The GameOn Magazine - Free Special Editions Castlevania Edition | Page 24

Articles

Discovering Castlevania 64

Discovering Castlevania 64
Matt plays through the first hour of Castlevania on the Nintendo 64
and reports back on his findings through the eyes of hindsight.

By Matt Leslie

D

uring the 80s and the
90s, Castlevania played
a vital part in Nintendo’s
early home console days. The
series offered a dark, highly
atmospheric and essentially
more mature gaming experience
to counterbalance Nintendo’s
more wholesome and cartoonish
coin
collecting
products.
Castlevania had big hits with the
very first game hitting the NES
in 1986 and later spawning two
sequels, and Super Castlevania
IV first arriving in the initial
launch window for the Super
Nintendo. Konami spread the
series around with releases on
other consoles like Castlevania
Bloodlines on the Sega Mega
Drive and Castlevania: Dracula X
on the PC Engine, but fans of the
series knew one thing for sure;
if you went Nintendo, you would
get Castlevania, and it would be
awesome.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Edition

It’s no surprise
t h a t
people would be hyped for
Castlevania on the Nintendo 64,
which is sometimes mistakenly
referred to as “Castlevania 64”
as was the fashion at the time,
but Konami really were irritating
enough to simply give it the exact
same title as the first game.
There was a lot of excitement
for the game, not only was it a
new Castlevania game on a new
Nintendo console, but it was
going to be the first Castlevania
game in 3D! What could go
wrong?
Well, Castlevania fans are split
on the issue; many fans consider
it one of the lowest points of
the series, but the game did
receive a fairly respectable
critical reception on arrival and
still has its defenders to this day.
However, all of this is coming
from someone who has never

played it, but I’m going to change
that and delve into the world of
Castlevania (on the N64) and
keep a log of my thoughts as the
game goes along. Is Castlevania a
poorly aged mess of a transition
to polygon graphics? Or is it an
under-appreciated classic from
the early 3D gaming era? Let’s
dive in right now and find out.

The First 10 Minutes
Almost immediately there’s a
bit of culture shock as the title
screen is introduced by some
guy playing a violin animated in
the most disgusting 3D polygons
the N64 is capable of. This was
probably considered impressive
at the time and given a pass, but
it