ESRB rates Castlevania: Rondo of Blood for Wii
Previously, unless you were a resident of Japan who owned a PC Engine CD in the early ’90s (or, more likely, a PSP owner anywhere in the world within the past two years ago), there wasn’t an easy way for you to get your hands on “Akumajō Dracula X Chi no Rondo” (Rondo of Blood’s Japanese title). But now, it seems that Wii owners outside of Japan will get the chance to check out the game.
ESRB rates Castlevania: Rondo of Blood for Wii originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth Review
Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth is the third and perhaps most impressive entry so far in Konami’s arcade-style WiiWare titles (the first two being Gradius Rebirth and Contra Rebirth). The title, available for download exclusively on WiiWare for 1,000 Wii Points ($10), retells the first adventure of vampire hunter Christopher Belmont in what is essentially an entirely new game.
Unlike the recent Castlevania titles for the Nintendo DS, Castlevania Rebirth ditches the Metroidvania style of gameplay where you unlock portions of Dracula’s castle and level up in a non-linear, RPG/Metroid-like format, and instead harkens back to the straightforward NES days where you progressed from one level to the next in a linear fashion armed with only your whip, your subweapons and nerves of steel.
The gameplay itself is simplistic but fun, giving an appropriate nod back to the series’ roots in arcade-based gaming. You can whip only left or right and have your typical subweapons – the cross, axe, dagger, stopwatch and holy water – with which to venture through the six levels of Dracula’s castle. The subweapons behave just as they did in the early Castlevania games, but Christopher’s whip retains a unique feature from the original version of The Castlevania Adventure – the ability to shoot fire. Though unlike the 1989 game, this ability only lasts for a short while. But thankfully, each enemy hit Christopher suffers from no longer annoyingly downgrades his whip.
Each level features a plethora of custom-drawn enemies – it was a relief to see some new character designs after so much recycling in the Metroidvania titles – as well as a final boss and even some sub-bosses to challenge your arcade gaming skills along with occasionally difficult platforming sections. Defeat the boss and you’ll be rewarded not with an upgrade to your stats or a new skill, but with a sense of accomplishment and yet another challenge via the next level.
The levels themselves are surprisingly well constructed with a fair balance of enemies, platforms and even destructable environments (you can crumble statues with a crack of the whip or even drop chandeliers on top of unsuspecting enemies) that provide a constantly fun and challenging journey. Konami has even given subtle nods to the original title with oversized, rolling eyeballs of doom (a common enemy in the 1989 game) and dangling ropes that mock old-school veterans such as myself who remember Game Boy title’s abundant use of rope climbing in place of stairs.
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood Rated for Australian Virtual Console
Now this is something we’ve been waiting for with much enthusiasm. The infamous 1993 PC-Engine game, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, is making its way to the Australian Virtual Console according to a recent entry in the Classification Database for the OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification). It has been given a classification of “M” for mature.
Rondo of Blood debuted in Japan two years after the Super NES title Super Castlevania IV, and it made full use of the PC-Engine’s CD-ROM format by including anime cutscenes and CD-quality sound. However, the original version was never released in America until 2007 when Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles arrived on the PSP. A watered down port arrived on the SNES in 1995 under the title of “Castlevania: Dracula X,” but it lacked many of the stellar features of the original title (even though it contained rather high-quality music like its counterpart).
The original version has been available on the Japanese Virtual Console since April of 2008, but this marks the first time that Konami has emulated the game for English-speaking audiences.
It wouldn’t make much sense for Konami to release this long-awaited game in Australia alone, so we expect the game to arrive in the States some time next year, likely after Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth hits WiiWare. We’ll keep you updated as more information arrives.
Top 5: Castlevania Games
Filed under: Top Five
This week marks the release of the highly anticipated Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Poised to be more than the usual Metroidvania-romp, Ecclesia’s glyph system coupled with great diversity in environments and level layout (we’re apparently not stuck inside the castle anymore) has all of us whip-enthusiasts drooling with anticipation. To be honest, Konami could slap the word “Castlevania” on a box of assorted animal feces and we’d still pre-order. Here’s the part where I’m supposed take a cheap shot at Castlevania Judgment, but admit it: no matter how many times we all spit on the brawler, we never seem to stop checking out movies or screenshots. Castlevania has us whipped; pardon the hideous pun.
Assuming I haven’t lost all credibility after the Mega Man list, here’s another stab at ranking the best of a legendary franchise. Unlike most other Top 5’s, this list is not necessarily Nintendo-specific. Take a gander, and try to pretend that you don’t know what number one is.
The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up. | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments |
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Top 10 Best Selling Games
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