japanese games for pretty much the rest of my life.

It also made it hard for me to fit in with the gaming crowd at my high school because they were more interested in Japanese games, owned DSes and PS2s, they looked down on anyone who didn't know as much about gaming as they did, and reprimanded me for asking questions about the games they liked. And like pretty much every high school student, they were mostly selfish brats who weren't as smart or cool as they thought they were.

I still wanted to be friends with them despite the way they treated me. I figured 1) gaming was a common interest we all shared and that could blossom into actual friendship and 2) I had poor judgmental skills as a teenager/stupid high school student for wanting to hang out with people that were constantly mean to me.

The students in the gaming clique also loved the GBA and DS Castlevania games.

I eventually made friends with one of the kids in the clique because we shared a few classes, one of which we spent most of our time in the library doing research and writing essays. We helped each other with homework, looked over eachother's papers, we both related to how we weren't really enjoying the classes we took, and talked about video games. This guy was an actual friend.

Because the teacher who was supposed to be teaching that class took a lot of sick days and didn't really care what we did as long as the essays were written, I decided to give myself an off day and read an issue of some gaming magazine in the school library's magazine section (I think it was EGM). There was an article about how SotN coming to Xbox 360 as a digital title and it made the game sound cool. Downloading old Playstation games for cheap on a Microsoft console sounded like a cool idea. I also wanted a new game similar to Super Metroid and SotN sounded like a good alternative.

Knowing my friend was more familiar with Castlevania than I was, I asked him about it when the class was over and we were walking to our next class. The conversation went like this:

"Hey, you like Castlevania, right? Is SotN any good?"

"Any good? Goobsausage, SotN is generally regarded as the best in the series! It's also really rare."

"Well, I was reading a magazine in the library that said it was getting re-released digitally for $10."

"Sweet! Is it coming to PS3?"

"No, it looks like it's just 360."

"Dangit. Looks like I'll have to pick up a 360. The one game I don't own in my favorite series and it's coming out on a console I don't own and might get a red ring if I DO own it!"

"So it's good? I heard it's kinda like Super Metroid, I've played that, Metroid Fusion, and Zero Mission multiple times, and I'm in the mood for a similar game. But I'm nervous about buying it since it's a digital title and I don't know if it's worth the risk if I don't enjoy it."

"It's supposed to be the best in the series and yes, it is like Metroid. Buy it! Anyway, did you see the new VGCats comic?"

I was a senior in high school by the time SotN was released on XBL. The weekend it came out I bought an XBL points card, added them into my profile, and downloaded my first ever digital purchase to my 360's 20GB hard drive.

Midway through downloading it, I realized that my parents had no control over how I was able to purchase a game I wanted, they had no idea it existed, and they probably wouldn't have approved of if I was younger. I thought bypassing all that was totally rad. Almost as rad as when I got away with buying MGS: The Twin Snakes for $10 when I was 16 and alone at a Best Buy, the guy at the checkout didn't notice it was an M-rated game, and never asked for my ID or my parents to approve the purchase or anything like that (my parents approved of that purchase in advance, though).

When SotN finished downloading, I started it up and began playing. I was totally confused at the beginning of the game and didn't know it was the ending of the previous game, so I thought something was wrong with the download when it was actually totally normal. Once I took control of Alucard and the music at the castle entrance started playing, I knew I was in for something special. Being someone who wasn't familiar with horror, everything felt so fresh, imaginative, and new. I was also reading the original Frankenstein novel for English class, so as I played SotN and did my homework, it felt like a one-two punch for being introduced to horror as a genre.

But I also wanted to stay on the safe side. Each time I wanted to play SotN, I'd wait until my parents were asleep on weekends to do it since they didn't like horror imagery and I didn't know how they'd react to me buying games without their permission since back then (digital markets and purchases were still a new thing).

Each time I played SotN and made progress I talked to my friend about what I saw when I went back to school. It also felt like a primitive form of Let's Play. He was so jealous and happy for me.

About a month later, I noticed the main student in charge of the clique was playing Portrait of Ruin, which was the newest game at the time. Thinking I could make some casual conversation with him, I looked over his shoulder as he beat the final boss, and since I didn't know if that game also had a hidden castle like SotN I asked him if that was the end of the game. He then turned around and let out a sarcastic "nooo, that's the middle." I then told him about how I thought there'd be a second castle since SotN had one, and then he interrupted me and started talking about how I knew nothing about Castlevania and how I wasn't a "true fan" even though I enjoyed SotN and found it to be a magical experience.

That whole experience with Castlevania high school felt like it had a lesson about approval and impressing people being bad and true friendship occurring naturally in there somewhere.

I also bought all the GBA games and a DS just to play the DS games in college. I originally got the cartridge what had HoD and AoS together, but I returned it since the save feature didn't work, I could only access HoD for some reason, and used the store credit to buy HoD on its own. I think it might've been a bootleg copy or something. I then moved on to AoS and finally got to play CotM. After that, I finally bought a (used) DS so I could play the DS Castlevania games.

Today I have to rock some Castlevania tunes.

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3CA854FC63F08E10

It may get overlooked, but these HQ rips are amazing. Check em out!

Clearly you have never seen the movie the birds... attack birds are a cataclysmic disaster! of course Dracula has no chance!

Very true.

Dont remember when i got it, but i started with 1, if i didnt die to medusas and stairs, i died to the hallway dragons, mummy or frankie, still havent beaten it without savestates. Then came cv2, loved it, beat it, still play it. i either missed or rented 3, just know i didnt own it

missed out on the 16 bits and gbs entirely, too many rpgs to play.

Then came ps1 and SoTN, and holy fuck i love that game, can damn near run it in my head (along with zelda). And after that every new castlevania game i had to have and 100% (still working on OoE), even the n64s (wonky but beatable) and the 3dIGAs (yes i like them, they suffer from copy paste syndrome but the familiars and forgotten one was epic)

love LoS as a classicvania, the new forgotten one fight is infuriating though, theres no tactics, its just thwack dodge hope he doesnt autohit you with his stupid fast lookalike aoes, MoF and 2 i started but havent beaten

And now im slowly picking up the ones i missed and beating them, missing bloodlines, DX, and 2 of the gb ones still

So yeah, now im just hoping konami pulls its collective head out of its ass and give cv another proper game, preferably with Iga or someone who grew up with it and is willing to fight to make it great

My first Castlevania experience was playing The Castlevania Adventure on the Gameboy. While the character Christopher Belmont was a bit sluggish to control, I still felt enchanted by the idea of going through a castle and swatting enemies with a whip. Being chased down stairways by huge eyeballs and slogging it out with crows and mudmen in graveyards had me hooked. OK, it only had four levels and, although it didn't grab me like some of Konami's other GB titles such as Nemesis and Probotector, it always had a place in my heart because I love adventures and fighting all kinds of monsters and creepy things.

I was a bit late buying the SNES console but the first game I purchased for it was Castlevania IV which totally blew me out of the sky ... it was fantastic! Using the whip in eight directions and swinging from it was the pinnacle of the gameplay. It was one of those types of games that I never wanted to come to the end of. So engrossing!

Now, one Castlevania game that I truly adored (though it was often slated by many gamers) was Castlevania 64. I originally bought the Nintendo 64 to play F-Zero X (which was a sublime and shatteringly fast racing game) but I gave Castlevania a try and, again, I was immediately drawn in to the feel of the adventure. The game had a genuinely eerie atmosphere about it and the sound of the whip smashing the bones of skeletons was most satisfying to the ears. The game had its dodgy moments though ... primarily some of the camera angles and falling to my death countless times due to some jumps that required pinpoint accuracy. The highlights of the game was transporting nitro through the castle whilst avoiding nasty vampires, lizardmen, etc and a poo-inducing experience in a maze with Frankenstein wielding a chainsaw and his faithful dogs! Oh and the intro to the game was beautifully haunting ... Malus with the violin still remains one of my all-time favourite pieces of CV music.

My favourite Castlevania games will always be the IGA ones. Symphony of the Night is my number 1 CV because it is a superior, polished platformer that succeeds on so many levels with its attention to detail, fluid gameplay, loads of enemies, items and secrets, the strikingly huge castle and divine soundtracks. It was so addictive that the game should be classed as a drug LOL! Of the DS Castlevanias (Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia), Dawn of Sorrow is the best of the trio in my opinion ... I think it is closer in spirit to Symphony of the Night than PoR and OoE.

Now that Castlevania is seemingly dead, it felt like a small part of my soul went with it.

The 4th installment of this great series is ready!

nah, its just hibernating, waiting for a new death to take control of konami and use the riches of mobile and gambling to call forth dracula and pay him tribute

(Boy I am late to this thread ) (Also edit, I 'm not sure if I can shrink this image...looks a little too bit)
Ahh Castlevania. The game I would bring up every day when talking to my Xbox Live friends. I was the Castlevania freak back on Brawl in the Family Forums and even wanted to do my own RP on it. That sadly never came to be but oh well. I remember the days I was introduced to the series as a whole, and actually became a fan of the series much later.

I played Castlevania 1 on the NES at some point in my life. After that, I experienced it mostly through emulation on a computer. I thought the game wasn't fun because it was balls hard and I could never get past Medusa. I never branched to the other games but I knew that SOTN and Super CV4 were some pretty good games. I thought that Aria of Sorrow looked terrible as a game (lol I didn't know shit back then XD) and that it didn't have Simon Belmont, the only character I knew in Castlevania games.

So the series was there, I knew about it, but never really got into it. Meanwhile on my Xbox 360, I notice the summer of arcade coming on a year that I forgot and am too lazy to do a quick google search on. In that summer of arcade, I saw Harmony of Despair, a six player castlevania game. I was like, woah, is this for real? I had mixed feelings because I wanted to try it out and buy it, but I didn't know if I could convince my friends to get it, nor if I would know if I would like it. So I put it off for a year. Man was that a bad idea. I decided to get it a year later without the approval of my friends. I found out there was an online mode and I thought it would be a neat buy for a week of enjoyment. Oh boy did that week turn into a year of enjoyment.... I didn't get the DLC until like later so I settled on Jonathan Morris, the "Not Simon Belmont" character only because he had the vampire killer. The game took me for a ride as I completed the first two chapters, then went online to meet 2 pretty cool dudes who basically guided me through the first six chapters. I had a blast even though how much I sucked and how little I knew about this series. I wanted more, thankfully there were more games. With the power of Gamefly (my parents got this for my siblings and I) I ordered the game Jonathan was from, Portrait of Ruin. PoR was basically my first real Metroidvania game of the CV series. I absolutely loved it. Also where I met my most favorite character:

Charlotte Aulin.

After PoR I looked to the other DSvania games like Order of Ecclesia and Dawn of Sorrow as well as getting SOTN on my Xbox. Then I went back to the Advancevanias like Aria (changed my mind about this game. Very good), CotM (never beat it :c ). Finally, I went back in emulation to beat CV 1, play 3, and beat 4. I don't have any history on the Playstation games, any of the LoS games besides Mirror of Fate (which was alright) and some of the other honorable mentions like Rondo or Chronicles.

But honestly, Castlevania brouh some of the most fun I had with video games in my high school times. It even brought me to do my first ever speed run in SOTN which also kinda got me on the loop to do Axiom. So, again for like the 18th time, Thanks IGA for all the fun times I had with this series. Looking forward to Bloodstained.