Developer(s): Konami / M2
Publisher: Konami
Platform(s): PS4 / Xbox One / PC [reviewed] / Nintendo Switch
Release date : May 16, 2019
Media Type: Digital download
Price: $19.99
The Castlevania Anniversary Collection is great. Look, if you are a fan of Castlevania games you are going to know what to expect from this collection. It brings together almost all the Castlevania games from both the 8-bit and 16-bit generation of consoles. But I need to be clear that this is not a complete collection and is missing a few titles, even if it’s a great collection of some great games.
At a paltry $20, this Castlevania collection includes the original NES trilogy of games that made the series famous, a couple of Game Boy titles, two 16-bit titles, one for the SNES (Castlevania IV) and the other for the Sega Genesis (Castlevania: Bloodlines), and Kid Dracula. That last game is special because this is the first time we’ve got it in the West in a translated form.
But any hardcore fan can clearly tell that there are a couple of games missing from this collection. The two most notable exceptions that fit squarely into the era of games from this collection are Castlevania Legends for the Game Boy and Castlevania Dracula X for the SNES. It’s weird for these two titles to be missing from this package considering they fit the bill.
Sure, Dracula X is a bastardized port of Rondo of Blood from the TG16, but then why didn’t we just get Rondo of Blood in this collection? I’m happy we got a new game in Kid Dracula, but I don’t think many Castlevania fans were clamoring for it, and surely not over Rondo of Blood, even if the game is a good bit of fun. But it’s Castlevania Legends that really ticks me off about this package.
Look, I know that the game has been disowned by the Castelvania team, but I never really understood why. It’s as good, if not better, than the two Game Boy entires on this package. The only beef I see is that it stars a woman and is the prequel to how the series kicks off. I’m totally okay with retcons and removing a game from a time-line for whatever reason, but pretending it doesn’t exist sucks for people that enjoyed the game. It’s not like Kid Dracula is really canon anyways, and that’s here.
Aside from Tetris, Castlevania Legends was my first, and one of my few, Game Boy games that I owned, so its exclusion doesn’t sit right with me. If you are putting together a collection of your classic games, leaving some out just makes no sense. I know most people out there won’t care, but imagine if they left out Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest just because they waned to. It just ticks me off when studios ignore their history. It’s not like Castlevania: Bloodlines is canon since it’s actually based more on the book Dracula.
That said, the games themselves all work well aside from some audio issues that are hard to explain. Something about the audio emulation just feels a little off. Like the levels aren’t quite right and the instruments feel just slightly different from the original games. The NES trilogy is hit hardest by this. This is a pretty normal problem when it comes to emulation, but hardcore fans are going to notice the slight differences.
Castlevania is a great series and there are very few, if any, missteps in terms of game quality before the series transitioned into it’s weird 3D teenage phase. Games play as well as you remember them, or as slow as you remember then with regards to the Game Boy titles in the package. What isn’t so great is the amount of options to play with. You get a bunch of great games and that’s about it.
You get a save slot for each game which works fine, but you’ll really wish you had a couple to play with. If it’s just you, then it’s not a big deal, but those wanting to practice their speed-running will hate only having a single slot, especially if that slot puts leaves you in a shitty position. And if you have a partner or kids that want to play, you’ll all have to share a single slot which is kind of a pain.
Visually, everything looks on point. The standard mode works fine, but you can tweak the screen to emulate various resolutions and those odd TV filters these packs love to add. Hardcore fans will stick to the pixel-perfect mode while others won’t mind the 16:9 mode that stretches to fill the screen. In the office we had people using both but I like to float in the in-between mode as I’m not some purist.
I ignored the scanline feature that fakes a tube TV because that mode always looks awful. I’ve never met a single person that uses scanline mode in these collections because it’s pretty silly, and as someone who grew up, and still uses, a tube TV, scanline mode doesn’t even come close. Some other options are console specific as the Game Boy will get some options too. Authentic mode, green and black like you remember and something along the lines of the Super Game Boy. Good stuff.
The Castlevania Anniversary Collection is a really nice package, even if it feels pretty bare-bones and is missing some titles that keep it from being a true, complete collection like many of us wanted. You’ll also have to deal with being stuck with the U.S. versions of the game. Not a big deal since that’s what you all probably grew up with, but a shame because some of the titles have some big changes in the Japanese forms.
Still, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection is a pretty great deal at only $20, a much better deal than the Konami Arcade Classics Anniversary collection that came out last month. This is one I can recommend pretty easily, especially if you have a Nintendo Switch. These games are great on the go and make it an even better deal in my opinion.
“Castlevania Anniversary Collection is a solid collection that’s sadly missing a few games from the era”
Final Score
3/5
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