It’s been a bit, hasn’t it? So if you don’t remember or you uh…have dementia- Around this time last year, I started my CASTLEVANIA RETROSPECTIVE!…and i’m just now getting to Super Castlevania IV…I was busy, alright? Besides, it’s not like anything big and Castlevania related happened in the meanti-(Belmont’s Curse) OH GOD DAMNIT- Well shit, i gotta get off my ass and review this damn game!

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SO…if you remembered, Castlevania 1 and 3 were these great, tough, and unique platformers, with a knack for some detailed and spooky environments…Castlevania 2…well i’ll give it this, it looks nice. But yeah, all 3 of these games were directed by Hitoshi Akamatsu, but unfortunately, despite how good it was, Castlevania 3 didn’t sell very well, so Akamatsu got demoted, and the series was handed to Masahiro Ueno, who was tasked with transitioning the series to the brand new 16-bit consoles at the time, specifically, the Super Nintendo.

Out of the three NES games, Ueno liked the first game the most which…yknow what? Kinda based i agree…and because of that, he decided to remake the first one, although Super Castlevania IV is less a remake and more a re-telling RE2 style. The game was developed to be less “frustrating” compared to the NES games, which is something I’ll go more into when I actually talk about the game itself.

So by 1991, the game was released on halloween in japan, and…late december in the states…CASTLEVANIA IS MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS GAME-

ANYWAYS, as we boot up the game we get a…really creepy title screen. We get an equally creepy opening text, that explains the plot which is…literally the exact same as Castlevania 1. Dracula revives, and simons like “DAMN I SHOULD KILL THAT DUDE.” and uh…goes off to kill him.

When we actually start the game, much like Castlevania 3, we get to name our “save”, and thus I named myself ASS.

After that, we get a shot of simon approaching the castle, and we get into gameplay with this opening area, featuring a much more ambient track than any of the previous games…if this music doesn’t set the tone of this game, then the graphics should. The NES trilogy were extremely impressive for their time, having incredibly detailed backgrounds and sprites, really selling the idea of an old abandoned castle. Super Castlevania IV, for an early 5th gen game, looks AMAZING. I’m not the hugest fan of early 5th gen graphics, compared to later 5th gen games. They look a little off, and I feel like the sprite artists hadn’t really gotten a handle of the more detailed sprites. Like, compare Super Mario World to Yoshi’s Island or Super Mario All-Stars. Super Castlevania IV, whilst i don’t think it looks nearly as good as the other two 5th gen Castlevanias, looks pretty damn good for the time, especially with it going for a realistic artstyle, since realistically styled games usually don’t age as well as more stylized ones. Every background is FULL of detail, and the sprites, which used to be the least detailed part of these games, look SO good. The NES games, while impressive, did have some limitations just because of the hardware they were on. Most of them were pretty light on color variety, and they would sometimes obscure details with THE BLACK VOID. Castlevania IV meanwhile pretty much ALWAYS has these amazing, detailed, very creepy backgrounds, and while it does use THE BLACK VOID a few times, it’s used a lot more convincingly. And despite the game’s realistic artstyle, it’s REALLY vibrant too, the colors are bright, and the sprites really POP…speaking of colors, Simon Belmont’s sprite. It’s a pretty typical design for him…but the boxart for BOTH the American AND Japanese ones messed it up, and both on the same detail. SO…in game, Simon wears black and gold armor, and he has brown hair. The american version depicts simon wearing entirely yellow armor, AND his hair is blonde.The japanese version got his hair right but they STILL messed up the armor, because it’s blue and silver for some reason? The american boxart getting it wrong is pretty expected, look at what they did to sonic, LOOK AT WHAT THEY DID TO POOR MEGA MAN. But the japanese boxart getting it wrong is just…weird, since you’d expect that the people who were from where the game was made would, y’know, be able to draw the main character correctly…but i guess not. Tangent aside, the graphics are amazing.

Back to the opening level, we eventually head into the castle, and get to hear the iconic “Theme of Simon” I played it at the start of the vid, and it’s a pretty damn good song. The more ambient opening eventually leads into this more bombastic tune as it goes, and it’s really catchy.

But y’know, this is a video game, and you wanna know what the most important part of a video game is? The manual- THE GAMEPLAY!

So, the game controls similarly to the last three, but there’s been a few big additions. First of all, and the one most people bring up, Simon can whip in multiple directions. This is a pretty huge change, since your whip only being limited to one direction was a big part of the difficulty of the NES games, and was what incentivized you to use the sub-weapons. Now, the whip is a bit too useful…and to be honest I’m not the hugest fan. I barely used sub-weapons, and the whip has SO much range, not just because of the multiple directions, but also because the sprites are way bigger, so the upgraded whip covers WAY more of the screen, so you won’t have to move around much or use sub-weapons cleverly to hit enemies. This isn’t helped by the fact you can now adjust your jump arc, making platforming way easier. You can also do…whatever this is, and hang off the walls with your whip. I don’t mind these. ALSO, the meat that would restore your health is now WAY more common, and not all of them are hidden anymore…so yeah. The game’s MUCH easier than 3 and 1…BUT, it’s not boring like Castlevania 2. While Castlevania 2 is pretty much just mindless, Castlevania IV is more so just…lighter. You still have to engage with the level design and there is still a penalty for death, it’s just that the mechanics and level design you have to engage with aren’t as punishing…SPEAKING OF LEVEL DESIGN, let’s return to that, shall we?

The first level isn’t too difficult, we walk through the main gates before ending up in this random shed. Eventually, we fight our first boss, a skeletal Horse Jockey…he’s uh…very easy.  I think the only thing notable about this boss is that horse make not horse noises. (play the sound) Bro think he wolf.

After that, we run through the uh…courtyard?…graveyard? I dunno, some outside section of the castle. We fight off a few zombies and uh…grass. This part’s a bit harder, ‘cause you have these hands that come up out of the ground and grab you, which can make you vulnerable to enemy attacks. We also get to this lake area where there’s a bit more platforming, although it’s over this mud that you can jump into just fine without being in danger of dying. At the end we fight medusa and…DAMN SHE’S EASIER THAN THE LAST BOSS. As long as you have the holy cross, she dies in like…two seconds…

After her, we run through the lake and into the third level, the caves. The first section isn’t much to write home about, though the atmosphere is really great, especially with the song. (play it) The next section is a bit more interesting. It’s this vertical platforming segment where you climb up this waterfall, and it puts a lot of focus on the swinging mechanic. I think it’s also the first section of the game to have actual bottomless pits to worry about, so it’s also a bit more challenging. This isn’t even mentioning the track that plays here…(play it)…it may be just a small ambient piano track, but it’s a DAMN good one. After that, we enter this sunken city area, and about here is where the game finally stops holding your hand, and gives a moderately difficult platforming section. They incorporate a lot more bottomless pits, and while this game got rid of the fixed jump arcs, one thing they DIDN’T get rid of, was the knockback, which means that if an enemy hits you over a pit then…(game over) yeah. At the end of this section we fight a two headed dragon, still not super difficult, but definitely tougher than the skeleton jockey and ESPECIALLY medusa.

Stage 4 takes place in this tower outside dracula’s castle, and the music here is once again, REALLY good. (play it) It’s pretty good, you do a lot of platforming over these bottomless pits with a bunch of skeletons, and you also deal with these platforms that flip if you land on them, and there’s a few parts where they make you jump on a platform and then quickly jump off before you can fall. The most memorable though, is definitely when the game has you this room that starts rotating after you start swinging on this latch with your whip, and after that, you run through this section with this tripping spinning background. If you couldn’t tell, this game loves showing off the SNES’s different “modes”, mostly mode 7 because…3D WOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHH- after that is this section where you try not to get crushed by these rising blocks, and while I wouldn’t call it hard, it’s definitely tense, especially when they bring in these spikes and really fast block right at the end. After that, we fight this growing and shrinking golem, and then FINALLY enter the castle…

So we enter the main ha-…WAIT A FUCKING SECOND if this is the opening hall of the castle THEN WHAT THE FUCK WAS THIS? HUH?! Is there just…another castle next to Dracula’s  Castle what the-…GREEDY ASS BITCH YOU DON’T NEED TWO CASTLES!…oh yeah the level. The opening part’s fine, not very challenging…although I don’t know what the hell is up with my gameplay what in the actual fuck am i trying to do…eventually we get to a-(simon dies)…shit. We eventually get to this swinging chandelier which besides…THAT is pretty easy all things considered. After that we end up in what I can only assume is some sort of ballroom or something since there’s these dancing ghosts near the end…in fact, this entire level is full of ghosts and even possessed tables and coffins. The difficulty for this stage isn’t from the platforming, but instead from the enemies, which is a bit surprising given how capable Simon is in this game. You got wolves, armor, and ghost guys that make funny noises when they die. There’s also these apparitions of the swordfighter skeletons, and i remember when i found them i was like “what the fuck is that” and then i got grabbed by these hand in the walls and found out what the fuck that was. Owie. The boss of this level is this dancing ghost couple who’s definitely harder than the last few…although it gets a little frustrating with how easy they can corner you.

Stage 6 takes place in the castle library, and the music is very calming here…(play the song) almost makes you forget about the fact that you’re platforming over bottomless pits on books. (Simon dies) almost. I don’t have much to say on this level, the moving book section can be a bit difficult, but otherwise it’s alright…except for this vertical section (Foghorn). After beating a haunted suit armor, we fall into-…no…NO…NOOOOOOOOOOOOO–

So we end up in this game’s equivalent to castlevania 1’s stage 4, and just like that level, it’s my least favorite stage in the game, although it’s for different reasons. Mostly, it’s the checkpoints. They’re too far apart, like the opening section are these two really long hallways, and even if you die in the second hallway, you’re sent back to the start of the first one. This definitely isn’t helped by the fact that the stage’s main obstacle are these insta-kill spikes, and the first hallway also has a lot of those bloody tears guys, y’know those enemies castlevania 3 that cry bloody tears? Yeah them, the bloody tears guys. They’re a bit obnoxious to try and hit. Funnily enough the boss of this level, Frankenstein, is easy as shit. Seriously, I just wailed on him and killed him for the first time.

After that level, we head into this gold chamber, which not only looks amazing, but also has some pretty amazing music to go along with it too. (play it) This level’s pretty good, got some nice platforming over pits, and it’s got this mechanic of these platforms that immediately start crumbling after you step on them…which brings into question, why the hell is this gold so fucking brittle? In fact, there’s part of the level where the floor gives out and breaks, and makes me wonder…either dracula needs to take better care of his fucking castle, or i’m starting to question the validity of this gold…the boss of this area is a golden bat, and they have it so whenever you hit it gold falls of it that can hit you, which i think is supposed to de-incentivize spamming attacks, but everytime you hit it the animation resets…eventually the bat splits into 3 smaller bats, and they’re a little bit more difficult to deal with…and what’s your reward for beating them? Well….seizure warning, you get this…lovely.

Next up, we head into the clock tower and are greeted by an amazing remix of bloody tears. (play it) Unfortunately, the checkpoints kinda get in the way again. Just like in the underground area, you have this SUPER long opening section, which covers these two rooms, and if you die in either of these rooms, and I mean normal death not a game over, you get sent to the start. And that extra sucks because this level is really good! You got the typical castlevania clockwork tropes, jumping on gears, and pretty much the most difficult platforming in the game, but then you got stuff like this whole vertical ascent section, and these falling gears (ok i don’t care for them that much), and my most favorite absolutely has to be how much the level gets out of the swinging mechanic. I think the sparse checkpoints just make this level way more stressful than it really needs to be. By the end we reach the outside of the clock tower and fight the boss which is…the mummy…WHY THE FUCK IS THE MUMMY IN THE CLOCK TOWER-

So after i beat this level, i went to save state…and my game crashed. I tried to rebeat the level, but eventually gave up and went to the next level using the game’s password system (thank god it has that…) and uh-…i kinda fucked up. SO this game has two sets of passwords for the levels, one for the normal stages, and one for the hard mode. GUESS WHAT FUCKIN DIPSHIT PUT IN THE HARD MODE PASSWORDS. So uh…i played stage 6 in hard mode. And i kinda hated it. It was just really obnoxious with this annoying ass chase sequence full of enemies that can knock you off. I eventually went back to play the normal version and…it’s fine. The chase section isn’t nearly as bad, less “I FUCKING HATE THIS” and more “…well that was a little irritating”, although thing that definitely sucks about this level are the vampire killer and beginning remixes, these are complete SHEEEEEIIIIIT. (play them)

The end of this level is this huge boss gauntlet, fighting the two servants of death, Slogra and Gaibon. Slogra is kinda annoying, since whenever you hit him he falls right on top of you, and after you break his spear his little beak stab attack that he resorts to becomes REALLY frustrating to dodge. Gaibon isn’t nearly as hard to fight, he even have a New Super Mario Bros ass second phase where he turns red. After them, we fight death himself and…DAMN MY GOAT’S WASHED! Death in castlevania 1 was like, the hardest boss, and in castlevania 3 he was still no joke, but in this game he’s VERY easy to exploit, you can just…stand here and do…that, you can destroy all his projectiles with ease, and his other attacks are WAY easier to dodge. So unfortunately Death is very easy to take out…THOUGH IT’S STILL BETTER THAN CASTLEVANIA 2-

After Death, we head on to fight the main man himself…DRACULA! First off, Dracula is once again counted as his own stage, and second of all, there’s this hidden spot that completely reheals you, gives you 99 hearts, fully upgrades your whip, gives you a cross, and two of those roman numeral things (which i found out upgrades the amount of weapons you can throw on screen up to 3). Dracula’s fight is probably one of the easiest in the series, second only to…(castlevania 2 jumpscare)…yeah. If you just spam the holy cross all over the screen, you can beat him pretty easily. It’s not mindless unlike…(castlevania 2 jumpscare 2)…yeah, but it’s not Castlevania 1 or 3 levels of challenge.

After you land the final hit, the windows break open to shine the sun in the room, burning dracula to death…and giving me the opportunity to t-bag him too. Simon watches over the castle as it sinks into the ground, and we get a nice credits sequence, this time with no joke names.

Overall…I think Super Castlevania IV is good, and as a showcase of the next-gen capabilities of the SNES, it’s fantastic…i think it just falls a bit short compared to its predecessors, except THAT one…BUT, i think it’s got merit. It serves as a nice starting point for the classicvania formula, since it’s much more forgiving and less tough, and weirdly enough, a lot of the movement additions from this game would latter be used in the metroidvania castlevania games…so it still ends up being a pretty fun game, despite being not as good as some of it’s predecessors, and even the game that immediately followed it which uh…might be my favorite game in the classic style i’m VERY excited to review this one…

But my ultimate takeaway from all of this…is that i take way too damn long to make these videos-
: Super Castlevania IV video review