Topic: HC's Influence on the series

[Crying Freeman]

-Stages outside the castle, seen in CV3, Adventure, and 4.
-Treemen, seen in CV4 and X68000
-Statues crumble causing damage, seen in CV4
-First time Medusa's whole body is present for her boss fight
-First appearance of the Mudmen
-First time we see paintings for background effects, especially with the painting of the woman crying bloody tears
-First appearance of the eyeball enemies from Adventure and BR (Different tho, these ones come from the wall and bounce, no explosions)
-Second boss is the Aquarius boss in CV3
-First series nudity, seen on the topless harpies(usually saved for statues and Medusa later in the series. Maybe not influence, but it is the first time)
-Stained glass boss, returns in X68000 as a mini-boss type enemy, normal enemy in CV64/LoD
-Mummies come out of coffins to attack, seen in COTM
-First appearance on Golem
-Frankenstein hitting wall to make bricks fall, seen in CV3, attacking with chains seen in X68000
-First appearance of a crumbling bridge
-Final stage song is Julius's theme in Aria

Also, some of us wondered about Bloody Tears in HC, same composer as CV2, and I guess he saw the painting while developing the soundtrack and decided to put a mix of his classic Simons Quest song in there so it'd fit.

[X]

Despite being ambiguous and not a very well-known arcade game, I can definitely see Haunted Castle influencing future--and more successful CV games. I can also see this similarity in Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge and Kojima's official Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Snake's Revenge came out first but has elements that would reappear again in Kojima's official future titles. The current CV game designers probably looked to Haunted Castle for some in-depth references prior to making the later CV games.

[zangetsu468]

Ironic that in Wiki it states HC's reception was quite poor and part of it's production was rushed.
Here were see elements in later CV games which were quite well received.

[Crying Freeman]

Ironic that in Wiki it states HC's reception was quite poor and part of it's production was rushed.
Here were see elements in later CV games which were quite well received.

Reminds me how Belmonts Revenge still made it clear it was following the Adventure, or how SOTN had the open world aspect after Simons Quest (to be fair, I think SQ was better received back in the day).

[Crying Freeman]

Despite being ambiguous and not a very well-known arcade game, I can definitely see Haunted Castle influencing future--and more successful CV games. I can also see this similarity in Metal Gear: Snake's Revenge and Kojima's official Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Snake's Revenge came out first but has elements that would reappear again in Kojima's official future titles. The current CV game designers probably looked to Haunted Castle for some in-depth references prior to making the later CV games.

As much as most ppl like to ignore it, mostly everything bad has a lot of good in it. Vice versa, too, nothing is absolutely perfect.

Btw, I can see why, SR was pretty good from what I've played. Seems kinda hypocritical, tho, if I've heard correctly and Kojima said that games sucked before dismissing it. I understand that too, tho. He made his first popular game, and then behind his back they make a sequel

[Belmontoya]

Think I'm gonna sit in my lazy boy and fire up Haunted Castle on my Ouya tonight when I get home.

[Crying Freeman]

Think I'm gonna sit in my lazy boy and fire up Haunted Castle on my Ouya tonight when I get home.

XD exactly how I played it. I couldn't find a functional version k, so I had A LOT of save stating. Great if you have the right difficulty. Love the graphics and sound. If it wasn't so godamn cheap itd be a classic I'm sure.

[Belmontoya]

I first played it over a decade ago. Found an emulated version on the dungeon. I knew about it before then though and came close to buying the arcade board. I intended to piece together an arcade machine of it.

I always prefer to own the real copies of CV games.

I prefer to play all my emulators on Ouya now though.

I'll admit I've never beaten the son of a bitch though...

?

[X]

Haunted castle is a real b***h of a game. Of all the play-throughs I've ever done, so-far I have only ever beaten the game twice. The first time was a sure-on fluke! I was not expecting to get as far as I had, and then I was expecting Dracula to severely kick my keester around the room. The second time was not nearly as unexpected, nevertheless it was still gratifying in it's own way. A hard-knock game to be sure, but when finished for the first time it felt satisfying. This is of course not counting all the cursing and cussing that I did while trying to beat it 

[Crying Freeman]

I first played it over a decade ago. Found an emulated version on the dungeon. I knew about it before then though and came close to buying the arcade board. I intended to piece together an arcade machine of it.

I always prefer to own the real copies of CV games.

I prefer to play all my emulators on Ouya now though.

I'll admit I've never beaten the son of a bitch though...

?

Collecting cv is always a great thing, but now its just more realistic to MAME HC. Ouya is great for emulators ,especially using a dualshock 3.

If you ever do a run intending to beat it, make sure you have nothing fragile or breakable near you ?

[Crying Freeman]

Haunted castle is a real b***h of a game. Of all the play-throughs I've ever done, so-far I have only ever beaten the game twice. The first time was a sure-on fluke! I was not expecting to get as far as I had, and then I was expecting Dracula to severely kick my keester around the room. The second time was not nearly as unexpected, nevertheless it was still gratifying in it's own way. A hard-knock game to be sure, but when finished for the first time it felt satisfying. This is of course not counting all the cursing and cussing that I did while trying to beat it 

Goes for every hard as nails game. Even though you HATE the difficulty, beating it makes you appreciate it in a way... Unless you use save states.

The hardest game I've beaten on original hardware no save states is Ninja Gaiden 1. Almost beat NG3, but just couldn't (NES version, but like CV3 the Famicom version is WAAAY easier, which is my preferred way to play personally, just being easier makes it more fun)

[X]

The hardest game I've beaten on original hardware no save states is Ninja Gaiden 1.

Good on ya! I can't finish this title without resorting to the Game Genie. As for Haunted Castle savestates? Never even knew i could use them on my arcade emulator. I had to do it the hard way, like sitting on a barrel cactus... T_T

[Crying Freeman]

Good on ya! I can't finish this title without resorting to the Game Genie. As for Haunted Castle savestates? Never even knew i could use them on my arcade emulator. I had to do it the hard way, like sitting on a barrel cactus... T_T

Ugh I can't imagine HC without cheating in some way or altering the game. NG has some cheap ass shit in it, but it is fair in terms of giving you great control and having you use them to win, but HC uses the original CV controls in a game that doesnt feel built around them.

[Dracula9]

Snake's Revenge wasn't outright shitty from a gameplay perspective, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. The plot is more or less a B-sequel to a stereotypical cheesy 80s action flick. Just look at Big Boss' return:

This is Big Boss. You destroyed Metal Gear 1 and made me a cyborg. Now I want revenge.

*explodes and turns into a ten-foot Gundam-esque mech soldier*

Dumb. Just dumb. Even by series standards of ridiculousness, it's dumb.

Attacks on its crap plot notwithstanding, it DID bring back a lot of the things which were cut from the original NES title, like enemy drops and y'know actually having a goddamn Metal Gear.

Kojima said at the one convention he thought it was a crap game, but later stated that he doesn't necessarily think it's a bad one.

[Crying Freeman]

Snake's Revenge wasn't outright shitty from a gameplay perspective, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. The plot is more or less a B-sequel to a stereotypical cheesy 80s action flick. Just look at Big Boss' return:

Dumb. Just dumb. Even by series standards of ridiculousness, it's dumb.

Attacks on its crap plot notwithstanding, it DID bring back a lot of the things which were cut from the original NES title, like enemy drops and y'know actually having a goddamn Metal Gear.

Kojima said at the one convention he thought it was a crap game, but later stated that he doesn't necessarily think it's a bad one.

That sounds beyond stupid for a twist. I'll admit the only MG games I've played are 1 on NES, SR, and the GBC game. I haven't beaten any of them, but I intend to, plus MGS5 looks badass.

I understand what Kojima means. It was crap as far as a MG sequel is concerned, but overall it's a good and well made game.