2008 Woodie Awards
Castlevania
Justin Reid
Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: Sci/Tech
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Castlevania is one of those game series which refuses to die, despite its age. In this respect, it's not so different from the game's chief villain, Dracula. The Castlevania game series started in 1987, back in the days of the original Nintendo system. Three games were produced for this system, each starring Simon Belmont, a vampire hunter with an enchanted whip who was out to kill Lord Dracula.
Since that time, Nintendo has released Castlevania games for all its systems; a few were even made for the PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. Some games no longer even featured Simon as the main character- in fact; the Xbox 360 one allows you to play as Dracula's son, Alucard.
The Xbox game, Castlevania, Curse of Darkness, puts you in the shoes of Hector, a devil forge master turned good guy. As a forge master, Hector can make any weapon or armor he desires, simply by combining items he gains from monsters he has killed. There is one rather annoying problem with this: Hector is unable to forge ranged weapons. Yes, not even a throwing knife. This is irritating because it means you have to charge up to every single villain, which sometimes takes as long as ten seconds. The good news is that the weapons you do have can be used to unleash some interesting and powerful combos. Also, Hector can summon creatures to aid him, some of which have ranged attacks.
There are only two other things that bother me about this game. The first is that despite the fact that he's a forge master, Hector is never shown wearing armor or wielding a weapon in the cinematics. The second is that the levels can get pretty banal, with each level designed to be a labyrinth.
Overall, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness rates three and a half stars out of five.
Since that time, Nintendo has released Castlevania games for all its systems; a few were even made for the PS2, Xbox, and Xbox 360. Some games no longer even featured Simon as the main character- in fact; the Xbox 360 one allows you to play as Dracula's son, Alucard.
The Xbox game, Castlevania, Curse of Darkness, puts you in the shoes of Hector, a devil forge master turned good guy. As a forge master, Hector can make any weapon or armor he desires, simply by combining items he gains from monsters he has killed. There is one rather annoying problem with this: Hector is unable to forge ranged weapons. Yes, not even a throwing knife. This is irritating because it means you have to charge up to every single villain, which sometimes takes as long as ten seconds. The good news is that the weapons you do have can be used to unleash some interesting and powerful combos. Also, Hector can summon creatures to aid him, some of which have ranged attacks.
There are only two other things that bother me about this game. The first is that despite the fact that he's a forge master, Hector is never shown wearing armor or wielding a weapon in the cinematics. The second is that the levels can get pretty banal, with each level designed to be a labyrinth.
Overall, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness rates three and a half stars out of five.
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