It's the daytime theme in Castlevania II 😊
I've bought Super Mario Bros., Bomberman '93, Ice Hockey, and The Legend of Zelda so far.
They still have Link's sword beam attack sfx messed up from the Gamecube version, and the intro story is the same rewritten one on the Gamecube. The story description on the purchase page is also wrong.
The Wii remote seemed to work well for Super Mario Bros. except for the tiny dpad. I had more trouble playing Zelda with this dpad because I kept pressing diagonally. The Classic controller is a great controller, but would mess me up in SMB because they mapped B to B and A to A, instead of the more natural SNES layout of B to Y and A to B and you can't change it.
I also tried Hori's Gamecube Digital Controller and liked its size since its exactly the same size of the SNES controller with grips. Unfortuantely the 4 face buttons are still the normal GC layout so its not as good as it should, and I've worn the dpad out quickly. I hope Hori makes a new one that's more like the SNES controller with the face buttons.
The neat thing about these games is that they are running at their original low resolution, with the exception of Turbographics-16, so they look just like they originally did, which most game collections don't do. I think I almost notice some slight overscan in NES games though. Zelda and SMB almost look like they're filling slightly too much of the screen than they did on the NES to me.
I'll probably get Sim City soon, but don't know how much I'll continue to buy. I still have most of the original consoles and games available to me.
I've noticed that on my NES purchases (and this may occur elsewhere as well, but I've only seen it here), there is a good block and a half missing from the bottom of the screen. I find this extremely annoying. I know that developers of the day were aware that stuff around the edges of the screen may be hidden on some TVs, but a block and a half? Come on. That's retarded.
The NES graphics unit has a resolution of 256x240. But they say on NTSC systems, you do not see that entire area. On PAL you do. Now it shouldn't cut off any more than what is cut off on a real NES. If more is missing, then VC's emu sucks. This is why home grown emulators like those on Xbox will always be better because of lots of configuration ability. You can adjust the screen size and position on the Xbox emulators. It's not surprising VC doesn't. This feature is often overlooked. ='(
Mak-X wrote:
I also tried Hori's Gamecube Digital Controller and liked its size since its exactly the same size of the SNES controller with grips. Unfortuantely the 4 face buttons are still the normal GC layout so its not as good as it should, and I've worn the dpad out quickly. I hope Hori makes a new one that's more like the SNES controller with the face buttons.
http://www.retrousb.com/wii.html
That site sells a GC->SNES adapter for plugging in an actual SNES controller.
When the time comes to finally get a Wii myself, I'll probably get that and the NES adapter.
I beat Super Castlevania over the weekend.. yay..
Whoever designed B-2 needs to be shot though. Worst level design I've ever seen. Yes, let's put a big spinning insta-kill blade at the bottom of a tower full of crumbling stairs that crumble the instant you touch them. Lovely. Then let's not put a save point in this level until just before the boss -_-
It wouldn't be so bad if not for the game's horrible controls. Half the time I'll jump on the stairs, holding up, but Simon will fall right through them to his death. The other half Simon will get on the stairs, but because I was holding Up + Sideways he will pause for a second, while the stairs crumble underneath him, preventing him from proceeding at all. It's really shit design and I died there more than anywhere else in the game just because of stupid crap like that.
Pfft. I never had any trouble. 😛 You do realize alot of games are designed to have a very difficult end level. Unlike many modern games that basically have no progression in difficulty whatsoever.
MottZilla wrote:Pfft. I never had any trouble. 😛 You do realize alot of games are designed to have a very difficult end level. Unlike many modern games that basically have no progression in difficulty whatsoever.
It's not difficult - it's hard because of the lousy play control. That's just bad game design.
Does it have worse control than Fantasia did on the Genesis? Yes, I had that game, and don't know why...it wasn't very good. So far, I have yet to play a game that matches its horrible play control. :sick:
Grasshopper wrote:Does it have worse control than Fantasia did on the Genesis? Yes, I had that game, and don't know why...it wasn't very good. So far, I have yet to play a game that matches its horrible play control. :sick:
No idea, never played it. The play control in general is not *horrible*, but anything involving jumping or stair climbing can be annoying.
As I said in my other post, here are the two main problems with that room:
-Jump onto a staircase holding UP and Simon falls right through to his death
-Jump onto a staircase and land it, only to have Simon pause for a second while the stairs crumble underneath him and he instantly falls back off, either killing him, or preventing him from climbing which kills him (via the spike thing).
I could live with the first one, as annoying as it is. But to make it all the way up to the top only to have the second one happen on the LAST staircase REPEATEDLY is beyond annoying. As far as I can tell, the issue is partly to do with the angle of your jump onto the staircase. If it is too shallow, this happens a lot. Problem is, some staircases FORCE a shallow jump on you, so you have no choice. At the very least they should have given the stairs a good two seconds or so before they started to crumble - much like the bridge in the section *right* before that.
One other annoyance I didn't mention: getting all the way to the top (of the spike loop part) onto the grapple hook, then have the rock monster spawn and walk onto the tiny platform where you have to land *JUST* as Simon swings that way, knocking you into the pit for an insta-death. No way to avoid it other than being super careful or super lucky (he doesn't do this often, it's just luck of the draw whether he spawns closer to you and walks towards you, rather than spawning and/or walking away from you). I guess I just hate the knockback they put on all enemies - it wouldn't be so bad if there were not so many tiny platforms with enemies on them over huge pits. Also not a fan of vertical rooms that *become* pits despite not being pits two seconds ago when you were just down there. If you fall you should lose progress (and maybe some life depending on how far it is), not *die*. Bah.
Of course, add to this that the section after the crumbly stairs is annoying too. There are flying platforms you have to jump on, but most fly right into a set of spikes. It's not particularly hard (if you skip the Cross - I eventually had to because I was sick of dying because I'd land on that platform only to have a stupid flying platform come at me from underneath and lift me into the spikes overhead), but it requires a *lot* of trial and error if you don't know how to do it, which means you have to do the crumbly stairs part over again when you die. Ugg.. There should have been a save here (at least as long as you didn't Game Over). Afterall, they put saves after each of the three consecutive bosses in B-3. And they were a lot easier than this :P
You do realize all those "annoying" things, are what makes Castlevania what it is, and gives it challenge. Castlevania used to be a great series. Until they just started churning out SotN clones that weren't anywhere near as good as SotN. So don't complain about what makes Castlevania Castlevania. ;p
MottZilla wrote:You do realize all those "annoying" things, are what makes Castlevania what it is, and gives it challenge. Castlevania used to be a great series. Until they just started churning out SotN clones that weren't anywhere near as good as SotN. So don't complain about what makes Castlevania Castlevania. ;p
Bad play control makes Castlevania Castlevania? :P
SotN didn't have bad play control and that one was great.
Warlock wrote:Whoever designed B-2 needs to be shot though. Worst level design I've ever seen. Yes, let's put a big spinning insta-kill blade at the bottom of a tower full of crumbling stairs that crumble the instant you touch them. Lovely. Then let's not put a save point in this level until just before the boss -_-
Those are the 'spikes' I was talking about in my earlier post. Fun, huh?
I was looking around for this game the other day, and found that I actually don't have the cartridge anymore. Plus I never downloaded the ROM of it when I was collecting SNES ROMs. So I might have to buy this on the VC after all...
Warlock wrote:Bad play control makes Castlevania Castlevania? :P
Yeah, I'm wondering if you have any experience whatsoever with pre-SotN Castlevania games.
Super Castlevania IV happened to be the one game in the pre-SotNs with the best control scheme.
Daarkseid wrote:Yeah, I'm wondering if you have any experience whatsoever with pre-SotN Castlevania games.Super Castlevania IV happened to be the one game in the pre-SotNs with the best control scheme.
I've played all of them. And I know the control schemes were not the best. But that is no reason to design a room around exploiting all the weaknesses of the control scheme in frustrating ways. Relying on the "luck that the game will work the way it's supposed to" is not fun. Like I said above, add an additional 2 seconds to the time before the stairs crumble and you'd have no complaints from me (well, not many). But jumping on them only to be locked, unable to move, while the stairs crumble underneath me is just bad design.
If I remember that stage right, you could jump and land on the stairs higher up so you have a head start before they crumb from the beginning. You have to do this to get one of the candles.
I liked Dracula X (SNES) more than Super Castlevania 4 but admit CV4 is a better game. It's not as hard as some of the other older Castlevanias, but its much more enjoyable because of this and Simon's flexability.
I don't know Warlock, the play control in Super Castlevania is tight and very responsive. Maybe you are having some issues with VC or the controller you use. I played Castlevania 4 on my Super Famicom daily for awhile and it never had any of the issues you seem to have with it.
MottZilla wrote:I don't know Warlock, the play control in Super Castlevania is tight and very responsive. Maybe you are having some issues with VC or the controller you use. I played Castlevania 4 on my Super Famicom daily for awhile and it never had any of the issues you seem to have with it.
It could be the Classic Controller or the emulation. I have considered that. There is *definately* a buttload of slowdown even after the rooms I mentioned before. I havn't played the original in awhile. I should find a password and try again with the GC controller. I wonder if I'll have the same issue or not.
And for Mak-X's comment, I usually do but the problem is there are a couple where you just don't have the jump room to do that. The two I recall offhand as being really bad are first, if you take the left path up, just before the last platform (the one just left of the first enemy), there is a platform just above the ladder so it's really difficult (as you bump your head on it). The other is the very last staircase of the room.
It might very well be the emulation. I've noticed a few inconsistencies with the jumping mechanics (more often than not you cant jump right away after you've landed, but once in a blue moon, you can). I've only played the original on an emulator, and I didn't notice the problem then, but that was also a long time ago. It is frustrating from time to time, but no more frustrating than the original Metroid was with the enemies that liked to hit you while you transitioned between rooms. It's still a great game. A welcome challenge for someone like me who didn't really play the older Castlevanias.