Castlevania: The Adventure
PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER: Konami
RELEASE DATE: Oct. 27th, 1989 (JP), Dec. 1989 (US), Aug. 8th, 1991 (EU)
Time… is Never Time At All
And with Castlevania: The Adventure, Game Boy’s 1989 North American lineup comes to an end.
In total, the Game Boy only received six games in its debut year. Now, two of those games are Tetris and Super Mario Land, so there were (as far as I know) no complaints. Still… only six games in four months? Yikes. Better than the N64 launch, perhaps, but worse than just about any other Nintendo console/handheld launch. Today’s gamers would break their keyboards, boycott Nintendo, and make hundreds of YouTube videos detailing why “NiNtEnDo HatEs GaMeRz!” for not putting out at least a couple dozen third-party ports along with no less than two first-party AAA-quality titles.
1989 was, if nothing else, a gentler time.
Speaking of which, time is important here on “Nintendo is Great.” In addition to the whole “exploring games in chronological order” thing that is this Substack’s way of operating, a game’s release date and the console/handheld it was released for dictates how I approach it.
Perhaps this goes without saying, but I’m not going to hold Castlevania: The Adventure next to any of the NES Castlevanias and say it doesn’t measure up. Pretty much no Game Boy games measure up next to NES or SNES games, let alone games for later Nintendo consoles. All games released for their individual systems, whether Game Boy, NES, SNES, N64, etc. are considered both in the context of the time they released and which system they released for.
For example: Castlevania: The Adventure is not a good Castlevania game, full stop, nor would I consider it even a solid Game Boy experience today. In December 1989, though? There was no other handheld action game like it. (Sorry, Electrocop on Atari Lynx. You have color, but you’re not Castlevania.)
Funky Cryptkeeper
You control Christopher Belmont, Simon Belmont’s ancestor, in his quest to kill Dracula. He’s equipped with a whip annnnnd that’s it. No secondary weapons are found here, presumably due to technical limitations. The game has a hard enough time with Chris and Dracula’s ghouls simply walking around, I imagine an axe flying across the screen would send the Game Boy over the edge.
Christopher traverses through four reasonably sized areas – the Graveyard, the Caverns, Death Tower, and Castlevania – and cracks down foes like the rolling Big Eyes that explode when you hit them and the unfortunately named Punaguchi, a big hand with a mouth in its center that releases electric balls. Terrifying! The lamps from NES Castlevania return, although the gifts they give are few. If you’re lucky, you’ll find the occasional whip upgrade, some hearts (which add to your life bar, unlike hearts in the NES games), and a cross that makes you invincible. Mostly, you’ll be bombarded with coins which do nothing except add to your point total.
Castlevania: The Adventure is also a very intense platformer - which is a shame because Christopher’s jumping skills are subpar at best. Starting in the Graveyard where you’re forced to hop along a series of precariously placed blocks, the game just really loves making this stiff, presumably arthritic warrior jump as much as possible.
Death Tower lives up to its name. A wall of spikes automatically moves towards you while you zig zag through narrow corridors filled with enemies, leap across trembling platforms, and haul balls up a rope or three. Just when you think you’ve outrun the wall from the left, the level changes direction, and suddenly you’re ascending with the spikes slowly moving underneath you.
This is the level, friends. This is the level that as a 1989 kid would have both infuriated and stunned me. How is this possible on Game Boy? Sure, everything is moving at 10 frames-per-second, but it’s all happening, not on a television screen, but on something you can play under your covers (provided you have a worm light, of course). You might die constantly, but you’re also in awe that you’re here, in this moment, with this game.
Today, however, both Death Tower and the game that surrounds it, are a drag. Cheap deaths, lackluster gameplay, barren maps, chuggy framerate, and stodgy controls make Castlevania: The Adventure really difficult to play in this, Our Modern Times. What kept me persevering through this 8-bit crypt, more than anything, was the killer soundtrack, the only element of this game that still fills me with classic vampire-slaying vibes.
Castlevania: The Adventure got really solid reviews at the time of its release. EGM’s four-man Review Crew could be notorious curmudgeons, and even they gave it three 8s and a 7 out of 10. That sounds about right, honestly. Before decades of handheld technology would render Castlevania’s first Game Boy outing stale and obsolete, its mere existence was an achievement and a testament to what could be possible on Nintendo’s inaugural handheld system. Basic puzzle and sports games on the Game Boy are one thing. Portable Mario and Castlevania games that even remotely resemble their big console brothers are quite another.
1989: B+
Today: C-/D+ (the incredible soundtrack covers a multitude of sins)
Excellent read. It really has me thinking about which version of the game I should play: the original Game Boy release or the Rebirth version on the Wii.
I skipped the Gameboy Castlevania games during my playthrough of the series but plan to go back at some point. Not because I think they will be good, only to fill in the holes. Sounds like I made a good choice to skip them, haha.