Welcome to VC Weekly, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful world of Nintendo’s download service. Written by Sam C Gittins

Just the one title this week, it's a title that was released on the Wii VC many years back, just before I took over writing VC Weekly in fact, so this time we have a review originally written by feature founder Jordan Khoviteri-Zadeh but with a few added twists from myself, I hope you enjoy it. Anyway enough from me and on with the game!
 
Available for download this week we have...     

Castlevania


 
Price: GB £4.49, EU €4.99
Publisher: Konmai
Developer: Konami
Released: 1988
System: NES

Castlevania, known as 'Demon Castle Dracula' in Japan, is a platformer with some RPG conventions, assuming the role of Simon Belmont you traverse through Dracula's castles six levels. While this game does not play like modern Castlevania titles or any of the entries in the Metroid series, it certainly has it's own set of quirky gameplay traits. There is only one real specific route with very little backtracking at all, it basically involves a lot of running from left to right, killing things with your upgradable whip or sub-weapons, whilse collecting hearts by killing enemies and destroying candelabra; basic though it may be it's still fiendishly fun.

Though fairly involved for it's time, the adventure is pretty standard over twenty-five years on, you can easily finish it without dying providing you have a certain amount of skill, Indeed it offers little challenge and is extremely short - bar a couple of short difficulty spikes - so don't be expecting many epic boss fights like in the upcoming Lords of Shadow games as this is merely a NES title. some of the inspiration is heavily borrowed from classic horror stories as boss fights include: Dr. Frankenstein's monster, the Grim Reaper and Medusa, though this is nothing new because as many will know by now, Kid Icarus does much the same thing albeit in a more 'godly' manner.

A few minor niggles which might bother some include the inability to change direction in mid air plus you can't jump up or down staircases; minor annoyances perhaps but mobility is often an issue within the adventure/platformer sub-genre so it's certainly worth considering. Overall the controls are still reasonably solid making for a decent experience, dispatching enemies with your trusty whip is probably the best thing about the game as it genuinely never gets old, it even gets better as you progress as you witness your weapon getting upgraded to a Morning Star which eventually has improved range extending its usefulness.

Visually it may be fairly basic with sprites that look reasonable but perhaps not the most detailed even by NES standards, though the backgrounds are colourful as they manage to set the scene very nicely indeed. Aurally as you might expect being the first game this is where many of those classic tunes that the series is now famed for originated, so there is plenty to like here especially when you consider that every entry since basically takes direct inspiration from here and it's of little wonder as the sounds used in this title are truely top-notch.

If you're new to the series then I would have to recommend downloading Super Castlevania IV on the Wii Virtual Console instead especially as it essentially re-tells the events of the original but with some of the more comfortable conventions that you may be more used to. But if you're a long-term fan and just want to play some classic Castlevania on the go then you really can't go too far wrong here, providing you know what you're getting plus the addition of save states and knowing you can play this anywhere, any time should be more than enough to keep you vampire-hunting for a good while.

Verdict : A classic Castlevania that makes up for in fun what it lacks in challenge.


That's it for another installment of VC Weekly which will return again soon. So until then, enjoy the rest of the week and Game On!