#27 - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - GameBoy Advance
#26 - Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - TG-16
duh duh duh duh, ta rararara ra rara ra.
Castlevania appeals to me the most when is designed like a tight action platformer game, the Igavanias bore me, they don't hit me in a sweet spot like a good Metroid game, and they kinda suck as a classic Castlevania game, so there isn't anything there that really appeals to me.
Circle of the Moon then is in a curious spot, it has the design of a Metroid game, a mostly linear one at that, with a handful of power ups that open up the next areas, some more useful as whole and other just being there to eliminate one or two blockades, but the gameplay feels more like a classic game, most of the rooms will be filled with a good number of powerful enemies, which test you in your management of which ones you'll kill or just try to evade, but either option will have its level of challenge, most of the bosses can be hard, but a fun hard (with some exceptions), the DSS system is great in terms of experimentation and balance, even if the ramdomized factor of how you get them can be annoying, but as a whole is a very exciting and engaging game, and how I kinda wish the other Metroidvanias would take upon some of its design choices, and improve on them, also remains the best one of that bunch in terms of feel and movement honestly.
So yea, I really like this game, and then, there is Rondo of Blood...
I boot up this game for the first time, Requiem blasts you with a great title theme, you see this badass ms paint cutscene with Richter, Death gives you a small playable tutorial like we are in Super Metroid fighting Ridley, and then the game starts proper, Oppossing Bloodlines starts playing, you control Richter and he feels super smooth while retaining part of the stiffness of the other classic games, and then every single stage is just hit after hit of the best Classicvania level design has to offer, backed up by an incredible soundtrack, the only flaw I can really point out in Rondo of Blood is that for how amazing everything else is, the final battle with Dracula is disappointing, in being just a worse Castlevania 1 redo, everything else rocks tho as what is the best classic game in the series.
