Best NES Castlevania game?

[starsoldier1]

Since it's Halloween and junk I thought it would be cool to see what are the different opinions on the classic three Castlevania NES titles? Castlevania III is my favourite because of the unique playable characters and well polished stage design but do you prefer the more arcade action of the first game or the more unlinear gameplay of the infamous sequel?

http://youtu.be/D2Ij_bcyVnE
Castlevania II Simon's Quest
http://youtu.be/Sd50CNZha24
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse
http://youtu.be/KKUljjXlIAU

[MidnightRider]

III might be my all time favorite of the whole series.

[todesengel]

Castlevania 3 for me, they took everything cool about the first game and expanded on it.

[The Adventurer]

Casitlevania III is an epic game. But Castlevania is a much tighter designed game.

[Gandhara]

Cv iii

[retroman]

I may be the only one who says this, but I like 2. It just has a charm to it. Love the others but I like the roleplaying, day, night stuff that this game had going for it.

[kupomogli]

Castlevania 1, 2, then 3. All three are amazing games, but the overall design in my opinion is the best in that order. The original Castlevania was difficult but excellent level design and enemy placement. Castlevania 2 had a great level design, but a lot of the time you'd be going through the game with enemies that are programmed to just come towards you without much variety in AI which holds it back a bit. Lack of difficulty. Castlevania 3 has a great level design, but I feel that there's some areas in the game that are a little too difficult. It's not cheap difficulty like required memorization, just some difficult parts that can sometimes get frusturating. I haven't yet beaten CV3 without dying once, while the others I have. Doesn't mean it's a bad game, but with several difficult levels in a row, you're eventually going to screw up and die.

[bb_hood]

They are all great, Id probably choose 2 as my favorite because the music is so awesome.

[Tron 2.0]

CV3 just what for it does with it's gameplay and length.Though i favor CV1 more,just for how straight froward it is plus i can all ways finish it in one sitting.I do like CVII and i don't think it's a bad game but it is flawed,beside it suffering from a poor translation.

[Tanooki]

Castlevania III has clear reasons being a big non arcade expansion of the first with others covering the why so far plus that mmc5 chip made for some unique elements too.

That said I have to give the nod to the 2nd game for my vote. As much as it is trendy by some people to be jerky towards it, slightly justified with the confusing translation in a spot making you lost without a guide, the game just does so much so right. Few would ever acknowledge it but that game is really the root of the played out over popular SOTN style of play. It has an open area, exploration, item pick ups, upgraded gear, towns, and more backed with some fairly well designed areas and an amazing sound track.

[Guru of Time and Space]

Simon's Quest is by far the spookiest.
And my favorite.

-GoTaS

[Alpha2099]

All three are good games -- even the second one, once you get past its flaws. My favorite is the original. The third game is more expansive than the first, but it's also a million times harder, to the point where it became too frustrating for me to fully enjoy it. The first doesn't appear *that* difficult by comparison.

I should stress that the original is my favorite of the NES titles. My all-time favorite is Super Castlevania IV on SNES.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

The correct answer is Akumajou Dracula - the Famicom cartridge release of Castlevania 1 released in 1993 in Japan.

It's a bug-fixed version of Castlevania with an option to adjust the difficulty to make it much easier and thus more enjoyable. The NES versions of the games are rather difficult to the point they are sometimes unfair, such as areas with pits and endless streams of recoil causing Madusa heads.

[Lictalon]

Castlevania I for a good arcade game (I actually remember friends and I playing that on Halloween back in, I think, '88 or '89, on the same nite we watched NIghtmare on Elm Street III).

CIII is a better game, but like someone said, epic - meaning it's not good for casual gaming (or a Halloween nite game/movie combo).

CII is atmospheric (and spooky; I still have the Nintendo Power issue for that game), but way too much of an RPG. And his has no action value (the bosses are way too easy to kill).

[Ed Oscuro]

I still haven't gotten around to CV3/Densetsu (I have both), though I played the opening some years ago on my NES (or was that my A/V Famicom..?) and was pretty impressed.

I wouldn't know how to compare the first game to it; the original still has some charm beyond its very tight gameplay. Playing an atrocity like the dark and horrible "Dr. Mario's High Budget Remake" is still fun despite the fact that this clueless author decided that by the second stage people should be able to figure out where staircases are based on repeating blocks of dark pixels (I do, but for people playing the game the first time this would've been a mess). Other hacks use the original tile set but try to sharpen the gameplay difficulty - and mostly demonstrate that the original developers knew what they were doing better than people working years later.

CVII is an interesting game, and one of the groundbreaking titles in its area, but it was already outclassed at the time of its release by the earlier release of Getsu Fuuma Den, the highly superior title with actual level design and an interesting mix of overworld / first-person dungeon (Phantasy Star-style style) areas; the only thing that other game doesn't have is the string of clues. Unfortunately people outside Japan only saw this kind of game, if at all, in the first very sloppy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game's engine which appears to be mostly the same.

CVII is the one of the original trilogy I don't have any version of (let alone all the NES/FC versions, like I have for NES and Famicom versions of the first and third games). While I really appreciate its setting and some of its ideas, I think it's basically unplayable due to the nonsensical level design. Does anybody remember those long piers of blocks? Snore inducing. Or how about the illusory blocks in the Mansions? Aggravating and just not fun to deal with. The clues weren't well-implemented either. I still like the adventure elements and some of the areas - and the game introduced the fantastic Bloody Tears theme (although it sounds a bit odd in its original FDS incarnation). I wouldn't say it's a bad game because of the redeeming features, but it hovers perilously close to the edge of kusoge territory at times.

The correct answer is Akumajou Dracula - the Famicom cartridge release of Castlevania 1 released in 1993 in Japan.

It's a bug-fixed version of Castlevania with an option to adjust the difficulty to make it much easier and thus more enjoyable. The NES versions of the games are rather difficult to the point they are sometimes unfair, such as areas with pits and endless streams of recoil causing Madusa heads.
Since the NES Castlevania already had a PRG1 (bugfixed) release, I'm not sure what this could mean. Difficulty selection is definitely for wieners; the difficulty is the whole point of the game really.

Medusa heads will never hit the player if you are just standing still or walking forward. The only times they can cause trouble is if you reach the edge of the screen or if you jump at the wrong time; it's really straightforward.

[MarioMania]

Castlevania
Akumajou Densetsu

[bb_hood]

All three are good games -- even the second one, once you get past its flaws. My favorite is the original. The third game is more expansive than the first, but it's also a million times harder, to the point where it became too frustrating for me to fully enjoy it. The first doesn't appear *that* difficult by comparison.




I think 'a million times harder' is a bit of an overstatement. Its much longer, thats for sure, but castlevania III is a game where if you practice it enough and get the patterns of the bosses down its not to hard to master.
Dracula in Castlevania III is much easier to beat than Dracula in the first game.
(and Dracula in Castlevania II is easier to beat than the 1st level boss in Castlevania 1)

They also made Grant less powerful in the American version. I think they changed Sylpha's magic a bit as well.

I personally think if the 3 Castlevania games were any easier they would be less fun.

[ShinobiMan]

Definitely got to go with Castlevania 3. I remember turning on the game just to sit and listen to the music in the opening prologue. Used to give me goosebumps!

[wayultratech]

Definitely agree with BB Hood; the Castlevania games on NES are kinda fun because of the difficulty, mastering enemy/boss patterns etc, and it's potentially possible that the franchise would've blended in too much and eventually get forgotten if it hadn't been for the tremendous word of mouth "this game is so hard"-type conversions.... although probably not because the spectacular music and horror-themed GFX would've set it apart enough....

Anyway, Simon's Quest could've been much better, but as the Nerd said: "It still has alot of nostalgia value for me." Castlevania 3 is i guess technically the best, but i am going with numero uno on this one.

[TheRetroVideoGameAddict]

Despite the popular vote to cast Castlevania II to the wolves in favor of the 1st and 3rd installment, I tend to enjoy Castlevania II the most of the NES trilogy. There is just something about the game that I really enjoy and even though I really like the original and part 3 I think I have to give the second my vote for favorite.

[Mad-Mike]

I never was too good at the Castlevania titles, the character movement was always a little static until the SNES titles came out.

Castlevania III for me. That was the first CV game I ever had. I still have the cart I got for my 9th Birthday and still bring it out once in awhile. I found III intriguing for the "pick-your-own-route" element. Never got further than the start of the last castle (with a few cheat codes, and even then I died a lot). Usually I'd make it to the end of the clock tower or to Alucard then epic fail.

I never actually played 1 or 2 until years later via emulation. I like 1 more than 2, but I like 3 the best.

[BlastProcessing402]

2 holds up the least well, I think. Between the barely comprehensible translation and general clunkiness, I just can't play it anymore. I'd love them to remake it and fix these issues, though.

3 is epic, but maybe too epic with the branching paths, extra characters, etc.

I think 1's simplicity works in its favor here.

[bb_hood]

Whenever I get Dracula's rib in Castlevania 2 I think about that chiles babyback ribs commercial.

Now if Simon Belmont could just prossess some barbeque sauce...

[starsoldier1]

I wanna eat that rib too but too bad you get a kickass shield with it.