Awakened Evil

I have to admit the first impression was not very good. Far from it. The game did everything what's wrong with classic Castlevanias: [list] [*] moving at a snail's pace [*] low air control [*] knockback on being hit [*] too slow to dodge anything if you don't know what to expect [*] a lot of instant-death pits [*] occasional bullsh!t enemy placement [*] agility of a thrown brick [/list] I hate low control and slow movement passionately. Visually, well, it's hard to find proper words. Wait, I know! "Ugly as sin" is the expression I was looking for! It probably looks worse than the first Castlevania but at the same time has this DIY charm of sorts. I actually started to like it, kind of. Especially the bosses that look like something scribbled in MS Paint over the course of a lunch break. Let's address the difficulty next. You'll be eating a lot of unavoidable hits during the first playthrough. You'll be repeatedly stunlocked by small, agile enemies (godd@mn frogs!). You'll be knocked of tiny platforms into bottomless pits while having a full health bar. You'll be intercepted mid-jump with no way of knowing prior. It can get pretty infuriating. Some quotes from my journal to illu…

If you are a classic castlevania fan, you can not miss out on this absolute gem! There's lots of good inspiration from all the classics, the ninja gaiden trilogy, and even some really good original ideas here! And it has the old school feeling challenge too, but I think there's some little things here and there that help make it more accessible (I'm pretty sure if you're on your last life, there's a higher chance when you kill a monster, they'll drop an extra life). And the soundtrack can also be pretty boppin', my favorite track is stage 5. I really hope the devs make a sequel, this is some genuinely great stuff!

This was a lot of fun. Definitely pick this one up if you like retro games. The expert mode really raises the challenge from the base game. It's no joke!

Would you like another NES Castlevania? Because this is another NES Castlevania. That´s what the game sets out to be and it does so quite excellently. Love it!

Atari-flavored CV. Hell yea. Will hold me over til we get a Bloodborne port.

Played through normal mode and had an absolute blast. Everything I loved about the original Castlevania, the stiff jumping, the medusa heads (here burning skulls), the tough pattern-based boss battles, it's all here. Can't wait to test my skill in expert mode!