First -- absolutely agreed 100% with him about Super Castlevania IV. Best controls in the series, and a nearly perfect game too. Just exceptional work, it's almost certainly my favorite game in the series. At least, none of the other ones I've played can compete. Lots of levels, interesting level designs, exceptional music, that awesome 8-way whip that I badly wish they had kept in the series, and more... I just can't agree with pretty much any of the people who dislike its' complaints. Nor does the AGVN, evidently. No branching paths? With this many levels, I don't care. No other characters? Oh well, Simon is awesome here. Difficulty? Well, there is a hard mode you unlock after you beat it... and it's a moderate challenge at least. Fun the whole way through. Oh, and the fact that it actually gives you new passwords after every boss in the boss rush at the end impressed me and made me very happy, you don't have to redo it all every time you die!
Phantom Flapjack said:
Pretty sure all you had to do was stand in front of the wall and push A to plant the nitro and mandragora. Anyway, dude's crazy. Castlevania 64's soundtrack was pretty great
Yup. I don't even remember the Nitro part, must not have been that annoying, for me at least. I did just look it up though, and that's exactly what you do. It was obvious even in the video though, he didn't even get anywhere near the door before trying to use the item, most likely because he knew that that way it'd actually work and be less funny for what he wanted to do in the video. Just chalk it up to another case of "him doing things that are obviously wrong for the comic value", he does that kind of thing all the time... I'm sure he actually knew what to do there. Too bad he didn't like the games though, yeah. It was a good episode though, you can't take what he says too seriously...
Also, yeah, the music is good. It's quite solid music which fits the series well, and some classic songs from earlier games return. This game has no problems in the music department. The 'atmospheric sounds' parts work well too, to help create the sense of atmosphere that the game has.
Y2Kev said:
Look, CV64 is not a flawless game. It's not even well executed. But it has so much verve. It has so much crazy bullshit. Motorcycle skeletons are not bad, they are good. Nay--they are awesome.
This game has ADVENTURE in ways the newer Castlevanias simply do not have. It has levels like the villa. It has levels like the Tower of Sorcery, which is a fucking ridiculous platforming level loaded with disappearing crystal platforms. It has the Center Castle level, which has an awesome puzzle that was creative and frustrating as hell if you weren't willing to take it slowly and really do what the game wanted you to.
Do I think the game has an awesome--no, an even GOOD--camera, control system, graphics, music, story, or any of that stuff? No. Not at all. But unlike the latest IGAvania crapfest, it has personality. And the component parts--excepting the camera-- are perfectly fine I think.
There are so many moments in the game that remain extremely memorable. Reinhardt walking in on Rosa's suicide is one of them. Malus (lol bad, wish I knew the root word when I was like 10) transforming into Dracula? The fucking world opening up in the end of the game and you being sucked into this desert hell to fight the OMEGA DEMON?
The game is not great. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who can't take frustration. But man, I love it.
And I totally understand AVGN is for fun and all that. I love him. I love every episode. So I'm not one of those.
First -- agreed, apocryphal motorcycle skeletons are awesome. Being a history person that's normally something I'd complain about, but it's just so ridiculous here that I can't help but find it funny...
However, you're not being fair there. The controls are definitely good. It's very nice how easy they made it to grab onto platform edges, you have to TRY to miss jumps, pretty much, most of the time. It'll even flip you around to grab onto a ledge behind you if you jump facing the wrong way! It's a lot more forgiving than a lot of other 3d platformer games, really.
Tower of Sorcery? It wasn't that hard... other parts of the game are a lot harder. The tower with the lava in it was hard, but that one wasn't so much. When I first saw it I thought it would be, but a little practice got me through. You just learn the patterns of the blocks and jump... as I said you won't miss the jumps if you're aimed anywhere near the right direction, so it's just about timing. I agree that it was a cool level though, though I could say things as nice about most of the levels in the game... it's just got such great level designs. I mean, the clock tower level was awesome as well, and the castle center, the first stage in LoD on the boats and dock, etc... it would be hard to choose my favorites.
The game definitely does have some challenging platforming in it, and some tricky puzzles, but it better, given that it's a 3d platform/adventure game. If it didn't I'd be disappointed... but it does. It's got some good fights too. Some of the bossfights are great, the last one for example. Teleporting Dracula, etc... pretty cool.
Even so, combat isn't the game's main strength, platforming and adventure (figuring out how to get where you need to go, puzzle solving, etc) in a very atmospheric game are, and I like it that way. It definitely has a stronger adventure-game feel than most games of this kind, with all the items you have to find and puzzles to solve. I loved that element of the game. Challenging at times when I couldn't figure the puzzle out, sure, but the game is better off for it. That's a good kind of challenge, the kind that actually makes you think.
I've said it before, but I got Castlevania Legacy of Darkness a couple of years ago with no expectations for it to be good, considering how everyone seemed to hate it, but quickly realized that it actually was a really good game. Great atmosphere, good controls, good level designs, some good puzzles, nice graphics (high res mode looks great, way better than the first game!) and more... I just really liked it. I do have the first one too, now, but haven't played it as much. The graphics are nowhere near as good as the second game's, these two characters are way weaker in combat than Cornell, and the fact that you only get the good ending if you beat it in a time limit really ruins it. I hate games with time limits! Anyway, LoD is awesome.
As for the camera, that I will agree wasn't great. Very, very few 3d games back then had great cameras. It's tolerable, but sometimes annoying, sure. But that doesn't ruin the whole game.
I also have to agree about the autoaim, it works but it definitely could have been better. It targets things out of range and is slow to acquire targets sometiems, it seems. It works (definitely far better than trying to do all melee combat or something, he's absolutely right that this game is a lot more fun with a ranged attack!), but it could have been better. Oh well.
Other than that, my main complaints would be that all of the modes except for Cornell's are timed and that really annoys me, he is right that the auto-aim definitely isn't up to OoT's standard, and that while it's okay the camera could have been a little better. BHut the great graphics, good music and sound effects, great level designs, atmosphere, platforming, cool boss fights, puzzles, and more are all done well and make the game quite good overall. It's definitely not perfect, but it's good.
Oh, and I guess he's skipping Bloodlines. Huh. (If not for the fact that it's broken and no fun because of the continue limit, it would have been a great game...)
