Castlevania Anniversary Collection

[AndyKurosaki]

So, I just started this up. I’m actually surprised Konami got off their arse to put this together. They’ve been absolute morons for years, and done literally nothing with their numerous IPs. All they did last year was Metal Gear Survive, which I don’t even need to comment on. So I genuinely wasn’t expecting them to bother with a collection like this. Contra is getting one later in the year, and I bloody love Contra, so will naturally check that out.

 

Anyways. How does this hold up? Pretty good, really. The first game in the series i ever played was 4, due to never owning a NES back in the day. It remains one of my favourite games of all time, from the gameplay to the gorgeous soundtrack. I didn’t think we’d see this anywhere other than a Nintendo console. But I’m very glad to be replaying it. As it’s just as brilliant now, as it was then. 

 

I never played the Megadrive version, again due to not owning one at the time. So I’m looking forward to giving that a shot, as it’s generally held in high regard. 

 

As for the rest? You’ve got all 3 of the NES games, which I will get though after 4 and Bloodlines. Two gameboy games, which don’t look especially great, but I’ll play them for completions sake. And Kid Dracula, which I have no idea if it’s any good or not.

 

As is par for the course in these kind of collections, you can quick save your game at any time. Though on the PS4 version, you access the save menu by pressing the Share button. Which of course either takes a screenshot, or video, depending on your setting. And there’s no way of changing that to say, the Options button, or touchpad. It’s weird. Maybe they’ll sort it out in a future update perhaps. There’s no way to change button configuration either. 

 

You also get access to various promotional material/ concept art of all the games, which is a nice touch. 

[Middle_Class_Hero]

Really wanted Rondo Of Blood to be on this as I’ve never played it ?

 

Not sure I’ll be getting this. It’s a great collection of games (especially CV4), but I haven’t really got time for a revisit unfortunately.

[Maf]

Rondo of Blood and SotN were split out into their own digital double pack. They were recently on a PSN sale for like £7 or something 

[OCH]

I really don't know why Konami even bother to keep hold of these IPs anymore, when they don't make use of them? They should just sell them off to publishers and devs that actually want to produce games. I'd love to see Nintendo or From Soft revisit 3D Castlevania (or a 3D Castlevania Collection full stop).

 

As for the collection, it sounds good but I've played all of them other than Kid Dracula and the Gameboy games. So I'll keep an eye out for the next collection instead.

[Middle_Class_Hero]

41 minutes ago, Maf said:

Rondo of Blood and SotN were split out into their own digital double pack. They were recently on a PSN sale for like £7 or something 

 

Ah, didn’t know that. I’ll keep ‘em peeled.

[AndyKurosaki]

Yeah, that Rondo/SOTN double pack hit the sales quite often.

 

I was really sceptical when the rumour of Konami doing these collections. They’ve had a “don’t give a fuck” attitude for years. Yet here we are, they’ve released something.

[Maryokutai]

I'm hoping for a Castleroid collection down the line with the GBA and DS games on it. It's a shame those titles are only available on older handhelds (and in the case of the GBA titles also WiiU for some weird reason) and nowhere else.

 

I'm going to pick up this collection as soon as it's on sale because as legendary as they might be, I just can't enjoy 8bit games anymore and they make up the majority of the lineup here. The most interesting thing for me here is the digital archives book.

[Maf]

Castlevania 3 remains one of my all time favourite Giant Bomb lets plays. That game looks like an absolute fucker ?

[Maf]

On 19/05/2019 at 20:47, Middle_Class_Hero said:

 

Ah, didn’t know that. I’ll keep ‘em peeled.

 

Don’t know what just reminded me but the SotN and Rondo of Blood pack are on sale again on PlayStation. £8.99.

 

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0101-CUSA13590_00-CASTLEVANIA00001

[illdog]

There's was an update recently that added the Japanese variants to the three NES games, the two gameboy games, the Megadrive game and Kid Dracula.

 

The Japanese version of Castlevania III is superior to the version we got, check this link for a huge list of differences:

 

https://tcrf.net/Castlevania_III:_Dracula's_Curse/Regional_Differences

[Hendo]

That’s crazy! 

[Middle_Class_Hero]

On 16/06/2019 at 09:45, Maf said:

 

Don’t know what just reminded me but the SotN and Rondo of Blood pack are on sale again on PlayStation. £8.99.

 

https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/product/EP0101-CUSA13590_00-CASTLEVANIA00001

 

Ah, cheers.

 

I’ll pick that up then with a view to playing it at some point (maybe sooner rather than later if the Bloodstained RotN reviews are shit).

[HandsomeDead]

I picked this up in the sale on Switch.  I didn't want to spend too much on it as I only wanted it for Bloodlines and £3.99 seems fair enough.  I might give Castlevania III a shot too. 

I think about a month ago I got the SotN/RoB pack on PS4 for a similar price so I'm happy I've got Rondo too since that and Bloodlines are the two I really want to play out of old-school Castlevania. 

 

I had a quick first run on Bloodlines and only got to the third level.  Its gonna take a bit to get used to I think if I want to get this under my belt ?

[Maryokutai]

Pre-orders for this monster start on the 15th May at LimitedRunGames:

 

 

Looks absolutely bollocks, I'm not sure if I'll be able to resist even though I have the digital version already and didn't play it that much (more of a Metroidvania person with the exception of Rondo).

[Maryokutai]

Konami might be working on a collection of the GBA Castlevania games:

https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/castlevania-advance-collection

 

I hope this turns out true, those are some of the finest games in the series, Aria of Sorrow in particular. This also could mean that a DS collection is on the way which had equally great CV games in its lineup.

[OCH]

I missed out on a lot of the DS one's back in the day. Definitely a collection on the radar. As an aside, a Suikoden collection would be nice too , Konami...