Answer: Mode 7 scaling baby!

How does that affect the gameplay, really?:

@Mickeymac No one cares about gameplay when they're being dazzled by Mode 7 magic. Also people seem to like having 360 degrees of whip control.

You see the whip control preference would actually make more sense to me.

Rondo of Blood and Castlevania IV are deffinetly the best ones on VC.

I'm not really a big fan of the NES titles.

Swinging round and arround and that useless 360º whip are the most awlful mechanics EVER
it is also slow and brown

Castlevania 1-3 are also slow and brown. However, I will agree that the swinging mechanic wasn't necessary, at least for a Castlevania game. I already have Bionic Commando for that, and it did it much better.

How is a 360º whip less useful than the single-directional whip of the other games? I'm not trying to give you a hard time here, I just genuinely don't understand why you think more control actually makes it less useful. The diagonal whipping isn't mandatory...you can still whip just like you did in the old games if that's what you prefer.

I'm surprised they never bought it back in later games, even in the modern DS games you don't have a 360º whip.

Super Castlevania 4. Best music, stages, bosses, art style and final boss battle. I haven't played Rondo of Blood, but what i've seen Dracula looks pretty stupid in this game :/

I also find criticism of the 360 degree whip slightly bemusing. I like Super Castlevania IV the most, it feels less restrictive than the earlier games and definitely has the best level design. Whilst I think Rondo has better graphics and music, I still think IV is the better game.

The 360º whip has not add anything significant to gameplay, it is very weak and looks stupid. But i also dislike the swinging spots at the stages - it seems like something they put in there to lookcool, not to enchance gameplay.
I very much preffer the use of different characters like on Dracula's Curse and Bloodlines.
I hope we get Bloodlines someday because its such an amazing game, my favourite together with Rondo and Curse

I'll agree with nearly every word of that above statement, however, while I don't feel that the Whip added anything, it did change some things, and I suppose I can see why some people prefer it, however, I'm just fine knowing that every enemy is supposed to be hit in the face instead of trying to figure out which angle is the best. Also, I thought most people liked Castlevania 4 because you could actually control your movement once you were in the air. It didn't really occur to me that some many people actually liked the Multi-directional Whip.

I can't understand why people wouldn't love the 8-directional whipping. SCIV is by far my favorite non-Metroidvania Castlevania. Rondo felt like a step backwards after that. Not a horrible step backwards, mind you—it's still an awesome game.

I'd say the original Castlevania is my second favorite.

I don't know about other people, but I found that the old way was simpler and made things simpler. You're more constrained so the developers have to make up for that. That means enemies will always come at you so you can hit them either in the face, in the air but not higher than you can jump unless you're not supposed to hit there, or while kneeling. It just means there's less trial and error in trying to figure out enemy patterns, and to me that just makes it easier. On the other hand, 8-directional whip meant enemy patterns can be more complicated, they realized that and utilized that, so I died more just trying to learn each of my enemies, and it required more trial and error to figure out how to get past certain areas, and I didn't like that.

I don't understand why people put so much emphesis on the whip controls. Its a pretty small part of the gameplay. But its the small things that add up I guess.

@Bakajin: umm, I think Rondo of Blood came out before Castlevania IV, I'm not completely sure on this though.

Rondo of Blood came out two years after Super Castlevania IV.

Hmm, I do remember reading about its release in '89, but I suppose that was another game, and I just got them mixed.

Did anybody ever use the Dangling whip in SCIV to block enemy projectiles? God I loved that mechanic, and the 8-way directional whipping. SCIV also had the greatest Castlevania soundtrack which was very atmoshperic, brooding and magical.
The Boss fights were fantastic as well, it's a perfect 10/10 in my eyes.

I'm giving Rondo of Blood a go this month, but it's dissapointing that's a step backwards regarding the gameplay when stacked up against SCIV. Anyways based on what I've played CII: Simon's Quest is my least favorite...Yet there's something that I really love about that game, i can't point it out!.....But it's definitly not the complete mind boggling randomness of certain objectives, or the day to night text transitions. The music, graphics and atmosphere had to of been the high points for sure.

And while I liked Castlevania ReBirth....It just felt a wee' bit unoriginal.

Castlevania III came out in '89 in Japan.