Customer Reviews

Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra

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

 

 

The port/emulation of these five games is excellent. Both sound and graphics seem to be basically identical to the originals running on the NES. These games really need a decent control pad to be fully enjoyed. With one, the control is equivalent to the originals. Konami did a great job with the game's front end, in that once the application is launched, all functions can be accessed solely by a game pad (including switching games, changing settings, etc.). It's also possible to save a game's state at any time, which is the only upgrade over the original games.

All 5 games are actually surprisingly playable, considering their age, but some more so than others. The two Contra games I could do without, although I've spent an hour or two on them (I still find them way to difficult). The first Castlevania isn't much of anything special either. Castlevania 2 was the first game in the series to add some Adventure/RPG elements, and is the main reason I bought this compilation. It's nowhere near as good as Symphony of the Night or the GameBoy Advance Castlevania games, but I'm enjoying it.

Castlevania 3's gameplay moves closer to the original's, except with considerably enhanced graphics and music (for a NES game that is). Most notably it added multiple paths through the game-at the end of many levels the player is given two paths to pick from. It also added three potential alternate characters with different abilities. The combination of those two elements gave Castlevania 3 quite a bit of replay value back in the day (although I only actually beat the game once-it gets extraordinarily hard towards the end).

My only "complaint" is just that I'd love to see more compilations like this. The NES and other systems from that era have a huge backlog of games with gameplay that still holds up today, and I'd love the opportunity to buy more of them! At any rate, if you don't mind the dated graphics, this compilation is a good deal, especially for the price.

These are among the best games ever created. Konomi struck silicon gold with the Castlevania and Contra games. Back in the day, when gamers weren't playing these games they were often thinking about them.

The Castlevania trilogy remains to this day some of the finest gaming I have ever had played.

"Castlevania" 1986 is an action/adventure where our whip-in-hand hero Simon Belomont must destroy monstrous legions of villians that borrowed from myth and fiction until he reaches his final destination with the one and only Dracula.

"Castlevania II: Simon's Quest" 1988 is a departue from the first game. This sequel added problem solving and a password feature to save your progress on this somewhat lenghty game. Unfortunatly, the challenge factor was greatly reduced with infinite continues that made you reappear on the exact same screen in which you were defeated on.

"Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse" 1990 brings the series back to the roots of the first game. The emphasis is back on action. New charcters have been added to what is perhaps the BEST Castlevania game ever invented! In a time when the 16-bit systems were claiming themseleves the new kings of gaming its nice to know that with games like this and Super Mario Bros. 3 that the 8-bit NES still had it.

The two Contra games were among the finest two player cooperative games of the time and have still held up well even today.

"Contra" 1987 is a basically you and (if you want) your friend against and almost endless array of ruthless aliens. The action is fast and intense and the stakes are high. Either rid Terra from these galactic ghouls or pass the controler to someone else who can do it.

"Super C" 1991 is more of zapping those pesky little aliens from the first game again. Like Castlevania III it shows off some pretty impressive graphic improvements from the first game.

The only flaw in this collection is that the 30 lives code that should work for both Contra and Super C only works for the former. It's a shame because Super C is actually a better game in my opinion.

Overall, these are great games with a save feature that allows saving at any point in the game. If you miss these games or badly need an old school education this is a very affordable and playable collection to own on your pc.

Mainly ordered this for Castlevania II. I ordered from CDI-Wholesale on the 15th of Nov., and it was delivered on the 16th of Nov. Total cost was nine dollars and change. Original games. New condition. Awesome flashback for me. I am 28 and absolutely HATE all this new Play Staion, X-Box garbage with graphics that make me dizzy. I am old-school, baby. And LOVE the original NES. This is a Tride and True classic and it's amazing that it is available for play on your cd-rom / PC. Now they just gotta get the original Zelda out. Then I'll be happy as a clam in high tide!! Thanks Konami! And Thanks CDI!!
-daniel

I've always treasured playing these games on my NES console which, fortunately, is still in working order. When I noticed this title at the local discount store for $6 (store name is two words, the first is a synonym for largeness and the second rhymes with "plots") I couldn't help but to snatch it up.

The first thing that's not mentioned is that these aren't the real arcade versions. These are simply emulated ports of the NES versions. So if you were hoping for the arcade versions of Contra and Super Contra then look elsewhere. Fortunately the screenshots on the back of the package reflect the NES-based versions.

Another thing I should mention is back in 2000 or so I was big into the DOS version of Nesticle. The NES emulation employed in running these games is fairly spot-on and features immediate load/save game states from eight slots. It's a nice touch and works well with XP.

But then here comes the rub for this retail release: The CD-ROM itself. Since I have experience with emulators what gives with the 84426KB file named "BLANK" on the disc itself? A decent NES emulator and the five ROMs would only take up a fraction of actual disk/code space. It turns out that this is part of the CD-based keydisk protection. So, in order to enjoy these five games, you need to have the CD-ROM in your drive.

Now I'm not saying to go get a NES emulator and download ROMs. The price here is small enough for one to enjoy a piece of cheapskate oldskool gaming if one can afford the price of inconvenience with the CD-ROM itself. But at least you can get this and say that you do have valid copies of the five games.

Apart from that, the on-disc PDF of the full game manual is detailed enough in documenting the games and how the emulator operates. In fact I think this manual is a vast improvement over the original NES manuals with the actual graphics of the games in operation in full color. I wouldn't want to print it since the manual is heavy on the orange color for the backgrounds of the pages (I recommend a black & white printing to spare your color inks). And there's a free demo of "Dance Dance Revolution". The DirectX 8 and Adobe Reader 5 installers are also included.

So they're good games and the NES emulation is good enough. Aside from the keydisk requirement and the lack of the arcade versions of the Contra games this could've been a much better package.

who's not remember the classics games of nintendo as castlevania and contra then it's the time to collect them this games never be forgoten but another as ninja turtles, gradius and other games of konami must be collected .....

The games are great and could not find much difference on pc compared to the console. The gameplay is what you would expect and the challenges also. There is no guesswork when buying games that have been known for decades. The options for weapons are classic along with the layout of the maps. The only other game I would put up against it would be wizards and warriors that is why I am not giving castlevania 5 stars, this is my substitute game for wizards.

Contra is a classic game also in its own right offering great weapon changes and side by side play with another player. One of the only games I remember having 2 simult. play that I can think of except--Double Dragon, Blades of Steel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But anyway it is best played with another player and would have been epic if you could have servers on the internet and play with others who bought the game.

This is a great colection of games but the fact that you need to have the disc in just to play them is stupid. These are 80's NES games. It's better to play these games as roms with an emulator becasue you can improve the graphics, customize the controls, lighting or anything you want with ease. Plus with an emulator you can run the games in a window or full screen, not like this piece of crap package. The two stars are for the great games in this package, but the way they were packaged with this lame software sucks.

The only reason i got this was for Contra & Super C.
The castlevania games are not my thing.
The only real problem with this is the games play like the (original) nintendo.
(Anyone who owned a nintendo back in the days know what i mean.
The visuals at times may mess up ( just like on nintendo ).
The sound also plays like nintendo.
This collection was a straight port transfer to pc.
I wish they would make a collection with all contra games ever made and improve the sound and graphics.

They should also release collections for XBOX, Gamecube & PS2.( not just PC only )
Overall at least I can play 2 of my favorite contra games from nintendo without a nintendo.
Another good point about this collection, you can save a game at the exact point you are on.
Later you can continue at that very same moment.
This helps a whole lot when trying to beat these games.
If you are a fan of one or both of these two game series, it may be in your best interest to get this like me.

nastalgia alone merits this "collector's series" 4 stars. ...but... the graphics and colors of these classics has been mutilated by this port to the PC. also, there appears to be some serious graphics corruption during gameplay { have yet to see it during the opening or game title screens }. by this i mean "dithering" like you see in most 3D games, yes. i know this is 2D, and screen "flickering".

...of course i may just be a moron, in which case read someone elses review. : )

I have this game and only beat Castlevania 2. It is not worth playing because there is nothing to unlock. So don't buy it unless you like bad unmodern graphics.