Topic: Worst Game in Series

[shelverton.]

While Potrait was rather mediocre by Castlevania standards, it's still a rather decent game

Yeah, I find it kinda hard to judge PoR sometimes. At its core, it's a well done 2D action adventure that definitely would've been better recieved if it hadn't been a Castlevania game at all. The game is fairly long, there's a lot of things to see and do, little details here and there, and the soundtrack is great IMO.

Also, I don't think the level design is any worse than in Order of Ecclesia, neither are the recycled graphics and repeating rooms. In a way, OoE was actually worse in this regard. PoR is a little silly, and way too cartoony, but there's really nothing wrong with the gameplay. I had fun playing it, but I still think it's the weakest of the DS Castlevanias, maybe because the last few portraits were b o r i n g. They should've been NEW areas with NEW bakground graphics. That would've helped a lot IMO. I also hardly ever used Charlotte, except when absolutely necessary.

All in all, PoR is one of the better action games on the DS, but slightly disappointing as a Castlevania.

[Kale]

It was not a decent platformer... the stages are extremely horrid in that game, it starts off alright but some of those stages are down right disgusting.

[RichterB]

You know, even bad Castlevania games have their moments, but after much consideration..."Curse of Darkness."

In the past I've called it the "Curse of Mediocrity." On the plus side, it had a few intriguing characters (who didn't quite pan out), it tried to create an interconnected world structure in 3D, it had some great tunes, and added a functional player-controlled 3D camera. HOWEVER, the game itself is one I have tried and cannot play through a second time, even with Trevor mode. It is so huge, empty, and devoid of platforming. LoI had better level design, and it had weak level design. In fact, CoD is almost a step back from LoI in every way: Unneeded, Chaos Legion/Pokemon elements were added as the main hook to cover for the deletion of 99.9% of platforming; the whip was nowhere in sight; and all the story build-up of Leon from LoI was dropped in favor of an inconsequential side-story that made Trevor look like a fool.

It was just more evidence of all the many things CV64/LoD got RIGHT. There's no way CV64 is at the bottom of the pack; at the very least, it's in the middle. I think it gets such a bad rap because of its timing with SotN and people expecting that style to be the main style. That aforementioned PS1 game, despite its quality, has gotten a little overblown over the years IMO. But I digress...

A few more comments: CotM had a classic CV feel and challenge to it even as it took the Castleroid route and was the first experimental outing on GBA. CotM just might be the best GBA or DS Castlevania overall. PoR was repetitive and goofy at times, but I found it a fresher experience than DoS, which was like an expansion pack of AoS. The original GB Adventure has tough controls, but it has a lot of unique charm and fun to it that I feel it gets more static than it deserves. Don't get me started on Dracula XX/Vampire's Kiss, because I love that game. Better than Rondo, I think, as it's more focused, more challenging, and has a better visual & musical atmosphere. I cannot speak for the pre-NES Castlevania games, as I have never played them. Also, OoE I skipped, as I had enough of the meandering "Castleroid" with no death pits style of games. I'll come back to it eventually, like I did for DoS and PoR. Oh, and didn't bother with Order of Shadows, because it was a cellphone game and looked boring (no offense).

[shelverton.]

It was not a decent platformer... the stages are extremely horrid in that game, it starts off alright but some of those stages are down right disgusting.

Though some of the stages are quite good. Like, the Clock Tower for instance. It's not bad at all, I actually like the design! At least it's waaaaay better than in Ecclesia which had a terrible clock tower. But yeah, some of the levels are very uninspired, can't argue with you there.

[jimmay17]

B-but, what about COD? :O For what LOI is, COD is that and so much worse. Except it tries to make less claustrophobic and standard stage designs, but ends up being more boring in the process. Music's not as good, visuals aren't as fun to look at... LOI is a pretty rad game, and I played through it a few times, despite its flaws. COD, I STILL haven't managed to beat because I get bored every time I try to play it.

Meh, we're talking about indefensible personal tastes here, but I actually enjoyed Curse of Darkness a lot more. Tedious, sure, but the compulsive in me enjoyed the weapon and devil forging and enemy item drops, and the soundtrack gives SoTN a run for best 'Vania score in the series. To me, the graphics and environments were an improvement over Lament, and it boasted a greater variety of enemies to mix things up a little.

Again, nothing I can prove that I'm objectively 'right' about, but there it is.

[Inccubus]

I voted Order of Shadows.

it's really sad that Order of Shadows gets overlooked even as a candidate for worst Castlevania game ever.

Ser, truer words were never spoken. I get the impression most people didn't play this atrocious but of offal.
It's at about the same level as CotM only the character art, the design, and  the controls are worse. However, I'll concede that the awful controls is due mostly to the platform.

i suppose the Tiger Electronics Castlevania games don't count...

Only because they are not on the list.

[Reinhart77]

it's not in my nature to think of any Castlevania game as "bad", much less come up with the "worst" one.  order of shadows certainly does come up the most short though, but i did enjoy the game just to see what elements from games i'm familiar with they put in.  i was just tickled that they decided to make a "new" game rather than an inferior remake of an already made game.  game technology advances way too fast.  the first Game Boy game had a lot of rough edges to it.  but they continued making them and the technology advanced so that by the time the PS2 came out, it was declared unmarketable to make a 2D CV game on a console, but handhelds had grown enough to take its place and got better each time.  now handhelds are pretty well up there and expectations for them is high and I was expecting maybe cell phone games would take over, making good old simple Castlevania games with each one getting better and better as the phones get more and more capacity and graphical capability.  that doesn't seem to be what happened though, it seems that Konami's first stab at an original cell phone game was received so poorly that they might not make another one ever again and instead just license it out to 3rd parties to continue making inferior remakes of existing games...  fortunately, i hadn't considered new downloadable games like The Adventure ReBirth to consoles or handhelds, so maybe that will be where 2D grows next.

[Abnormal Freak]

yeah vampire killer msx IS fuckin horrible. I wouldnt say Haunted Castle is bad tho its just old school arcade hard so you have to keep feedin it change. My vote was for CV64

Haven't played it myself, only seen play-through vids, but still, y'gotta respect it at least for starting the series. (Even though it was released after the Famicom game, it was in development first.) Thank goodness Konami saw what was good about the game and turned it into a rockin' action game.

[shelverton.]

It just hit me tonight - when I was drinking lots and lots of beer and my friends were talking about Mass Effect 2, and other random new games they like - that Castlevania 1 (NES) is a f*ckin masterpiece. I'm still drunk, so I'm allowed to say stuff like that. But it's true. That game changed my life.  No I'mma going to teh bed.

[Fahrenheit]

Castlevania: The Adventure. The remake for Wii is a whole other story, it pretty much has nothing to do with this game.

Castlevania: The Adventure has sluggish, unresponsive controls, way too quick jumping, and nearly unreachable platforms. I don't have a problem with anyone that likes it, because it is a classic game, but it's so terribly flawed and hard for me to play.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Worst, eh?  Well, I think we need a better definition of "Worst", but here are my categories.

Worst (Play Control, alternate versions COUNTED), in no particular order:

-Castlevania Legends - Although Sonia's overall movement is as good as Christopher's in his second game, what hurts her the most is the enemy placement.  If you don't have an upwards attack, the designers should not have put vertically-moving enemies, like those ghosts/wraiths that come from above.  Also, because of the low RAM of the GBC as well as Sonia's invincibility window, she ends up taking extra damage from enemies.  I recall a particular part of the clocktower in which a ghost would come from above while I was at a rope and hit me.  Because he hit me I slid down a rope just enough for the screen to scroll, but that also makes the same enemy respawn.  Since my invincibility window isn't very long, you often would end up taking another hit from the same enemy at the same position, causing much frustration.

-Castlevania: The Adventure - First attempt at CV for Gameboy, ends up with Christopher moving quite slow, and not jumping very far.  Although you can get used to this, it's annoying.  Belmonts' Revenge fixes this by allowing you to jump a little further, and I think Christopher's walking speed was improved.

-Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - Although Juste has the awesome dash function with the L and R buttons, his ridiculously slow 'floaty' jumps and his hilariously slow whipping make for a bad conbinations.  This was fixed in Julius's controls, where he moves and jumps a lot faster, as well as whipping a lot faster.  But Juste?  He's slow.  Thankfully most of the enemies in the game are also slow.  You can really get messed up if you have to whip a fast-moving enemy in the air, though (Harpies and MedusaHeads at the clocktower come to mind).

-Castlevania (Amiga) - As you can see, Simon once again has very little control options, and most enemies move much much faster than he does.  There's also screen-scrolling issues.

-Castlevania (PC-DOS) - Buggy controls, sometimes you go down a set of stairs and you end up DYING (instead of moving to the next screen).

-Vampire Killer (MSX) - they hadn't perfected the whipping hit detections.  Simon moves way slower than most enemies.  Picking up the boots helps, but they hadn't quite polished controls to the NES standard yet.

More categories to come later.

[Reinhart77]

I wish that my cell phone let me download the "original" Castlevania game so I could properly compare it to Order of Shadows game.  wonder how that holds up to the various PC versions, none of which I have played.  played the demo for it, but not the same.  it has a cool "subweapons only" mode that i'd love to try some time.

respawning vertical enemies in Legends was indeed a major pain.

[MeSako]

-Castlevania (PC-DOS) - Buggy controls, sometimes you go down a set of stairs and you end up DYING (instead of moving to the next screen).

OMG!!
I didn't know there was an Dos version.. and now that I see and hear it, I just wanna rip my ears of!! That sounded awful.
Geez!!

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Yeah, so before you guys complain about CV64, or Haunted Castle or anything, remember that there are far worse CV's out there.
Again, that's only in terms of play control.

The Mobile version of Castlevania looks like it plays pretty well, and the stage layouts have been redesigned for the small screen, so Simon can actually trek through the castle.  Pretty nice graphics, too:

[Reinhart77]

wonder if we'll ever get to play a version of Castlevania that has the Chronicles Simon Sprite like the third Japanese cell game.