I just played through CV III from start to finish in one sitting on Halloween, for the first time in years. Yes, it's incredibly frustrating at points, but still a fantastic little game, with all the atmosphere, music, branching paths, etc.

I have to confess that I died a quite a large number of times on the final level, though. I also died in obnoxious bat, stairs, and pendulum situations more than I'd prefer to admit.

@Bass X0: He seems to still be having fun with it, though, from the looks of the outtakes and blogs he posts every so often. He also uses the site now to also promote his other projects, which really aren't that bad.

I would like him to review more games that aren't widely known to be terrible, and tone down the amount of poop references.
I really found the parts where he repeatedly jumped to his death in CastleVania II to be really hilarious.

And stairs really are deadly - in CV and in Battle of Olympus.

I've stuggled quite a lot with castlevania III the last week, and now I have made it to the second last level. I feels like a great accomplishment to have made it past the falling brick level and the death boss level. I would say this is one of the 10 most difficult games I have ever played, but since the level design and boss design is great I won't put it aside until I've finished it..

Now I have beaten dark Trevor. You can't deny it feels great. Only Dracula left.

@stugan

That falling brick level is wondrously abusive. I should probably play through the game again now, because I skipped that level on my recent playthrough, as I evidently chose the wrong branching path to reach it (or the right one, if I wanted to avoid a few dozen extra deaths ).

Actually I thought his recent Super Pitfall and Godzilla bits were some of his best stuff. But my favorite has to be his Batman episode and the Zelda CDi

Part III is up now. He really likes Super Castlevania IV. I enjoyed it okay until I got stuck at the beginning of Stage 8. The idea of replaying it again (seeing as how I think I binned my old password) to see if I can get past that point isn't appealing. I like the smaller scale of Dracula Legend ReBirth, though I think I'm going to have to go into it with 9 lives to have a hope in hell of beating it!

Bimmy!

I never liked Castlevania IV -- sure, it has the better whip control and slightly better jumping etc, but somehow it felt like a step backwards in level design. CVIII, on the one side, and Rondo of Blood (TG-16), on the other, are in a completely different league of quality and originality than IV, if you ask me.

Yeah, Super Pitfall was hilarious, and I was in pain during his review of "Godzilla Chess" (I remember renting that game with a friend...what a disappointing weekend that was...).

Personally I think his review of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is one of his funniest ever. It's true that he often relies on poop jokes and funny faces in lieu of actual jokes/criticism, but Plumbers showed that he's still got the intelligent wit to make great points, and make them in an entertaining fashion.

Though, overall, I agree the quality might have slid a bit, it's still fantastic stuff. James deserves every ounce of attention and recognition he's received.

You know I've been on the fence about Rondo of Blood having a Japanese Wii and all, but I'm still not sure. Is the SNES version of it that different?

To me, they're completely different games. Many of the sprites are identical, and the SNES one seems to be trying to copy the atmosphere from the TG-16 title, but otherwise there is little to compare. On the TG-16 you have the added character to control, which completely changes things up, plus you have completely different levels with much better design, many more secrets and branching paths, and even greater atmosphere and boss fights. The SNES game is not really considered a port of the TG-16 title at all by most CV fans, more of a less-interesting sequel that used its assets.

Believe me, if you purchase the TG-16 game and boot it up for the first time, you'll be completely hooked by the opening sequence with the carriage.

EDIT - And I'm envious about your J-Wii. This is the #1 game I've been waiting for on the VC, and it seems like it simply won't be released here. I've even been tempted to wander down the darker side of homebrew (WADs etc -- which I generally despise) just in order to load this game. I suppose I could look into getting a J-Wii myself, but I'm not sure I can fully justify it.

i dont think 2009 was his best year. it had some good ones like plumbers dont wear ties, Godzilla, Milons Secret Castle. but it also had some really boring ones like Bugs Bunny Krazy Kastle, Moonwalker, Waynes World, and the Atari Jaguar part 2. A mixed bag. But i still think 2007 was his best year

@warioswoods: Cool. If I ever clear my backlog I'll check it out!

I agree with the nerd on his latest review, Super Castlevania IV is a masterpiece. The game blew me away in 1991 when I played it a friends house. Now Castlevania 64 looks sketchy, so I cannot wait to see what his next review will be like. Also don't hold your breath on getting an official Castlevania V

And Plumber Don't Wear ties was really funny as well.