I like Castlevania games.....even if they're derivative......

if only Castlevania wasn't differentiable

The GameBoy's Castlevania: The Adventure's different than most Castlevanias......or any game of quality.

I've played the first of four stages. I'm wondering why Konami even bothered to make it. It's the most bare-bones CV game imaginable. For some reason, the complete focus of that level was on jumping and not fighting. Oh....wait, the reason is that the enemies are really lame mud zombies, really lame little dog-like things, lame exploding eyeballs, a couple of birds and an erratic-moving bat or two. With a boss fight against some big douche who moves really slow and dies in no time with no risk to you as long as you have an upgraded whip.

Well, I guess that last sentence essentially describes the majority of GBA Castlevania bosses.......but the rest is different!

Haha. I love how OD can come out with such drawn-out responses to a single sentence comment.

I HATED CV: The Adventure's last two stages. Masochism at its best.

So, it gets worse instead of better as things go on? That's great.....

I can't remember what the final stage was like, because I only played through it once, and probably because I just want to forget. However, I just find the third stage to be a huge pain in the ass. Spikes.... so many spikes....

I still have the EGM where they previewed The Adventure. A big deal was made of it -- it was the first portable CV after all. But yeah it's slow as hell and not that CV-like, and the last level is ridiculously mean.

I'm getting ready to do most of the last level (did the first room where you just have to deal with certain suits of armor coming to life). After the third level's spike-o-rama, I just didn't have the heart to play any more. But I think I know what you mean. In the FAQ I found on the game, dude mentions the game gets utterly sadistic with a couple of "you'll take damage and that's that" rooms right before one with THREE of the first level's boss back-to-back-to-back.

Doesn't sound like fun. I got pissed off enough hyper-defrosting my ROM in the first room of the second level because of taking hits from those damn erratic-moving bats. And through both the second and third levels because you have absolutely no room for error when attempting any jump more than one block or so in length (like the holes in bridges due to exploding eyes or the ones between plummeting platforms).

Usually when a game has four stages, I whine that it's too short. I'm barely in the fourth and I wish it'd ended long ago.....

Meanwhile, the second game, Belmont's Revenge, is one of my very favourite CV games; it's perfectly paced and features some brilliant original tunes.

That fourth stage was like a Mega Man game with horrible play control. All those rooms where you're either jumping from one moving ledge over spikes to another or jumping on spikes as they come out of walls would be easy rooms in a Mega Man game (due to no enemies), but with how Belmont moves like someone tied his legs together, they're tough as hell..

Hmmmm....."moves like someone tied his legs together". Have to use that line in the review!