Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES) review "After Castlevania's success it was obvious a sequel would be made. Like Zelda though, the sequel was much different from the first, and not near as good. Instead of the simple sidescroller with enemies at every turn, and no complex puzzles Castlevania II weakens the enemies, and makes it so there are puzzles to solve, and many different ruotes to go. This is not really what Castlevania is supposed to be. "

After Castlevania's success it was obvious a sequel would be made. Like Zelda though, the sequel was much different from the first, and not near as good. Instead of the simple sidescroller with enemies at every turn, and no complex puzzles Castlevania II weakens the enemies, and makes it so there are puzzles to solve, and many different ruotes to go. This is not really what Castlevania is supposed to be.

STORY (7/10): Simon has a mortal wound, and is going to revive dracula so he can survive. To revive Dracula he has to collect 5 parts of Dracs body. This is not a great story, but it's different. Plus there are 3 different endings.

GRAPHICS (15/20): Not really much improvement from the first Castlevania, therefor it's not groundbeaking or anything. There is definite slowdown in this game, which is another of the games weaknesses. Also a lot of enemies blur when attacked, especially Drac himself. And if you are at the edge of the screen, the whip will whip to the other side (I wonder if you can kill an enemy that why)

SOUND (8/10): Very similiar to Castlevania I's music, and it was good then, so it will be good now. The holy water and fire attacks both sound like burning, and the whip does the correct noise and all. Nothing new, but all effective.

GAMEPLAY (28/45): You still go around whipping enemies, but alot of time it is so you can raise hearts to buy weapons. You are probably stunned to think that the hearts aren't used for subweapons, but are instead a kind of currency. This isn't the normal method of Castlevania hearts. Do not worry, though the subweapons are still here.... kind of. The holywater and dagger are the only two to return, and do not work near the same. The dagger is more powerful, and it does not need hearts, and the holy water has been weakened beyond reckoning so you can use it constantly without too much advantage. On a plus side all the whips are present, and more. Once you update your whip do not worry about losing its new power no matter what happens. There is an efficient password system, but you could beat this game in one sitting, and if you die, you start at the exact point you died at, even if it's a continue. Now to get through the game you have to use multiple orbs to get things done and solve some interesting puzzles. There are only 3 bosses in the game, and 2 are sickeningly easy (Grim Reaper is not even comparable to other Castlevanias) and the other, Dracula, is not that hard at all. The tough battles are not present, although old enemies are, just weakened. However all the insulting I did to this game, it is still fun to run through killing the enemies, and solving the labyrinth castles, it just could've been much better.

REPLAYABILITY (5/10): This game is just not that fun to pick up after you beat it. I can't do another run through, for it is more strategy then just running back and forth whipping thy enemy. It does have 3 endings, but I do not know if it is really worth it.

DIFFICULTY (4/5): This might be the first game I have not rated it perfect on difficulty, because it is too easy. There is not that much challenge in the fighting. The puzzles are tricky, but not that it will make you go crazy (besides the places where the puzzle makes no sense). This games difficulty could have been harder battles, and more normal puzzle answers.

OVERALL (67/100): This was a very dissapointing game in my mind. The other two Castlevania's for NES were instant classics, and shall never be forgotten, but this is not like them obviously. Why do you change something that is near perfect I will never understand, but here they tried to. Lesson for all: Castlevania is an action sidescroller, not an action RPG. However I still would reccomend giving this game a chance, if you feel like taking a risk.

Community review by ratking (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.