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[VGEsoterica]

You'd think someone at Konami would look at the Sega Genesis and say "ok, we need an exclusive over here. Let's take what we have, change it up a bit and ship it. We are on fire lately with Castlevania"

But no...Konami went full pivot mode and while they kept the basic Castlevania gameplay style, they basically changed up absolutely everything else they possibly could?

A Belmont? Nope....not here. Dracula's Castle? sure but it's gonna take a LONG TIME to get there. A female antagonist based on a historical figure? Sure lets throw that in! An art style and vibe that was wholly different than anything that came before it? 100% lets run with it.

Bloodlines is an incredible game but wow is it tonally and vibe wise a completely different type of Castlevania game. Sure there are similarities but in all honestly the designers at Konami looked at the Genesis, decided the hardware needed something different than what was on SNES and went whole hog to a totally different concept.

But hey...they nailed it so it totally worked

Which got me thinking GAF; what other good examples of game franchises that had a totally different "feel" when they went from one companies hardware to the next are out there? Normally I have a couple good examples but I am stumped on this one this morning

 

[VGEsoterica]

or Vampire Killer as its known in Japan

 

[RoboFu]

It was okay but not as good as many other games in the series. the controls just felt a bit ..off for a castlevania game.

 

[pepodmc_]

For the people who doesnt know this, you can play the game with cd quality music thanks to a msu-md patch for the game:

 

[VGEsoterica]

It was okay but not as good as many other games in the series. the controls just felt a bit ..off for a castlevania game.

Interesting take. Can’t say I feel any difference in the controls personally

 

[RoboFu]

Interesting take. Can’t say I feel any difference in the controls personally

its like a faster ... more arcadey like a hyper mode castlevania. every other castlevania has that slower more precise feel. even SONT has that slow precise feel even if it is faster.

 

[Sojiro]

This game is damn good, definitely a top contender of the Classicvania games. I think its a better CV game than Super Castlevania IV these days, a different viewpoint than my younger self lol. Bloodlines does do a good bit of things differently from traditional Castlevania games, but I think it all works well and gives it a unique identity for the series.

 

[VGEsoterica]

This game is damn good, definitely a top contender of the Classicvania games. I think its a better CV game than Super Castlevania IV these days, a different viewpoint than my younger self lol. Bloodlines does do a good bit of things differently from traditional Castlevania games, but I think it all works well and gives it a unique identity for the series.

It feels so different from IV that it’s hard for me to compare them to be entirely honest

 

[VGEsoterica]

its like a faster ... more arcadey like a hyper mode castlevania. every other castlevania has that slower more precise feel. even SONT has that slow precise feel even if it is faster.

I guess that kinda makes sense. I mean there is def a diff move set and the game can feel a bit faster

 

[SpiceRacz]

The boss rush thing at the end is really difficult and kind of soured me on the game last time I played. I need to replay it.

 

[VGEsoterica]

The boss rush thing at the end is really difficult and kind of soured me on the game last time I played. I need to replay it.

The end of the game is hard AF no questions asked

 

[Badlucktroll]

I remember all the different Jurassic Parks in 1993. My favorite was the genesis version.

 

[BusierDonkey]

Contra Hard Corps on the Genesis royally kicked the shit out of the SNES Contra III. Way crazier levels, branching paths, more bosses and in general just way more insane. No top-down garbage either. I just played it last year with my brother on his MD after recently playing Contra III on the SNES and it blew my mind.

 

[yurinka]

I think it was good, but I did prefer Rondo of Blood and Castlevania IV.

 

[kunonabi]

I've always loved Bloodlines. I was always let down by Rondo and Super so Bloodlines was my 16 bit castlevania of choice.

As for hardware shifts lots of titles got reworked for the Wii but Dead Space Extraction was one of the best. I actually liked it more than any of the mainline titles.

 

[-Zelda-]

There are a lot of Castlevania games I miss to be honest, of varying popularity. I miss those two ps2 Castlevania games and also Lords of Shadow. I also miss PoR and OoE. Especially PoR and OoE. Wish those were on the Switch. If they ever give us SoTN again, please give us the option to have the English PS1 voices instead of just the PSP voices.

 

[VGEsoterica]

I've always loved Bloodlines. I was always let down by Rondo and Super so Bloodlines was my 16 bit castlevania of choice.

As for hardware shifts lots of titles got reworked for the Wii but Dead Space Extraction was one of the best. I actually liked it more than any of the mainline titles.

Let down by Rondo? (Scratches head and looks confused)

 

[Daytonabot]

Let down by Rondo? (Scratches head and looks confused)

He has to be talking about the SNES mess, which really isn't Rondo.

 

[kunonabi]

He has to be talking about the SNES mess, which really isn't Rondo.

Nope I mean Rondo. Im not a big fan of it. At least compared to other CV games anyway.