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• Whatcha Playing: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Again)

  I have a small stable of games I love returning to once in a while, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is among them. I own the original Playstation version (the actual original: it lacks the flu-snot green bar that labels it a best-selling re-release) and the emulation that was packed with the PSP's Dracula X Chronicles. I've finished both multiple times, but I decided that wasn't enough, so I downloaded the game once more on XBLA. Having lost my original Playstation at the bottom our sock drawer something like five years ago, it's nice to play Symphony of the Night on a large screen once more. It'd be nice if the Achievements weren't lame, but eh, if wishes were horses, and all that. Symphony of the Night is still firmly in the top quality tier of the Castlevania hierarchy, but aging gamers draw in vital nutrients through message board fights about whether or not an esteemed game still deserves its lofty status. Over the past handful of years, Symphony of the Night has ignited similar arguments. Is the game as brilliant as we remember it? Was the Inverted Castle a stroke of game design genius or a cheap trick to extend gameplay? Read More... Posted Jan 30 2009, 11:06 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, psp, konami, castlevania, Playstation, retro, symphony of the night, 2d, xbla, nadia oxford, 32-bit, dracula x chronicles, sprites

• Dracula's Bad Day

  On the Internet, there is a man named Kajetokun. Kajetokun brought us videos like Over 9000 and Gutsman's Ass, so you may have already decided you hate him, even if you weren't familiar with his name. Since hate doesn't tend to slow down the contributions of the creatively insane, Kajetokun has posted another something on YouTube. It's A Day in Dracula's Life. In fact, it's the only day in Dracula's Life. No sooner is Dracula resurrected by the dark priest Shaft than his delicious pot roast dinner is interrupted by the arrival of Richter Ballmont. What follows is a lot of cursing and stuffing of meat and money into candles and lanterns. Read More... Posted Jan 19 2009, 11:40 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: castlevania, mega man, symphony of the night, dracula, dragon ball z, nadia oxford, death, over 9000, kajetokun, gutsman, succubus

• Castlevania III: Dracula's Reign Ends, Sypha's Baby Factory Opens

  When I was a kid, I ate crayons while I was supposed to be tested for giftedness, I lost interest in achieving the honour roll when I found out it wasn't covered with sticky frosting, and I could never understand why grown-ups got so uppity if I was wearing my shirt backwards (still can't). But I finished Castlevania III all by myself, without cheating, and I'm still damn proud of that. It remains one of about two games both my husband and I played as kids, but only I've completed. I've only finished the game with Grant as my aide, mind you. Even my childlike stupidity and gullibility had its limits. “Ha ha,” I said as I watched the credits scroll, “I am never doing this again!” Ah, but it looks like I will with the help of the Virtual Console. Once I get my platforming legs back, I'd like to try and finish the game with Sypha. I've seen her ending already thanks to the modern magic of YouTube, but it still fascinates me. The second Dracula dies, the schmatte covering Sypha's head falls off on cue and Trevor's like, “Holy shit, Imma touch this bitch.” And he does. Read More... Posted Jan 12 2009, 09:45 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, nes, konami, castlevania, 8-bit, retro, castlevania iii, nadia oxford, virtual console, trevor belmont, sypha

• Beating the Dead Horse Who Has It Coming: Playstation Releases on PSN

  Castlevania Chronicles, the peculiar Playstation remake of a peculiar X68000 remake of the original Castlevania, was released as a downloadable title on Playstation Network today. It ain’t the best Castlevania out there, but it’s still a swell action title. The disc release was never widely distributed either, so this will be the very first time most interested players will even get the chance to try it out. Of course, the same could be said of a lot of Playstation games. The halcyon days of 2003 when you could walk into any Blockbuster or Gamestop in the country and pick up five classic PS1 games, often times still shrinkwrapped, for ten or twenty bucks are long over, and the collector’s market is making many great games prohibitively expensive. Want to play Silent Hill? Hope you’ve got an extra sixty-five dollars lying around. How about Suikoden II, considered to be the series’ definitive installment? That’ll be $150. And what about cult classics like CyberConnect2’s Silent Bomber? Yeah, seventy smackers. You shouldn’t have to pay top dollar for these games, though, considering they could very easily be released on the Playstation Network. Read More... Posted Dec 18 2008, 06:45 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, psp, silent hill, konami, castlevania, Playstation, psn, scea, Suikoden, cyberconnect2, castlevania chronicles, silent bomber, Suikoden ii

• Watcha' Playing: Castlevania – Order of Ecclesia

  The Giant Enemy Crab lives forever in infamy. The latest Castlevania game to hit the DS is possibly the best one yet, or at the least it rubs shoulders with the best in the series in this gamer's opinion. Ever since the series started taking cues from Metroid, Castlevania (in 2D) hasn't messed much with what's become a winning formula. That said, the series has gotten a little bit stale. The point where this really came home for me was with Portrait of Ruin: a solid and fun game that I just had a heck of a time getting into. It took two false starts before I buckled down and played the game all the way through. Ecclesia however, feels fresh. Read More... Posted Nov 17 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: castlevania, amber ahlborn, ds, watcha playing, castlevania order of ecclesia

• Sony Might Just Hate You

  Even before the company’s dramatic fall from grace, there has been a number of reasons a discerning individual might think that Sony hates them. The original Playstation had a failure rate to challenge the Xbox 360’s and the first DualShock controller didn’t become a pack-in with the system for months after its release. The Playstation 2 launched at a pricey $299 and that price held until May of 2002 when Sony suddenly and without forewarning dropped it to $199, leaving thousands of gamers out a hundred bucks when a simple press release could have saved them the trouble. The PSP launched and its screen was plagued by dead pixels and the Playstation 3 cost half a grand at the cheapest when it launched in ’06. One day, they’re committed to backwards compatibility and against rumble in controllers, and the next they’re asking you drop sixty smackers on a controller that shakes and backwards compatibility is for the birds. Yep. Sony hates you. Sony hates all of us. Well, today, Sony hates your potential creativity. Read More... Posted Nov 13 2008, 05:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, playstation 3, scee, psp, castlevania, sony, playstation 2, Playstation, psn, symphony of the night, castlevania iii, scea, alucard, dualshock

• Watcha Playing: The Palette Cleanser

  The past six weeks have been teeming with meaty, action games. I’ve been working through them slowly but surely, like an elegant seven course meal. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was thick, hot comfort fare, a brief appetizer of sloppy design coated in delicious Stormtrooper and rancor killing action. The game’s a buggy mess, really, the gaming equivalent of empty calories, but definitely satisfying. Then there was the dynamic horror duo of Dead Space and Silent Hill: Homecoming, a soup and salad combo built to terrify. They didn’t really scare, but instead delivered visceral body simulations. Both games succeeded by making you constantly aware of your avatar’s physical presence and the heft of their actions, and they achieved this through a careful synergy between atmosphere and play. Yakuza 2 was truly the main course, a game I had no expectations for whatsoever that turned into an all time favorite. Its broad adventure, pulp tale of cops and crooks, and simple but ceaselessly engaging fisticuffs were nourishing, more substantial than anything released on current gen consoles. For dessert, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Another bonafide surprise, Ecclesia turned out to not be another retread through Igarashi’s decade-old formula, but a challenging successor to Castlevania 2 with fierce action whose variety and elegance was exceeded only by the game’s environments. Yes, it’s been a great month of big games, but it’s been the small things I’ve played in between them, games I’ve played for no more than a handful of minutes here and there, that have given the most *ahem* food for thought. Read More... Posted Oct 29 2008, 05:45 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, playstation 3, nintendo, star wars, nintendo ds, microsoft, xbox 360, wii, silent hill, silent hill homecoming, castlevania, sony, playstation 2, mega man, katamari damacy, fable 2, mega man 9, dead space, castle crashers, star wars the force unleashed, castlevania order of ecclesia, yakuza 2, wipeout hd

• Let the Mega Man 9 Speedruns Continue

  Some weeks back, our very own Bob Mackey reported on the first speedruns of Mega Man 9. But the best clip out at that point was multi-segmented and started out with 999 screws, which is kind of cheating in my book. Now, watch as champion speedrunner Nicholas “SirVG” Hoppe (who holds world speed records on such classics as Actraiser, Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood) delivers the goods with a single-segment, new-game run. (And provides entertaining captions to boot.) Hit the jump to check it out. Read More... Posted Oct 23 2008, 05:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, actraiser, capcom, castlevania, mega man, rondo of blood, speedrun, mega man 9, bob mackey, speed run, kirby nightmare in dreamland, nicholas hoppe

• Suffering Castlevania Fatigue

  It's hard to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when it comes to Castlevania--I'd rather see an installment from Koji Igarashi's beloved franchise on the DS than yet another animal grooming game. But since the series has moved to the DS, I've been slightly disappointed. As good as Dawn of Sorrow was on its own terms, the game felt waaay too much like Aria of Sorrow, even within the limited Castlevania framework established over a decade ago by Symphony of the Night. (I'll go ahead and admit that, three years later, Dawn is a game I really need to re-visit, now that I'm even further removed from its predecessor.) My reaction was even worse with 2006's Portrait of Ruin which claimed to be a return to the roots of classic Castlevania that I never liked much to begin with.  I can't tell you if Portrait lived up to its promises, because my limited time with the game was spent pressing the character change button in order to annoy people in my immediate vicinity. "Charlotte!" "Jonathan!" "Charlotte!" "Jonathan!" You get the idea. Read More... Posted Oct 21 2008, 09:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: castlevania, castlevania 2, ds, koji igarashi, bob mackey, castlevania portrait of ruin, castlevania aria of sorrow, castlevania dawn of sorrow

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 3

  Donkey Kong Country – Snow Barrel Blast Donkey Kong Country isn’t the most fondly remembered SNES game out there. It was marketed to hell and back in 1994, its pre-rendered characters shoved down millions of gamers’ gullets as a final grasp at technological relevance before the dawn of 3D gaming’s rule. At heart, it’s a simplistic and fun platformer whose visuals have aged poorly. But certain stages in DKC still impress fourteen years later, thanks to a combination of inspired graphical presentation and deft sound arrangement. Snow Barrel Blast is the best DKC has to offer. An ice level that seems simple enough when Donkey and Diddy Kong emerge from an igloo at the start but soars when the sky starts to darken and the level goes from sunny winter landscape to brooding driving snow storm. It’s purely aesthetic, not informing the game’s basic platforming at all. But its beauty makes it the one thing memorable about DKC besides the hype. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:10 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 2

  Lost Planet – The Whole Game Lost Planet, Keiji Inafune’s attempt to make Halo for Japan, is one of this console generation’s most underappreciated games. The shooting is tight, the levels are impeccably designed, the automated-grappling-hook platforming is neat, and the Starship Troopers-bug baddies are some of the cooler looking HD threats out there. Sure, it has some clunky parts, but the good far outweighs the bad. What’s more, the entire game is all about snow and ice. The initial stages, wandering the frozen wastes of E.D.N. III, are still jaw dropping. It isn’t even the swirling snow or the ice-bound cities; it’s the sound, the crunch, of stomping through snow drifts. My teeth grit just thinking about it. The snowy setting is also behind Lost Planet’s health system. Your health is constantly draining because of the cold, so you’re forced to constantly collect the body heat of felled foes. That is cooler than crawling inside a Taun-Taun. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:05 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• The Ten Greatest Ice Levels in Gaming History, part 1

  Autumn may only be a few weeks old, but, as it is with all seasons, you can feel its successor growing during the increasingly long nights. It’s getting cold and the chill has got us thinking about cool things, here at 61 Frames Per Second. As a result, we’re doing two things. One, we’re quoting Batman and Robin far more than we should. Two, we’re thinking about ice levels. Ice levels, like fire levels, refers to a theme more than a specific element. An ice level is more than ice. It’s freezing water, driving snow, strong wind, and grey skies. It’s gaming that makes you want to wrap up in a giant bearskin rug. Naked. Or not, to each their own. Here, we present to you, the top ten greatest ice levels in gaming history. – John Constantine Chrono Trigger – Death Peak *Spoilers. Big Ones.* The snow-capped peak is not an uncommon locale in role-playing games. You’ve been there before: there’s a giant monster, typically abominable, waiting for you at the summit, and the journey to him is guaranteed to entail solving an ice block puzzle or three. You are also guaranteed to find some convenient Ice Armor or even, if you’re lucky, a Fire Sword. Chrono Trigger’s Death Peak, the lone natural environment in the Lavos-ruined 2300 AD, is different. It is, ostensibly, optional. Like everything else in Trigger’s end game following the silent hero’s death, you can skip the mountain entirely, though ascending it is fundamental in reaching the plot’s true conclusion. Death Peak is the physical embodiment of everything at stake in Trigger’s conflict, a frozen place inhabited by stray creatures, cold, and Lavos’ offspring, growing fat on decay, waiting to leave the dead planet to claim others as their own. Its challenge is both environmental and emblematic: your surviving heroes must push against snow and wind, against nature, to both save the world and also their fallen friend. No boss waits at the pinnacle, just a dreary sky and a chance to use the Chrono Trigger itself. When Crono is resurrected, the wind and snow cease, the sun emerges from the clouds and is eclipsed. If you choose to see it, it is the turning point in the game, the moment hope overcomes despair. – JC Read More... Posted Oct 16 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: actraiser, metal gear solid, top ten, dawn of sorrow, castlevania, list, donkey kong, chrono trigger, sonic the hedgehog, halo, super mario bros 2, donkey kong country, metroid prime, metal gear solid 4, keiji inafune, lost planet, yuzo kushiro, ice levels, tim burton, starship troopers, marquis de sade, shadow moses, diddy kong, soma cruz, danny elfman, sonic and knuckles, ice cap zone, phendrana drifts, super ghouls 'n' ghosts, quintet, kenji yamamoto

• Castlevania Symphony of the Night 2: What is a Screenshot? A Miserable Little Pile of Secrets!

  Can you dig it, everyone? Tokyo Game Show is off to a running start and while it appears that some games that everyone expected to appear, like Team Ico’s Playstation 3 debut, are nowhere to be found, plenty of other exciting games are rearing their glorious digital heads. Who in their right minds expected No More Heroes 2 to be announced? That is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Of course, Tokyo Game Show isn’t without a little mystery here in 2008. For example, take this screenshot Koji Igarashi showed off during a chat about Castlevania: Why, that appears to be Alucard, star of the ubiquitous Symphony of the Night and apple of ten billion goth girls’ eyes. Read More... Posted Oct 09 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, konami, castlevania, koji igarashi, rumor

• Watcha Playing: Castlevania - Portrait of Ruin

  I have had Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin ever since it was released, but only now am I finally going to beat it. The first time I played it, I screwed up and wasn't going to get the best ending. Yeah, I'm one of those gamers who would rather start over than continue after making a bad plot point choice. Unfortunately, I just haven't been in the mood for a Castlevania game for quite a long time. After a few false starts, the game has languished on my shelf for months. There's another Castlevania coming for the DS soon, however, so it's time I closed the book on this one. Read More... Posted Oct 09 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: castlevania, amber ahlborn, ds, watcha playing, castlevania portrait of ruin

• Alternate Soundtrack: Castlevania III vs Bush

  So there's this election around the corner, right? All about choosing a new President for the United States or whatever, and I keep hearing people complain about how after this election they won't be able to rant about how much they hate Bush anymore. Personally I don't understand where they're coming from. I, for one, love Bush. Those guys rocked so hard throughout the 1990's and early 00's and anyone who hates on them just can't be my friend anymore. I've always been particularly smitten with their 1996 sophomore record Razorblade Suitcase, an emotionally dense powerhouse of crunched guitars, squealing feedback and ominous negative space. This album cries out for monsters, as demonstrated in the music videos for singles "Greedy Fly" and "Mouth", and monsters it shall receive in the form of Konami's 1990 classic Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Read More... Posted Sep 30 2008, 11:30 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, nes, konami, castlevania, castlevania iii, bush

• What's in my MP3 Player: Castlevania II "Castle of Tears"

  One of the things the Castlevania series is known for is its music. In fact, much like the Zelda series, there are some iconic tunes that tend to pop up again and again, songs like “Bloody Tears” which is the source of today's featured remix.  “Castle of Tears” by remixer DigiE is a fast paced in-your-face electronica mix, ready to be downloaded for your listening pleasure. Castlevania II was the first Castlevania game I ever played. I rented it and never finished it. I wandered around, collecting Dracula's body parts until I got to that point in the game where everybody got stuck. Earn yourself some Game Geek Cred and be the first person in comments to guess what point in the game stonewalled me. Damn those townsfolk and their crappy hints (and outright lies). Read More... Posted Sep 30 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments Filed under: castlevania, amber ahlborn, game music, what's in my mp3 player

• Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet

  Ever since its announcement, excited gamers across the internet land have been discussing their level-making plans for LittleBigPlanet. Puzzle levels, hardcore platforming levels, insane art landscapes, and, most importantly, Level 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. Yes, LittleBigPlanet may be all about getting your creative juices flowing but there was never a doubt in anyone’s mind that players were going to throw down all sorts of lovely, copyright-infringing devotionals to gaming’s beloved creations of old. Team Sportsmanship, a group of art students participating in Parsons New School of Design’s Game Jam event, didn’t explicitly recreate a level from Fumito Ueda’s epic, but as PS3 Fanboy put it, their level can only be named Shadow of the LittleBigColossus. It’s a work of art, a lovingly crafted riff on Shadow of the Colossus’ grand encounters made terribly adorable by LBP’s style and Sackboy mascot. Of course, this got me thinking: what games are perfectly fit for the LittleBigPlanet treatment? Here’s what came to mind. Castlevania III Besides being a classic platformer overflowing with badass levels primed for reimagining, Castlevania III is also uniquely suited to LBP’s four-player challenges. You’ve got a vampire, a pirate, a witch lady, and a dude with a whip. What do they do together? They scale clock towers and kick the crap out of less-than-friendly vampires. Perfect. Read More... Posted Sep 24 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, top ten, silent hill, castlevania, shadow of the colossus, leisure suit larry, silhouette mirage, top five, joe & mac

• Castlevania Judgment(s): Iga Continues to Show a Keen Understanding of His Franchise on DS, But His First Wii Title Misses the Point

  I tried to keep an open mind when Castlevania Judgment was announced back at the beginning of July. Yeah, it seemed that making a Castlevania themed fighting game – oh, forgive me, Mister Igarashi. A 3D versus action game. Right. – was about as good an idea as a Sonic the Hedgehog fighting game, but it might be good! Stranger things have, after all, happened, and Castlevania has twenty years worth of memorable characters, weapons, and environments to pull from. The open arena play, borrowing heavily from Capcom’s fondly remembered Power Stone brawlers on Dreamcast, also seemed like the ideal foundation for the franchise’s transition into the world of fighters. Maybe it would be good fun. Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be as bad as Soul Calibur Legends. Well, it’s better than Soul Calibur Legends, but, after going a few rounds with at Konami’s fall preview event in New York today, I wouldn’t call Castlevania Judgment a must play Wii game. I also wouldn’t call it a good game. Read More... Posted Sep 16 2008, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, wii, konami, castlevania, koji igrashi

• Castlevania: Curse of the Stupid Red-Headed Kid

  So I'm one of about three people who really enjoyed Castlevania: Curse of Darkness for the Playstation 2. It was pretty easy, pretty linear and pretty dull next to my personal Saviour, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but I really liked hatching and evolving the Innocent Devils. I had dragons, a phoenix, a maggot-gnawed crow named Bonnie Brae and some kind of deity that looked like the product of a questionable encounter between an angel and a devil. I am okay with alternative Pokemon raising. I was pretty excited when I heard Tokyopop is publishing a Curse of Darkness manga adaptation. I was even more excited when I landed a review copy. When I opened 'er up and was hit in the face by a red-headed lead boy named Ted, my excitement drained like a fratboy's bladder on a Sunday morning. Read More... Posted Sep 15 2008, 03:11 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: castlevania, playstation 2, manga, comics, nadia oxford, stupid kids, tokyopop, castlevania curse of darkness

• Indie Dev Moment: A Game a Month From Kloonigames

  I sometimes worry that even though I talk a big game about championing videogames as a creative medium, I’m full of crap. Nine times out ten, if I’m playing a game, it’s some blockbuster title or the twentieth entry in a franchise that’s been milked for more than a decade. If a game with the word Castlevania in its name is on the shelf next to, say, Rhythm Tengoku, I’m going to buy Castlevania. I’m that guy. I am part of the problem. Read More... Posted Aug 27 2008, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, castlevania, indie dev moment, rhythm tengoku, kloonigames, infinite lives, petri purho

• What Is a Man? More Than a 4Chan Meme

  Konami will never live down the original translation afflicted upon Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It tried to atone for past sins by re-doing the voicework for SOTN in Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP. It was a fine attempt, but a worthless gesture overall; you can't erase the past. I can't deny the fact I'm descended from sheep thieves and Konami can't deny Dracula's infamous riddle to Richter Belmont. "What is a man?" (I don't know Dracula, what is a man?) "A miserable little pile of secrets!" I hang out and make trouble at Gamespite because sometimes I learn something new. Today, for example, I learned through a fellow forum comrade named eirikr that Dracula's riddle is not his own. It was, in fact, lifted from a French author named Andre Malraux. Interestingly, Malraux was born in 1901, meaning he picked up the quote from Dracula during a time jaunt through the Carpathian Mountains. Damn, I need to manipulate some kids into writing this down for a history project. These are TRUFAX being doled out here, people. Remember them, and pass them onto your children. If you're interested in the source material, check out The Big Curmudgeon: 2,500 Outrageously Irreverent Quotations from World-Class Grumps and Cantankerous Commentators. If you can recite the book's title to the store clerk before running out of breath and dying, that is. Read More... Posted Jul 28 2008, 11:17 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: konami, castlevania, dracula x, koji igarashi, castlevana: symphony of the night, what is a man, dracula, bad quotes, angry french dudes

• Screen Test: Fragile

  I’m as bad as every other slavering fanboy on the internet when it comes to Wii software, ranting about the garbage publishers have vomited onto the system, games that would have been visual embarrassments on the Dreamcast with gameplay that makes Tamagotchis seem like the most sophisticated machines on earth. Instead of a new 2D adventure, Konami makes a Castlevania fighting game. Instead of a brand new Rygar game, Tecmo ports over a six year-old PS2 title. Instead of a fresh Resident Evil, Capcom makes a glorified light gun game. The worst part is that some people are making very promising titles for the Wii, yet no one knows about them. Case in point: Namco’s Fragile. Read More... Posted Jul 22 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, capcom, screen test, konami, castlevania, resident evil 2, tri-crescendo, fragile, tecmo, namco

• Games to Movies: Why Is It So Gad-Danged Hard?

  Pardon me, but might I bother you to turn your head while I spew vulgarities? The live-action Castlevania movie by Paul W.S. Anderson is going to be as stinking and putrid as a zombie's testicles. Yeah, as rotten as zombie testicles stewing like dumplings in a pool of sweat collected in the crotch of a pair of leather pants. And...the testicles are dangling. By, like, one scrap of skin. One scrap of maggot-chewed skin. We're used to this, right? It's the curse of video game-based movies to be absolutely no good. A friend of mine who's a huge Silent Hill fan convinced a non-gaming friend of mine to see the Silent Hill movie. Second friend saw the movie and still insists that first friend owes her eight bucks for making her see the stupidest film in the world. But it's not as if the Silent Hill series is incapable of keeping even hardcore horror fans up all night. Why do games translate so badly into movies? Is it because directors (we're not even counting Uwe Boll) have no qualms about taking creative liberties with the source material--the lack of a whip for Simon Belmont's film being a perfect example? That certainly can't be helping the problem. On the other hand, there are game-to-movie adaptations, mostly of Japanese origin, that are as easily recognisable as their inspirations...but they still suck. Read More... Posted Jul 18 2008, 06:10 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: silent hill, castlevania, crisis core, castlevania iii, the dark knight, advent children, james jean, bad movies, spirits paul ws anderson, game movies, within, final fantasy vii, warren ellis

• Games to Film: Paul W.S. Anderson’s Castlevania

  For the life of me, I cannot figure out how Paul W.S. Anderson keeps getting paid to make movies, especially movies based on videogames. The man is a different sort of enigma than Uwe Boll. Boll, after all, manages to self-finance the majority of his filmic game adaptations through a labyrinth of German tax shelters and Satanic covenants. Paul W.S. Anderson, on the other hand, gets actual studio funding to make stinkers like AVP and Soldier. In all fairness, Anderson’s Resident Evil trilogy and his legitimately hilarious Mortal Kombat don’t actually lower a viewer’s IQ like Boll’s House of the Dead; Anderson makes trash, not garbage. But it doesn’t change the fact that his movies suck. Yes, even Event Horizon. When it was announced in 2005 that Anderson had gotten his mitts on the Castlevania franchise, it was pretty disappointing. Read More... Posted Jul 14 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, games to film, resident evil, castlevania, mortal kombat, uwe boll, paul ws anderson

• We Are Watching Many, Many Speedruns. Join Us in Some Castlevania!

  As I mentioned about a month back, I’m still pretty new to the whole speedrunning scene. Truth is, they’re usually something of a hassle to watch. You’ve gotta download the whole shebang or you’ve got to watch like eight parts of the same run on YouTube. I demand instant gratification from the internet at all times! Which is why I’m pretty thrilled that the go-to source for all things speedrunning, Speed Demos Archive, now has most of their catalog of world-record runs viewable as flash videos! Read More... Posted Jul 09 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, castlevania, speedrun, speed demos archive

• Whatcha Playing: The New Adventures of the Nintendo DS

  A strange thing happened ‘round about last October. For the first time since its release in April 2005, I was regularly playing games on PSP. I had been carrying a grudge against Sony for promising the world with their first handheld and not delivering even a fraction of the compelling software that they had on the first two home Playstations. But then, all of a sudden, there were all these fantastic games to sink my teeth into. Strategy RPGs like Jeanne D’Arc, old-school action like Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and true genre benders like Crush had finally brought me into the PSP fold. The drawback? My DS went on the shelf and wasn’t touched for months. Oh, I brought it down when Contra 4 came out and on that rare Saturday morning that I felt like going back to my Animal Crossing village to do some weeding, stomp some roaches, and writing some letters. But I wasn’t playing anything new and I started wondering if the brief reign of the DS — not as a force of business but as a fount of compelling design — was over. Man, was that stupid. Read More... Posted Jul 07 2008, 04:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, nintendo ds, psp, castlevania, pokemon, phoenix wright, contra, ninja gaiden, jeanne d'arc, shiren the wanderer, crush

• Castlevania Fighting Game Elicits Anguished Moans From the Living

  Looks like the August issue of Nintendo Power is full of thrills and chills. The news about Mega Man 9 being developed in an 8-bit style brings the thrills, whereas a baffling preview of a Castlevania fighting game for the Wii is bringing the chills. Not the good kind of chills that you got when you first played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, mind you. These are the bad, feverish chills with the pained moaning and cold sweat. Read More... Posted Jul 01 2008, 12:00 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: wii, castlevania, castlevania 3, nintendo power, belmont, takeshi obata, manga, death note, fighting games, ayami kojima, symphony of the night

• Chiptune Friday: Do the Monster Mash!

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit It's Friday the 13th, which means its time for a super-spooky edition of Chiptune Friday! Here's the ever-popular "Bloody Tears" from 61FPS favorite Castlevania II: Simon's Quest: Oh yeah, that gets me in the mood to dance with some cute vampire girls before I have to go reclaim chunks of Dracula's body from five different castles... Read More... Posted Jun 13 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: derrick sanskrit, nes, castlevania, chiptune friday

• The Ten Most Adventurous Sequels in Gaming History, Part 1

  More than any other creative medium, videogames rely on sequels. Unlike serial fiction (television, comics) or film franchising focused on continuing narrative and familiar characters, videogame sequels — at their best, mind you — are not just the next chapter of a story or the return of a popular protagonist. The most successful gameplay designs are perfected through revision. Practice, as they say, makes perfect. And while sequel-as-business-model more often than not leads to stagnation, sometimes pandering to the audience reveals a vein of creativity richer than that found in the source material. Sometimes, a good idea needs to be demolished and rebuilt over its original foundation to become great. This week, 61 Frames Per Second takes a look at gaming's ten most adventurous sequels: direct successors that significantly alter the fundamental design, aesthetically and mechanically, of their predecessors. Some of the entries on this list are great successes, others failures. But they all broke the mold to change our ideas about play. — John Constantine Adventure Island IV Even as an old-school die-hard I've always been pretty indifferent to the Adventure Island series. Sure, it's solid hop-and-bopping, but without much aesthetic or architectural distinction. Does anyone feel passionately about Adventure Island, really? More people might if Adventure Island IV had come out in the States. IV melds the series's standard run-around-whacking-stuff-with-other-stuff mechanics to an ambitious Metroid-esque superstructure, in which newly acquired items must be used to open previously inaccessible sections of a large, continuous map. (The snowboard you pick up in one area gives you passage through a snowy field, and so forth.) This is a familiar tactic today — see recent Castlevania games, for example — but at the time it was unusual, and certainly not where you'd have expected a staid platforming series to go. — Peter Smith Read More... Posted Jun 05 2008, 08:30 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, peter smith, metroid, top ten, castlevania, list, akitoshi kawazu, the ten most adventurous sequels in gaming history, hironobu sakaguchi, final fantasy II, dragon quest, adventure island iv, doki doki panic, super mario bros 2, shigeru miyamoto

• When Good Developers Go Bad: Koji Igarashi

  Koji Igarashi’s a consistent guy. The man-in-black of videogames – he doesn’t really look like Johnny Cash, but he does have a habit of wearing black leather and carrying a whip around in public – Igarashi rose to prominence in 1997 when he released Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the Playstation. SOTN was a fairly dramatic re-imagining of the Castlevania franchise, expanding on the non-linear style of 1988’s Castlevania 2 and molding it into a circuitous, fluid environment in the vein of Metroid. In the past eleven years, Igarashi has overseen seven more Castlevania titles, four of which are in the exact same style as SOTN. On the two dimensional front, Igrashi’s resume is un-indictable; even when his 2D Castlevanias are a little dry (as is the case with 2002’s Harmony of Dissonance), they’re still well-made games. It’s his work in the third-dimension that’s been the problem. Read More... Posted Jun 04 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, xbox 360, wii, castlevania, koji igarashi, nanobreaker