trivard676The first two Old Gods articles have been (relatively) recent games. We’re reaching way back for this next one – all the way back into 1991 on the Super Nintendo. There aren’t too many gamers we know of that can say that they have never played a Castlevania game and keep a straight face. But for those who do, the perfect starting point? Super Castlevania IV.
Akumajo Dracula, the game’s initial name officially translates to Devil’s Castle Dracula. We’re assuming that because the ‘in’ thing to do was keep with the tradition of naming every title on the Super Nintendo ‘Super’ something, the name was changed.
Super Castlevania IV actually features the same plot and premise of the first Castlevania on the Nintendo Entertainment System. What makes it ‘super’ are eleven new stages at the beginning of the game, taking place outside of Dracula’s Castle. Normally we’d say ‘start from the beginning’ but why start from the beginning when this one is eleven times more awesome?
One of the primary things that stands out in SCIV is the killer soundtrack. It almost comes as a surprise, considering the game is from 1991 – it exudes mood and atmosphere that you don’t fully expect from a game of its age. The game contains a lot of remixed tracks from previous games, which have appeared in a lot of games from the series after SCIV, too.
Nothing quite gets the heart pumping like an awesome level one tune. Click the link below to kick it old school. And yes, the entire soundtrack is this epic.
SCIV expands upon Castlevania’s traditional control scheme drastically. Press the –erm,–attack button, depending on your…console of choice, and then the control stick in 8 different directions. There are a few enemies that you can get the upper hand on with this. Grappling points, blocking enemy attacks, looking all-around badass are all part of the game. Using the shoulder buttons allows Simon to throw a choice weapon, depending on many hearts you have. We’re not sure what hearts have to do with how many knives you can carry, but we’re sure it’s pretty major.
For all of the advancements of the system, there are still some strange hang-ups for the control scheme. We really wish that it was possible to dash, or run – or even walk faster. Or to jump out of the way of incoming enemies while on a staircase.
This is exceptionally annoying when it comes to being knocked off staircases that happen to extend beyond the screen. It happens. A lot.
The man wipes out the Grim Reaper himself with a whip, but stairs are dangerous, dammit!
This one doesn’t even have a railing!
SCIV doesn’t come without its own share of controversy. There was a fair bit of censorship for the PAL and NTSC versions of the game. Gamers might not have really cared, but some PC folks demanded some changes be made before they’d let such a game grace their store shelves, be put in the hands of such impressionable youths.
For instance, the Japanese version of the game contains crosses on the tops of some of the tombstones in the introduction, and the misspelled name “Dracura” was removed in other releases. Additionally, the game had a number of other censorship issues which most gamers…probably wouldn’t have cared about.
The PC circus fixed these issues by changing red blood to green acid, removing blood on the game’s opening logo, putting tunics on statues and removing the nipples from breasts (cause it ain’t a boob if it doesn’t have a nipple, right? She might just be wearing a skin-coloured shirt). All of this to prevent us from seeing something that was probably too pixelated to begin with, or something like previously mentioned, we really wouldn’t have cared about.
Like a lot of old games, SCIV can be quite difficult at times. The boss battles sometimes result in the player pulling some of their hair out, or broken controllers. Platforming sections on gigantic chandeliers that happen to move right as you’re jumping, some sort of flying spit knocking you off of a staircase…sometimes, it makes you feel like a little less pro. Run out of lives and it’s Game Over, and there’s no such thing as Save and Quit. Should you have grown tired of the game, or needed to pause to stop crying at your lost skills longer than a pause would allow, you need to copy down an elaborate password to get back to where you were. It’s best just to sit down and play the game from start to finish, no messy passwords, no save-states, just pure, unadulterated retro-gaming fun, the way it was intended.
How many times have we fallen here? Sigh…
SCIV will eat up a good couple of hours of your time, more if it’s been a while since you’ve played a platformer. It’s a hearty experience, like when playing a lot of old games. The great thing about playing these platformers on the SNES is that they still look great today – maybe not as awe-inspiring as they were back when they were fresh, but they’ve held up incredibly well. If anything, it’ll make you feel…uhm…aged.
If you’re not fortunate enough to still own a Super Nintendo, the game is available on the Virtual Console for the Wii. We played an emulator on an Android device, and it actually ran surprisingly well (and that makes us feel ‘very’ aged). What? Of course we still own the original cartridge!
I can’t find it right now. What a horrible night to have a curse…
