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Castlevania for the ZX Spectrum
Release: Full version to release soon
Words: Carl Williams
Interesting: It is Castlevania II on the Spectrum
Improve it by: Adding more levels and enemies
Annoying Because: The full version isn’t here yet
Konami never released
an official version of
Castlevania for the ZX
Spectrum but that has
not stopped fans from
making their own
version. One of the
games entered in the
recent Retro Games
Battle 2014 competition (www.retrogamesbattle.com)
was a Castlevania II game for the ZX Spectrum.
Features include one
town with multiple
people and several
rooms, one outlaying
area with werewolves
and skeletons once
you descend the stairs
to the depths. Also
some screens are
underground and feature some . Not a lot of game play
but, remember, this is a demo. The full version will
surely feature more levels, more enemies, basically more
of everything– except color probably.
Before you get all excited, this is a demo, the full version
has not been released as of this writing. What is there are
several levels, a town with inhabitants and plenty of
enemies. Everything has that Castlevania feel to it from
the stairs to the skeleton and werewolf enemies you will
encounter.
The controls are easy to use but somewhat awkward with
“P” (right) and “O” (left) and “Space” (whip) as the main
action buttons. Gamers are probably more used to the
Quake control format, aka WASD but you will quickly
get used to Castlevania’s setup.
Graphically the levels scream Castlevania from the
backgrounds to the buildings in town and the blocks that
make up the majority of the levels. Visually this game
looks a lot like the old Game Boy Castlevania Legend
games due to the severe lack of color– this is what one
might think those old portable games would look like if
played through a Super Game Boy on a Super Nintendo.
I am not saying that the color selection is bad, the choices
are fitting considering the limitations of the platform we
seeing this on.
Fans know there is a lot of content in the Castlevania
series that can be exploited in fan works like this. It is
refreshing to see someone making a fan game based on
Simon’s Quest as that is my favorite Castlevania game,
and the only one that I personally beat. I will definitely
be watching the development of this game as it
progresses.
This is, for all intents and purposes, Castlevania II on the
ZX Spectrum.
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