The second Castlevania game released for the Game Boy Advance, Harmony of Dissonance was published by Konami in 2002.
In this game you play as Juste Belmont, a direct descendant of Simon Belmont – the protagonist from the first Castlevania. And – for some reason – he has a blue glow around him, and a blue trail, that he leaves in his wake as he moves…
Continue reading Castlevania: Harmony Of Dissonance, Game Boy Advance
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was the first Castlevania game released for the Game Boy Advance. It was developed by Konami‘s Kobe division and released in 2001.
Circle of the Moon was also a launch title for the GBA and went on to sell over one million physical units worldwide.
Continue reading Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Game Boy Advance
There are two Metroid games on the Game Boy Advance. One is an original game, called Metroid Fusion, and there’s also this one: Metroid: Zero Mission, which is a remake of the original Metroid.
It was first released in 2004 and features modernised graphics and gameplay, but the same core gameplay as the 1986 original.
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is a 2007 remake of the 1993 PC Engine CD game, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, with 3D graphics, but used in a 2D, side-scrolling manner.
Gameplay is identical to most other Castlevania games – even though it uses 3D graphics – and Konami must be given credit for not mucking it up, even though they could easily have done that.
Released in 1991, Konami‘s Super Castlevania IV was one of the earliest releases for the Super Nintendo console – and one of the best.
Alien Rampage is an old-school run-and-gun shooter from 1996 with all the ingredients required to make an entertaining game. Smooth scrolling; cool explosions; lots of different weapons; plenty of different monsters; gory gibs; an agile central character.
Now this is a weird one… Monty On The Run (aka Monty no Doki Doki Daidassou) is a bizarre Japanese conversion of a famous British platform game. It was released by Jaleco in 1987 and bears little resemblance to the classic original.
Released on 26th September 1986 in Japan, Akumajō Dracula (translating as: “Demon Castle Dracula“) was the very first release in the Castlevania series, predating the MSX version of the game by about a month. Konami released it on the Famicom Disk System where it quickly became a hit with Japanese gamers.
It began a long-running series of platform/horror-themed video games and set the template for the Castlevania series as a whole.
I’ve no idea why Codemasters changed the title, but this is Super Robin Hood on the Amiga – the classic 8-bit game by the Oliver Twins – except under a different name.
This excellent Nintendo Entertainment System version of Codemasters‘ Super Robin Hood was developed in the late Eighties, before the 16-bit versions (which are somewhat different to the classic 8-bit originals).
The King of Grabs 