08. Super Castlevania IV

(SNES/Virtual Console, Konami, 1991)
I recently wrote that the Super Nintendo was one of the very best videogame consoles ever made. It's an easy statement to make as, upon its release, Nintendo's new baby blew much competition out of the water with its colourful graphics, visual effects, superb sound quality and innovative control pad, which is still the basis for almost all controllers to this day.
Of course, backing all this up was an incredible selection of games, many of which were simply better than their Sega counterparts. Let's not argue, Whilst the Sega console was very good and released much earlier, thus denying them the "later technology" advantage, the simple fact is in almost every single case, the SNES port of a game would hammer the Genesis/MD version.

Super Castlevania IV is a typical release that defines the formula for many of the earlier SNES games, take a successful genre, keep its classic gameplay style but push the graphics, sound and design to "the next level"
Super Castlevania IV, arguably a remake of the NES game, saw our hero Simon Belmont traverse the deadly, hazardous and terrifying grounds of Dracula's homestead, before making his way through the many halls and rooms of the castle itself, all the time edging one step nearer to a battle with the prince of darkness himself.

With an unashamed simple concept, SCIV is an arcade platformer as they are meant to be. It is a great challenge with scores of enemies, well-timed jumps, pixel perfect landings and a supply of weapons and power-ups to get our boy Simon down the path his family is forever cursed to wander. Armed with his faithful whip and a selection of throwing items, Simon must battle past zombies, Medusa heads, skeletons and a who's who of traditional horror bosses while simultaneously avoiding the many pitfalls, weak floors, spikes, flames and other hazards that Dracula somehow felt the need to install in his house. I bet you can't get that shit at Ikea.

SCIV uses all of the SNES's graphical capabilities including the much vaunted Mode 7, sprite scaling and parallax scrolling effects to create an exciting but foreboding atmosphere. The game is backed with a typically brilliant Castlevania score featuring the badass "Theme of Simon" one of my favourite pieces of VGM of all time. Against this backdrop the player puts his gaming skills to the test, pushing Simon on through insurmountable odds to the final confrontation so he can once again return Dracula to his slumber. Until next time...

I will play Super Castlevania IV forever. It is one of those old games that I can consistently load up and enjoy, the gameplay never dating and the visuals and sound never failing to immerse me. SCIV also brings me waves of nostalgia, as it was one of the games that essentially sold the console to me. By this point, the Super Nintendo had Mario World, Super Ghouls and Ghosts, Final Fight, Pilotwings, F-Zero and Actraiser, the following twelve months would see Super Aleste, Mario Kart, Contra III, Street Fighter II and Zelda: Link To The Past.

I don't remember doing anything much other than gaming in the early 90's
Who'd blame me?