This is one of my favorite games for the Game Boy console and another favorite entry in the Castle Vania series though a little lower on the list. Castle Vania had a rather rough start on the Game Boy system as its first venture was rather so so, but they gave it a second crack and it connected.
Everything in the game is so much better from the control, which is tighter, the backgrounds which are all well detailed and unique. Gameplay is solid as it's pretty much what you'd expect from any Castle Vania game going from point A to B whipping anything creepy crawler that dares to cross your path. You have a decent assortment of weapons which mainly consist of two the holy water and axe. But one weapon that is unique is when you collect a four power up orb, your chain whip it shoots out fireballs. This was the first game in the series to utilize this and it won't be until years later they have sometime like this again. I really liked it because it increased the offensive capability of the whip, where you can take down enemies out of your reach.
There is a decent assortment of enemies from bats, giant eyeballs that explode, weird giant jellyfish, mummies, and all other creepy crawlers you'd expect from the series. The bosses are decent along with the battles where are on the easy side, each of them is unique one I like are the two stone gargoyle walls to destroy which I thought was unique for the series. Despite the bosses on the easy side, it's really the level itself that is the real challenge and that is mainly what were here for whenever we play a Castle Vania game.
But three things stand out for this game that make is slightly unique. For one thing you get to select the area you want to go to; this game you can say was doing "Mega Man" yeah you can say this game was before the series combined itself with another great video game series "Metroid". The combination with "Castle Vania" and "Mega Man" is beautiful and hopefully when they make another "Castle Vania" game they would consider doing something like this again and who know you could make another video game subgenre.
Anyway, I love that you can beat this game in any order you want but I like that each of the levels are unique and based on a different theme with different challenges. The Plant Castle has plenty of decorations which have to do with nature. And the Rock Castle which is based on ancient Egypt as there are worn wall with hieroglyphics. The design of the levels feel true to the original Castle Vania games as there are plenty of twists and turns along with that mystery of the next challenge to get though from the next door you go though.
The game's difficulty isn't that hard but not that easy as you might have to practice a little with each of the levels before you get it all right. And it's a quick play, it's a Gameboy game after all as most of their games were never long. But that's ok which is why this is the kind of entry in the series to play if you feel like something a bit light but not too light.
And of course, the music is just superb, this game is one of the best video game tracks for the "Game Boy" in my book anyway. Each of the levels has a unique tune, I love each of them as each of them are a great listen and memorable to the Castle Vania franchise, wouldn't mind if any other game took tracks from this game and did some remix or new version of it for their other Castle Vania entry.
This is a vintage Game Boy classic worth a crack and was Castle Vania's first true big step on the small screen.
Rating: 4 stars.
