I've always enjoyed playing both this game and Belmont's Revenge. As a first-generation cartridge, The Adventure would have been limited to a single ROM chip with a 64KB limit, which also required bank switching. Use of the bank switching could trigger slowdown issues. I find similar framerate issues in later, well-regarded GB titles such as Super Mario Land 2, Mega Man IV, and Mega Man V. Mega Man V has almost constant frame rate dips, yet no one seems to be complaining (Nintendo Life has the game on its list of all-time best GB titles without the tiniest quibble about the game's prominent slowdown issues. In the absence of slowdown, Christopher Belmont uses a swift power walk, and the play control in both The Adventure and Belmont's Revenge is similar. While The Adventure has framerate lag issues, I don't believe there is any genuine input lag. I suspect some of the commentary about The Adventure's speed or supposed control issues might stem from retro gamers encountering laggy emulators or CPU problems.
The designers of The Adventure may have drawn inspiration from Super Mario Land, the only other platformer for the Game Boy at the time. The three tier whip upgrade, which downgrades when you're hit, parallels the Super Mario upgrades. This downgrade/upgrade feature was also found in other popular games of the time, including Konami's own Contra series as well as Lifeforce/Salamander.
The Adventure also features precision jumps perhaps similar to those found in the Super Mario games. In The Adventure, if you need to make a longer jump, you need to start by placing one foot off the platform you're starting from. For especially long jumps (You'll encounter two in succession in the final stretch of stage 3) you need to move a bit farther out. There's a section near the end of stage one where you need to use this jumping technique to advance yet where failure to succeed doesn't cost you a life. This feature gives players a chance to master the technique before tackling the tougher stages. The jumps in the Adventure can be challenging, but not necessarily more so those in the classic Super Mario or Shinobi games. In the Adventure, the low level leather whip may have a short range, though it's no shorter than your main attack option in other games in the same genre (compare it to the main weapons in Konami's TMNTII Back from the Sewers or Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden Shadow), and the level of attack strength is reasonable: most weak enemies can be defeated with one hit, and as for the stronger enemies, the Panuichi can be knocked out with four hits and the Zeldos can be knocked out with five hits, comparable to the number of blows required to knock out a Bone Pillar or Axe Man in the NES titles.
As for the invincibility items in the first level, those are of course a staple of the classic CV titles, and it's a feature that the CV series likely borrowed from the SMB series (i.e. The Star Man item). It seems laughable to suggest that the mere inclusion of this item constitutes some sort of unbelievably bad level design. The SMB titles don't hesitate to put in the Star Man item, and CV IV on the SNES features many invincibility items as well. In any event, you can bypass those dropping eyeballs without simply running through them. The game simply gives neophyte players the option to skip those challenge if they choose.
One issue Simon's Quest might be having in retrospective reviews: the original instruction booklet was an important companion to the game. This may make the game a product of its time, and given its 1987-88 development date, it is indeed an early project, yet other games from the same time period took a similar path - the original Legend of Zelda even featured an opening graphic (at the end of its story scroll) telling players to read the manual before playing the game.
Recent games often include the manual as a tutorial or as an option screen text, making the manual a clear part of the in-game content, though back in the 80s the technology wasn't yet there.
The Simon's Quest manual contains many important hints:
You need to find five mansions, each contains a body part, and once inside the mansions, you need to use an oak stake to the access that body part.
The villagers might lie to you.
The Holy Water should be applied to both floors and walls to reveal secrets.
You should search for the Caretaker in the cemetery.
Most importantly, the Ferryman's destination depends on which body parts you possess.
Despite the localization issues with the game's onscreen text, between the information in the manual and the onscreen clues, it is possible to complete the game without an external guide.
Using the Holy Water as suggested in the manual, you can find a Clue Book near the right entrance of Dabi's Path (the cave) which clearly tells you to kneel at the lake with the Blue Crystal.
Later, one book in Rover Mansion tells you that Garlic will summer the Caretaker, and another tells you to destroy the curse with Dracula's Heart. The latter clue might not be specific, but it hints the Heart is important, yet selecting the item seems to grant no obvious power. Given the manual's hint that the Ferryman is influenced by the body parts you possess, it might therefore seem like a good idea to show him the heart.
A book in Brahm's Mansion tells you to "Wait for a soul with a red crystal on Deborah Cliff." Now the Clue doesn't tell you to kneel, yet the previous clue about the Blue Crystal at the lake might itself count as a clue through internal logic and precedence (both times you're using the magic crystal at a conspicuous dead end to open a passage). So, between the manual and the onscreen content the most important clues are intact.
Some players might still need a guide, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not sure the situation is much different than that in many other popular NES games, including the puzzles, secrets, and maze elements found in the beloved Mario trilogy (for example, how to the find the Warp Whistles in Mario 3).
Comments 2
Re: Review: Castlevania: The Adventure (3DS eShop / GB)
I've always enjoyed playing both this game and Belmont's Revenge. As a first-generation cartridge, The Adventure would have been limited to a single ROM chip with a 64KB limit, which also required bank switching. Use of the bank switching could trigger slowdown issues. I find similar framerate issues in later, well-regarded GB titles such as Super Mario Land 2, Mega Man IV, and Mega Man V. Mega Man V has almost constant frame rate dips, yet no one seems to be complaining (Nintendo Life has the game on its list of all-time best GB titles without the tiniest quibble about the game's prominent slowdown issues. In the absence of slowdown, Christopher Belmont uses a swift power walk, and the play control in both The Adventure and Belmont's Revenge is similar. While The Adventure has framerate lag issues, I don't believe there is any genuine input lag. I suspect some of the commentary about The Adventure's speed or supposed control issues might stem from retro gamers encountering laggy emulators or CPU problems.
The designers of The Adventure may have drawn inspiration from Super Mario Land, the only other platformer for the Game Boy at the time. The three tier whip upgrade, which downgrades when you're hit, parallels the Super Mario upgrades. This downgrade/upgrade feature was also found in other popular games of the time, including Konami's own Contra series as well as Lifeforce/Salamander.
The Adventure also features precision jumps perhaps similar to those found in the Super Mario games. In The Adventure, if you need to make a longer jump, you need to start by placing one foot off the platform you're starting from. For especially long jumps (You'll encounter two in succession in the final stretch of stage 3) you need to move a bit farther out. There's a section near the end of stage one where you need to use this jumping technique to advance yet where failure to succeed doesn't cost you a life. This feature gives players a chance to master the technique before tackling the tougher stages. The jumps in the Adventure can be challenging, but not necessarily more so those in the classic Super Mario or Shinobi games. In the Adventure, the low level leather whip may have a short range, though it's no shorter than your main attack option in other games in the same genre (compare it to the main weapons in Konami's TMNTII Back from the Sewers or Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden Shadow), and the level of attack strength is reasonable: most weak enemies can be defeated with one hit, and as for the stronger enemies, the Panuichi can be knocked out with four hits and the Zeldos can be knocked out with five hits, comparable to the number of blows required to knock out a Bone Pillar or Axe Man in the NES titles.
As for the invincibility items in the first level, those are of course a staple of the classic CV titles, and it's a feature that the CV series likely borrowed from the SMB series (i.e. The Star Man item). It seems laughable to suggest that the mere inclusion of this item constitutes some sort of unbelievably bad level design. The SMB titles don't hesitate to put in the Star Man item, and CV IV on the SNES features many invincibility items as well. In any event, you can bypass those dropping eyeballs without simply running through them. The game simply gives neophyte players the option to skip those challenge if they choose.
Re: Feature: NES Mini Classics - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
One issue Simon's Quest might be having in retrospective reviews: the original instruction booklet was an important companion to the game. This may make the game a product of its time, and given its 1987-88 development date, it is indeed an early project, yet other games from the same time period took a similar path - the original Legend of Zelda even featured an opening graphic (at the end of its story scroll) telling players to read the manual before playing the game.
Recent games often include the manual as a tutorial or as an option screen text, making the manual a clear part of the in-game content, though back in the 80s the technology wasn't yet there.
The Simon's Quest manual contains many important hints:
You need to find five mansions, each contains a body part, and once inside the mansions, you need to use an oak stake to the access that body part.
The villagers might lie to you.
The Holy Water should be applied to both floors and walls to reveal secrets.
You should search for the Caretaker in the cemetery.
Most importantly, the Ferryman's destination depends on which body parts you possess.
Despite the localization issues with the game's onscreen text, between the information in the manual and the onscreen clues, it is possible to complete the game without an external guide.
Using the Holy Water as suggested in the manual, you can find a Clue Book near the right entrance of Dabi's Path (the cave) which clearly tells you to kneel at the lake with the Blue Crystal.
Later, one book in Rover Mansion tells you that Garlic will summer the Caretaker, and another tells you to destroy the curse with Dracula's Heart. The latter clue might not be specific, but it hints the Heart is important, yet selecting the item seems to grant no obvious power. Given the manual's hint that the Ferryman is influenced by the body parts you possess, it might therefore seem like a good idea to show him the heart.
A book in Brahm's Mansion tells you to "Wait for a soul with a red crystal on Deborah Cliff." Now the Clue doesn't tell you to kneel, yet the previous clue about the Blue Crystal at the lake might itself count as a clue through internal logic and precedence (both times you're using the magic crystal at a conspicuous dead end to open a passage). So, between the manual and the onscreen content the most important clues are intact.
Some players might still need a guide, and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not sure the situation is much different than that in many other popular NES games, including the puzzles, secrets, and maze elements found in the beloved Mario trilogy (for example, how to the find the Warp Whistles in Mario 3).