Topic: Your latest retro purchase

@NeonPizza Yeah I had Rondo on the Wii VC, that when I finally got the chance to play it as I never owned a PSP. I played through both as Richter and Maria before I packed my Wii away.

After Rondo I and even before that I stuck with the DS Castlevanias mainly DoS and PoR. I did play the PS2 games back in the day but just couldnt get into them and of course I tried the Lord of Shadows series which I dont know what it was but it sure as hell wasnt Castlevania. Although I will say the 3DS game Mirro of Shadows or whatever its called was decent but still not as good to me as PoR.

As for Bloodstained I tried it when it first came out and it was ok but sadly without the Castlevania license it just didnt do it for me. I did play Curse of the Moon for a bit and enjoyed it but again it just felt like a knockoff to me.

I know they have this new Castlevania coming out but I dont know without Igashi doing it I fear its going to be a soulless attempt at but we shall see.

@Tasuki

Man, I can't even get into most of the older traditional Castlevania games anymore. Curse of the Moon makes Castlevania 1 & 3 feel dated. As much as I enjoyed both of those back on the Wii's VC. But these days, the Staircase walkiing just feels abnormally slow and really kills the pace, sprite flicker is horrendous(etc). Curse of the Moon fixes all of this and then some.

I think Bloodlines holds up the best, because it's just a speedier, more arcadey in and out experience. Even it's art direction holds up better than SCIV(Minus the backgrounds). Rondo is an amazing one and done, but it's just as slow as 1, 3 & 4. And don't even get me started on the two gameboy games. It's like you're walking through mud or quick sand. lol I've beaten all of the above, but I've got no desire to ever go back to them anymore. In their prime, or even on the Wii's VC, Rondo, SCIV, I, III, maybe Bloodlines and even ReBirth The Advanture were all awesome experiences.

But if i ever wanted to get my traditional Castlevania fix these days, i'd go for COTM(And probably COTM2, but i haven't played it yet) on Switch 1/2, or Bloodlines through the Castlevania 30th Anniversary Collection(Even though it's CRT filter is dim is hell). Still need to play Lord of Exile, yet Carpathian of the Night Starring Bella Degosi was such a disappointment.

And yup, Dawn of Sorrow was Fanfrikkintastic! I enjoyed it even more than SOTN. Yet at this point, I can hardly remember anything about it, other than the final boss, that weird section that forces you to use the stylus, maybe a couple of the bosses(The one that appears from a mirror) and a couple of the lead characters. Zelda: Phantom Hour Glass(Eat your heart out WindWaker), Dawn of Sorrow, Contra 4, WarioWare Touched!, Kirby Canvas, Nintendog's, even NSMB DS and so on were some of the greatest experiences i remember having during the DS days. Oh, and I must of messed with POR on DS for maybe 15 minutes at a friends house, but never got around to trying out OOE. I have them all on Switch, but i doubt I'll play any of them since I'm mostly allergic to Metroidvania's these days.

Ahyways, have you played COTM 1&2 yet? And ya man, that new Metroidvania coming out looks soulless as heck. Mediocre Art direction, with it's cookie cuttern modern anime aesthetic that looks nowhere as cool as even SOTN's. We recently got Haunted Castle Revisted from the Dominus Collection, but it was just ok.

A couple of game setting tweaks would of made it a gem, but as is, it was just average. Unlimited continues combined with later stage check points ruined the challenge, suspense, intensity and exliliration. While hard mode just triples the amount of enemies on screen and makes the game overly crowded. Might retry playing it with continues turned off or limited(Whatever it was). Surprised they didn't allow you to map your sub weapon to like R1 or X, vs holding or pressing UP + Y too. It's charming though. Great remixed OST, nice updated visuals and has a similar tone & art style to ReBirth Adventure.