One of my all time favorite NES games would have to be Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.  It was a pretty addicting game at the time and I can remember staying up all night long with my Dad playing this game.  Castlevania II in my mind at the time was a perfect game.  It featured everything you could ask for in an adventure game.  I can't believe it's been over 20 years since I first played this game.  Whoa!

The storyline of the game was intriguing to me.  You assume the role of Simon Belmont who also appeared in the first installment of the series a couple years before.  The game takes place shortly after the events of the first game set in the mid-late 1600's.  Simon and his family have been battling Dracula for decades and finally succeeded.  Well sort of.  Just before dying Dracula cursed Simon Belmont and his family, so now it's up to Simon to bring Dracula back from the dead so he can stop the curse and re-destroy him.

The object of the game is to explore the various locations in Transylvania to locate 5 different body parts of Dracula.  Combining these 5 body parts (Rib, Nail, Eye, Heart, and Ring) at Castlevania will resurrect Dracula so you can once again destroy him.  The game is similar to Zelda II: The Adventures of Link. Both titles are side-scrolling action/adventure games that have RPG elements thrown in.  The character you assume the role of uses a whip as his main weapon which can be upgraded, as well as the ability to buy other whips and items from merchants throughout the game.  The locations in Castlevania II range from towns, graveyards, swamps, and castles.  One of the most interesting parts of the game is the exploration you get to do.  Most the environments are not just explored side-to-side.  Many towns have doors you can go in and stairs that lead you to different areas as well as the ability to talk to the townsfolk.   Dungeons and castles are huge and have hidden areas for you to uncover.  Both Castlevania II and Zelda II share a similar EXP (Experience Point) system.  Whenever you defeat an enemy in Castlevania II they drop hearts that you can pick up which after obtaining a set amount increases your "level" which in turn increases your Health and other attributes.

Another thing that set this game apart from other side-scrolling action games like Mario Bros. was the Password system that allowed you to resume progress from the exact point where you left off at.  It was always nice to be able to pick where you left off at the following day.  Certain areas of the game allowed you to obtain a very lengthy Password made up of Letters and Numbers that you could input at the "start menu" each time you turned on the game.  The game was pretty lengthy and would rival most action/adventure/role playing games today in that aspect.  Most action games required that you finish the game in one sitting making those games fun once in awhile or to play when you had friends over.  Games like Castlevania II had an extreme amount of depth to them, so finishing the game in a single sitting was crazy.  It could be done, but still crazy to do so.

Graphics are pretty good for the time and for the most part everything looks like it should.  You can tell the difference between the swamps, lakes, forests, etc.  The environments you explore also change from day to night and with the added music score, you really feel like it is nighttime in Transylvania.  Many of the character designs (mostly people in towns) resemble those found in Zelda II except they are a little darker.  If you happen to be in town when it changes to night, the people disappear from the streets, lights come on in the windows, and ghouls appear throughout the town.  I always hated it when the game changed from day to night.  The gameplay would momentarily stop and the graphics would transition from day to night with darker purple hues now filling the screen.  And to make things worse, enemies at night were harder and there was more to deal with too.  Luckily daylight comes again...but not always as quickly as one would like.

The music found in the game is simply amazing.  I haven't heard a score for a video game during that time period that invokes the same amount of emotion that this game did.  The music in one word is epic. The adventurous theme found throughout the game and its eerie undertones really add to the vampire-hunting aspect of the game.  Sound effects were well executed from the sound of Simon's whip cracking to the skeletons throwing their own limbs at you, or the sound of the glass breaking when you throw the bottle of Holy Water on the ground.  I always have liked the sound of his flame whip making that "whooshing" sound.  It really sounded dangerous!

I would like to see Konami release an "anniversary" collection of Castlevania games either on the Sony PlayStation Portable or preferably the Sony PlayStation 3 (or any other home console for that matter).  I have heard that several of the classic NES games have been recently released on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Arcade but I would like to see a "physical" release featuring all of the NES and SNES (and Sega Genesis) games in the series.  I was pretty excited to see Castlevania: Rondo of Blood finally released in North America a couple years ago, so it is possible to see other "classic" games released.  If you have the opportunity to pick this game up you really should.  If you have never played this game you don't know what you are missing.  If you ask me, I think it's the best game in the series.  Maybe someday Konami will release a "good" installment in the Castlevania series.
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 [TITLE]
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

[PLATFORM]
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

[DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER]
Konami/Konami

[YEAR of RELEASE]
1988

[GENRE]
Action/Adventure

[ESRB RATING]
n/a*
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© Copyright 2009 Chris_Billings

*This game pre-dates any rating system given to Video Games.

 Thanks to Jeremy for adding this to the database!

Recommended: Yes