Customer Reviews

Castlevania Bloodlines

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love the castlevania games, but have you noticed the plots seem to always be the same? You always have to go through Dracula's castle and fight Dracula. But in Bloodlines, in the first level, Dracula's castle was already destroyed. You have to go through the ruins. In the next level, you are put in Greece to an Atlantic Shrine. And that's just for starters! Beautiful graphic for it's time mixed with a soundtrack you may see from other games, (the music from the Atlantis Shrine is the same music from the Art Tower in Legacy of Darkness...) if you can find Bloodlines, it is one of the greatest games you will find.

[IF THEE HATES THIS GAME, THOU HATH WASTED THY [DARN] LIFE. OH, BTW, I'M A BIG CASTLEVANIA FAN.]
Bloodlines came two years after Super Castlevania IV and while IV has some better graphics and definitely some better sound quality, it has its own merits. Sure, you go kill Dracula... so what? Actually, the plotline itself is a refreshing change from the others. In this one, you can choose to be either John Morris or Eric Lecarde, which allows a different change of pace of having just one character to start off with (faintly similar like Castlevania III for the NES, except in that game you start with just one). The graphics are essentially good for the Genesis, so I have no complaints (YES, they're better than the NES).

Overall? A great game. It may not touch Symphony of the Night, but this game is ESSENTIAL to any Genesis collection. It may be difficult, but it's WORTH IT. Personally, I rank Super Castlevania IV a little higher, but that's just because it's my favorite. Is it better? Judge for yourself. Nevertheless, get it. After all, it IS Castlevania, and you would be depriving yourselves without it.

a must have for castlevania fans,and i mean a must have,this game is awesome!you can play as either John Morris the guy with the whip and Eric Lecarde the guy with the spear. 6 stages of non-stop action.The Graphics are as good as the sega Genesis can get. i wonder if anyone cares? this game is kinda old,huh?

Following the lead of the previous year's Japanese-only PC-Engine classic Dracula X: Chi no Rondo (Rondo of Blood,) Bloodlines is highly ambitious in attempting to create a sense of a bridge between the old CastleVania and the new. It even copies the Dracula X Chi no Rondo "boss that throws a ton of the bosses you've already beaten" formula, but it allows you to fall back on the trusty old password system. The game is even, but it fails to rank among the best games in the series for a number of reasons.

It's interesting to point out how portions of the level designs were reused for next year's (1995's) Super Nintendo/Super Famicom games Dracula X and XX, respectively. That tells us its designers were strangely attracted to some points of their bizzare little creation.

On the plus side, the environments are varied, the music is great for the Genesis (composed by the same person who went on to write the music for Symphony of the Night/Nocturne in the Moonlight) and the graphics are colorful. The special effects are considered by many to be in the same league as Contra The Hard Corps and even Gunstar Heroes, and it certainly comes close.

Wait...I didn't just say the graphics are colorful, did I? Drat. The graphics are stronger than many other Genesis games, but I feel a sense of horror at putting this title above Comix Zone or Ecco. Of course, no Genesis titles are truly ever beautiful--ask Rembrandt to paint the Night Watch and then squeeze that into the severely limited Genesis palette. Color and shading is central to CastleVania as we know it today and have known it since 1991 with Super CastleVania 4, and the Genesis doesn't really allow much in the way of subtlety. In order to make up for the low palette, the game's critters are instead drawn in a way similar to your average early '90s Genesis title, in a cartoony fashion.

As a result, the game is somewhat bizzare. Ingenious and silly creature designs freely mingle here; from the old standby of the zombie to the skeletons refitted with World War I era helmets, the common enemies of the game look a bit too garish and outlandish for my taste. I like a lot of what is done in this game, and some things (such as the "cut-up" AND upside areas in the final stage) haven't been done again anywhere, but the game gets a bit far off track at times.

Of course, the controls are perfectly adequate for myself, but they aren't without fault (each character has a major quirk with their weapons' special function and it adds to the confusion at first). The stair climbing animation, however, is particularly horrid.

Konami, as you could guess, can be counted to make great use of that 8 Megabit cart space; the programming gives us something that the Super Nintendo was hard pressed to do: move a ton of large sprites across the screen quickly and easily. The limited space has a drawback, though: if you're used to the modern masterpiece CV games on CD format (Symphony from 1997 and Rondo from 1993; even CastleVania Chronicles to a degree) you'll miss the great amount of interaction with the environment. That's simply a drawback inherent to many titles in this series. For over half a decade it has remained one of the last of the old "barebones gameplay" examples of CV, and likely will remain so unless Konami changes the formula after three GBA games (the as-yet unreleased AoS appears to follow the format of the Metroid-style CV). (And, a year later, I can say it did.)

It's pretty hard to go wrong buying this game as cheap as it may be found. While the Japanese version will snag some good cash if you let yourself get hornswaggled, the US version is basically more Genesis ballast to get rid of as far as many game stores are concerned and can be found for a few dollars--even complete or unopened.

Castlevania is a series that has stood the test of time all the way back from the original in the NES days. Castlevania Bloodlines proves another great Castlevania game. This game has probably the best plot of the series and has cool location such as Rome,London and more. Also just like Castlevania 3 Dracula's Curse you choose two different characters with different moves,strengths,abilities which also means mutiple endings. Secondly these Castlevania is the only uncut and unedited version to come to the US,and we can thank Sega and Konami for this release.OVERALL GREAT RARE OOP SEGA GENESIS GAME AND GREAT FOR ANY CASTLEVANIA FAN,ALSO CHECK OUT SUPER CASTLEVANIA/SNES,AND CASTLEVANIA S.O.T.N./PLAYSTATION,( BUT SKIP THE [bad] DRACULA X FOR SNES,ITS THE ONLY CASTLEVANIA I COULDN'T STAND AND THE (N64) CASTLEVANIAS TOO)
(Graphics= 3/5 Vibrant colors and detail,plus blood and effects don't hurt,Some of the decent graphics and some really bland at times )
(Sound=4.5/5 Excellent Castlevania theme music,great clear effects utilizing the Genesis sound capilbilites)
(Controls=5/5 Fans will feel right at home with Bloodlines controls ,its similiar to Super Castlevania and S.O.T.N.)
(Fun/Replay 3/5

This is my first time getting into the Castlevania series and man did I pick a great game. Castlevania bloodlines was the first Castlevania game that featured blood in it! The best feature of this game is the fun factor! Sure you don't have the vertical and 90 degree hit angles that Super Castlevania has. What it does have is two characters to choose from which defiantely adds to the replay value. I also liked the over all graphics and feel of this game. The dark yet colorful backrounds were very imaginative and looked great! The fact that this game along with Contra's hard corps were the only Konomi games (of their series)that made it to the Genesis, makes them special. Since I own both of them I can say they trully are great games!!! Back to Castlevania Bloodlines, I must add that the music is excellent!!! It really captured the feel of the game with its dark feel and scary approach. The only possible downfall is that it is a slightly short game. To the games credit you can change the difficulty which adds to replay value. Over all I would recomend this game to both fans of the series and those looking to play a great old school platformer!!!

an awesome entry in the Castlevania series, and one of the BEST Genesis games ever!

Do your duty and pick up a copy TODAY!

5 huge stars!!

This is the only Castlevania game I ever cared for, the music is phenomenal, and the graphics are so attractive.

castlevania is the best in my book it rooks i love the music i love every thing about castlevania I have been a big fan of castlevania wan i was a kid i love it too death the art worke every thing

thank you KONAMI and Koji lgarashi

I hope castlevania naver dies

I HAVE BEEN A BIG CASTLEVANIA FAN FOR A LONG TIME THIS GAME IS THE BEST CASTLEVANIA EVER I CANT REMEMBER MUCH ABOUT IT I WAS 4 OR 5 WHEN I PLAYED IT BUT I REMEMBER IT WAS MY FAVERATE I LOVED IT UNTIL THOSE REJECTS CUT OFF SEGA CHANNEL CASTLEVANIA NEEDS A MEGA COLLECTION LIKE SONIC HAVE CASTLEVANIA 1 2 3 4 CASLEVANIA X AND BLOODLINES PEOPLE WE HAVE GOT TO FIGHT TO KEEP OLD SCHOOL GAMES ALIVE WHOS WITH ME