Castlevania Anniversary Collection

A big ol bundle of classic Castlevania games. At this point, these weren't the Metroidvanias everyone expects from the series, but simple platformers with some fun gimmicks to them. I did experience some issues with the collection itself, such as it randomly not accepting controller inputs or the volume being kinda fucky at times. In addition, every game is emulated, which led into some problems with certain games. Overall, if you're just wanting to experience some old Castlevania history, or you're feeding nostalgia, or if you just want some platformers, I'd say this collection is pretty good. I have some very short reviews for each game below: Castlevania (NES): - For an 8-bit NES game, the graphics are quite well done. Every location feels distinct - Music is legendary, especially Vampire Killer and Nothing to Lose - Has the difficulty of an arcade game (egregious enemy placement and high quantity of enemies) - Platforming is rough, had multiple times where I clip through objects I should have landed on - Only game in this collection I've had crash (not the entire collection, just the emulation of it) Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES): - "What a horrible night to have a curse" is a banger ass line - Respect to the game for innovating so much, laying down foundations that would eventually cascade into games like Symphony of the Night - Music slaps once again, Bloody Tears is a phenomenal song - Gameplay loop and feedback can feel stale and mindnumbing at times, grinding required to buy essential items - I can appreciate an open-ended adventure that allows you to explore at your own pace, but the absolute lack of direction and samey looking locations make the landscape a slog to traverse, rather than being an exciting cross-country journey for survival - The final boss fight is hilariously easy, you can spam one item and it stunlocks the boss to DEATH - Took me a while to come back to it, its an okayish entry in the series. Definitely prefer later titles Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES): - Definitely my favourite of the bunch, especially after CV2 put a bad taste in my mouth - Having 4 different playable characters elevated this game above the rest. Grant, Sypha and Alucard as noteworthy alternatives to Trevor makes the game worth multiple playthroughs - Alternate routes increases replayability further, and its impossible to play every level in one run - Music is once again a masterpiece, hearing the remix of Vampire Killer as I entered those final levels really got the blood pumping - Game is obscenely difficult. It was a breeze early on, but it quickly spiked in difficulty, especially during that final boss fight (three phases really fucked me up!) Super Castlevania IV (SNES): - The upgrade from NES to SNES did wonders, the graphics are beautiful and Mode 7 only pushes it further - The music is beautiful, at this point I'm wondering if any of the games have bad music - Introduction of vertical whip swinging and limp swinging make the gameplay loop feel exceptional, if a little easier as a consequence - The hook points are an extra little spice to the ClassicVanias that I didn't know I needed - Platforming feels so buttery smooth, with proper air-strafing and Simon's general weight and feel being perfect - Occasional lag and stutter when there is an overabundance of sprites on screen (due to this being a SNES emulation) The Castlevania Adventure (GB): - I get its an original Gameboy game but like holy hell it really hurts the eyes to look at, if it was on the original console it'd probably not be as bad - Completely scrapping secondary weapons might have been necessary but it just really hurts the experience overall - Game is constantly lagging when any projectile gets spawned, terrible - The music is the only real saving grace of this game, it can be pretty good when it wants to be - Movement feels terrible, Christopher is slow as molasses and his jumps feel super weird, he phases through everything sometimes - Short game, has only four levels (good or bad, dependent on your perspective of the game) - The Autoscroller level existing AT ALL with this garbage tier platforming really made me wonder what they were thinking here - Besides the platforming being abysmal, this game is piss easy and if you want an easy completion, this game may just be that - I know this game came out the same year as the GB (its old af), but unless you have some serious nostalgia for the game I'd just recommend skipping it Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (GB): - The Castlevania Adventure had no excuse, this game looks way more visually interesting AND it doesn't hurt my eyes - SUBWEAPONS ARE BACK THANK GOD (This shouldn't have ever needed to be a good point) - Christopher feels a lot better, still kinda sluggish and slow in movement but his jumps feel heaps better - Framerate is more consistent, and not constantly dipping at the slightest inconvenience or projectile being spawned (can still lag though) - Similar to TA, this game is quite short and only has 6 main levels (but there is no demonspawn autoscroller level with bad platforming at least) - Having the Rock Castle have dark rooms that require active candles or Holy Water in order to see while platforming is actually awesome - With this game existing, unless you want some VERYYY loose context to what happens prior (as this game is a direct sequel), you can just skip TA Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis): - Despite its shorter length compared to other games in the series, this is my other favourite in this collection (alongside Castlevania III) - In my opinion, this is the most beautiful game in the entire collection. The Genesis-era graphics and audio just oozes charm - Having 2 playable characters available right from the get-go (as opposed to CV3 where you have to find them during your playthrough) is splendid - Eric being an easier character to pick up and use compared to John also allows more people to enjoy Bloodlines, when some may be pushed away due to the difficulty - Great setup, having a cross-Europe trip in order to stop an evil countess is an awesome setup, and a good shakeup from the other ClassicVania games - Faster pace and flow to the gameplay when compared to the NES and GB games. Its elating to blitz through stages like a speedy tank - Difficulty is quite high up there, the enemies can be pretty brutal if you make any mistake. Not many I-frames to work with - Subweapons having something akin to an EX attack depending on what direction you're holding is FUCKING AWESOME Kid Dracula (Famicom): - Goofy ass aesthetic perfectly fits this type of parody spin-off game, reminds me of something like Cat Mario - Unlocking a new power after each stage is very rewarding, even if some powers are just blatantly OP (homing shot) - Minigames after each level in order to obtain more extra lives is a fun little activity, if kinda pointless due to difficulty - Besides a couple points where they just throw a lot of shit at you, this game is pretty easy. There are multiple health restores during a level and the bosses are not that hard - Visual tearing and game lag are especially bad in this game, worse than most games in the collection - Fun little game I'd probably only play once, it doesn't have much appeal in terms of replayability (no score system)

Castlevania is the father of Metroid Vania games. This anniversary collection lets us relive the memories by playing the first chapters of this legendary saga. If you like platform games, this game should be in your Steam library.

Once again M2 makes another mediocre collection. The games selection isn't bad, focused on the more older linear sidescroller games. NES, SNES, Gameboy, Genesis games. Shame it doesn't include adventure rebirth seeing how unless you bought it before the wii shop before it closed, you can no longer play it legally. Kid Dracula is a cool inclusion though. The emulation is bare bones. For $20 it should be FAR better. You can't even remap the controls which sucks for bloodlines, top face button is the whip and the bottom face button is the special weapon. Ideally ill like to remap the special weapon to the shoulder button. Cant have the jump, attack and special weapon lined up like the genesis controller, not that I want to play that way but for the sake of keeping faithful to the original controls would be nice as an option. A minor complaint but there isnt even a quit game option. You gotta either force close it on steam or hit alt-f4. Also if you connect a controller after you start the game it wont recognize it. Just annoyances like that make this collection feel real cheap. Worth it if you catch it on sale but not for full price.

Many great games in this collection. I wouldn't recommend it to people not familiar with platformers or harder games. If you like a fair challenge though, this collection is for you. From worst to best: -C. Bloodlines: Mediocre Mega Drive slop. Among the 16-bits games it has the worst graphics, the OST is a mixed bag of great tracks but also extremely annoying ones. It's hard, though not the hardest game I think. My biggest grip with Bloodlines are how punishing deaths are, and how absurd there are no continues. It's incredibly unsatisfying. I just wanted to get it over with. By level 5 I ran out of patience and started using save states, only Castlevania where I ever did that. At the very least, it has good bosses and plenty of mini-bosses. People compare it with other 16-bits and say Dracula X is worse and harder... No, and it's not even close (even in terms of final bosses). It's sad because it has potential, some parts of some levels where great, you can play as two distinct characters, and the final boss rush is also pretty cool (Super Castlevania did it better however). This was the last game of the collection that I played and I was getting exhausted by then, so I could be biased. -Kid Dracula: Meh. It's got a lighter tone and cute sprites, and you get abilities as you complete levels which is cool. That aside, it's a basic platformer without anything interesting going on. Pretty easy game but the final level was quite frustrating since there were no checkpoints. -C. The Adventure: It's janky as shit, lags when there's more than three sprites on screen, and is very unforgiving with its pixel perfect jumps. Only four levels. Might sound bad, yet despite what people say about this game, I still enjoyed it. It captures the soul of Classicvania games. Every failure is an opportunity to learn, each times you get a little bit further. The music gives you strength and determination to keep fighting, until you eventually overcome this entire ordeal. I really enjoyed the final level. It's long and painful, Dracula at the end is merciless... But to feel the progress I made each time ignited my will to persevere. -Super C. IV: Charming game, the SNES is my favourite retro console and it was a pleasant experience for sure, great sprites and great musics most of the time (Simon's theme is beautiful), though they're sometimes boring . It also maintains a nice balance of difficulty; easier in the beginning and harder towards the end. However it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. Like yeah I would die often by the end but deaths were merely an annoyance. There wasn't any real struggle with this one, nothing I actually needed to deeply understand or any strategy to elaborate. I bluntly went through each levels until it worked. After Castlevania III this game was a piece of cake. The endgame was very memorable though, it's absolutely amazing. -C. II Simon's Quest: I initially feared that game because of it's notorious reputation on the Internet. This was actually a very pleasant surprise. It's not as unfair as people might want you to believe. YES, there are some very stupid stuff (the NPC's """clues"""), but otherwise everything else is fine. You can find a lot of useful stuff in the manual (places, items, holy water clearing tiles, oak stakes...), and having to actually DRAW the map of the game with names and key informations makes for a very unique and entertaining experience. The OST is excellent, it introduces many very well known Castlevania bangers. The game itself is pretty easy. Very early on you can farm to level up, and use the money to upgrade your whip as soon as you can. No major challenges, no difficulty, you simply explore and have fun discovering the world, very chill! When you get stuck for real, simply look up on the Internet, it's fortunately only necessary very few times. Simon's Quest is not a ClassicVania at all in its gameplay, but it still captures this vibe I adore from the series. The only truly failed thing in Simon's Quest are bosses, they're pitiful in a laughable way. -Castlevania: The first. Not much to say. It's Castlevania in its essence. Hard, excellent OST, great game design, and the epicness of a man singlehandedly going through an entire haunted castle just to whip Dracula's ass. Fuck that corridor with Death at the end though, actual nightmare fuel. -C. Belmont's Revenge: This game takes the first GameBoy installment, and refines it to make it a proprer high quality sequel. Gameplay is very easy in the beginning, by the end it gets hard but not that much, yet it remains fun. Ropes are awesome to play with, subweapons are finally here, and the OST is beautiful for a Gameboy game (some tracks are from classical composition, like "Passepied"). Crazy glow up from the original game, no lags and great looking sprites. It might lack in difficulty, but the boss of the final level and Dracula's fight were enough of a challenge for me. It's fun, simple as. -C. III Dracula's Curse: I don't think I could accurately describe how much of a masterpiece it is. Hands down, the best ClassicVania, and it's not even close. I loved it, it's a ten out of ten in every way. Banger music, but the sprite quality and attention to details in the background of stages are incredible for a 8-bit game like this one. It's so pleasant to look at! But where it shines the most is of course in the gameplay. It's one of the most difficult Castlevanias, I suffered a lot, but the game design is brilliant. On your first playthrough, you'll think some levels are unfair or cruel, but you'll never stagnate. All levels are masterfully created, everything was placed with a meaning in mind, it's up to you to understand how to use the tools and the moveset(s) that were given to you to overcome each obstacle. Dracula's Curse is fair; no pixel perfect jumps or mechanically impossible stuff, it's all about knowing what to do. Additionnaly there are two different routes, and the game features four distinct characters each with their own unique playstyle! It has the best replayability of all Castlevania games. It's honestly miraculous to have such content and depth in a NES game. It's a great thing this collections requires four playthrough to get all the achievements, because I got to feel the progress I made every new game. In my final playthrough, (almost) oneshotting levels in which I was initially struggling for hours was pure ecstasy.

Castlevania Anniversary Collection: A trip down memory lane The Castlevania Anniversary Collection is a fantastic offering for fans of classic platformers and Castlevania enthusiasts. This collection brings together several iconic titles from the series' 8-bit and 16-bit eras, offering a comprehensive look at the evolution of the franchise. While not without its minor flaws, the sheer volume of content and the nostalgic charm more than make up for them. **What shines:** * **Nostalgia Factor:** The collection is a love letter to fans, offering a chance to revisit beloved titles and experience the evolution of gameplay mechanics across different entries. * **Game Selection:** The inclusion of *Castlevania*, *Castlevania II: Simon's Quest*, *Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse*, *Super Castlevania IV* provides a rich and varied gameplay experience. * **Additional Features:** The inclusion of a music player, a gallery of concept art and promotional materials, and save-state functionality adds significant value to the package. * **Emulation Quality:** The emulation is generally solid, allowing for smooth gameplay across the included titles. **Areas for Improvement:** * **Simon's Quest's Infamous Design:** *Castlevania II: Simon's Quest* remains notoriously difficult and obtuse in its design, even by retro standards. This is a known issue, and the collection does nothing to alleviate it. * **Limited Options:** While save-states are a welcome addition, other modern conveniences like rewind functionality are absent. Some players might find this limiting. **Overall:** Despite the shortcomings of *Simon's Quest*'s design and the lack of some modern features, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection is a must-have for fans of the series and classic action-platformers. The sheer volume of content, the nostalgia factor, and the additional features make this a worthwhile purchase for those who want to experience the history of Castlevania firsthand. The collection is a testament to the legacy of the franchise and provides hours of enjoyable gameplay.

Castlevania is one of my favorite series and love seeing some of old school ones brought together to Steam. Its about time for a 4K remaster of SOTN...

Getting ping-ponged by a bat into a water to instantly lose all HP is my favourite form of amusement...

This marks the beginning of a legendary brand and a peak moment for Konami. The Castlevania Anniversary Collection brings back the initial episodes of the iconic saga featuring the Belmont Clan's battle against Dracula and his allies. The Metroidvania genre might not exist without the influence of Castlevania.

Great collection that lets me easily play old CV games.

I've finished the first 2 games and, so far, it's pretty good

Its cool