Super Castlevania IV (USA)
Super Castlevania IV (Japanese: 悪魔城ドラキュラ, Hepburn: Akumajō Dorakyura, Devil's Castle Dracula) is a platform game developed and published by Konami and the first Castlevania game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was originally released in 1991 and later re-released on the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console in 2006. Super Castlevania IV features the same plot and premise of the first Castlevania on the NES. It features expanded play control, 16-bit graphics featuring SNES Mode 7, and a soundtrack featuring brand new pieces and remixes based on previous Castlevania music. The events are the same as the original Castlevania for the NES. The game takes place in 1691 Transylvania, where the vampire hunter Simon Belmont must defeat the vampire Dracula.
The control scheme has been expanded upon from its predecessors. This includes the ability for the main character, Simon Belmont, to whip in eight directions. Additionally, Simon can also keep his whip held out. Players can get Simon to hold out his whip by holding the attack button. This feature allows Simon to swing his whip around and in effect, more easily block enemy projectiles or rapidly hit enemies with minor damage. Lastly, Simon can also latch his whip onto grappling points, letting him swing over various obstacles. In comparison to its predecessors, Simon's ability to jump has also been expanded on. To a limited extent, Simon can now be controlled in the air. This opens up the possibility to dodge and maneuver away from danger. Simon can also climb stairs in mid-jump, as well as crouch while moving forward.
Like most Castlevania games, Simon can utilize sub-weapons and whip power-ups. Sub-weapons are powered by hearts found in candles and slain enemies. Specifically, these sub-weapons include a dagger, a cross-like boomerang, an axe, holy water and a pocket watch. Notably, the more powerful sub-weapons, such as the watch, require more hearts to use. Since the control pad is used to aim the whip, the R button is used to attack with sub-weapons, rather than pressing Up and the attack button. On the other hand, whip power-ups, which increase the strength and length of the whip, are automatic, usually found in candles and are not regulated by hearts.
Following the model set by the previous games, Super Castlevania IV employs the usage of many the series' recurring elements, such as moving platforms, pits with spikes and stairs that one can traverse by pressing the Up or Down direction on the D-Pad.
Unique to Super Castlevania IV's level design is its connection with Simon's whip, the Vampire Killer. Occasionally, objects similar to door-knockers will appear in the player's view, and the player must use Simon's whip to grab onto them and swing across pits to gain access to the next part of the stage. Simon is also able to adjust the length of the whip while swinging if the player uses the D-Pad accordingly.
The game took advantage of the SNES's then-state-of-the-art technology to create levels which would have been impossible to render in the 8-bit NES version of the game; one level involves the player running across stationary blocks in the center of a giant rotating cylindrical room, while another involves the player being made to jump from platforms suspended from a pseudo-3D chandelier. Super Castlevania IV has a total of eleven stages altogether.
The control scheme has been expanded upon from its predecessors. This includes the ability for the main character, Simon Belmont, to whip in eight directions. Additionally, Simon can also keep his whip held out. Players can get Simon to hold out his whip by holding the attack button. This feature allows Simon to swing his whip around and in effect, more easily block enemy projectiles or rapidly hit enemies with minor damage. Lastly, Simon can also latch his whip onto grappling points, letting him swing over various obstacles. In comparison to its predecessors, Simon's ability to jump has also been expanded on. To a limited extent, Simon can now be controlled in the air. This opens up the possibility to dodge and maneuver away from danger. Simon can also climb stairs in mid-jump, as well as crouch while moving forward.
Like most Castlevania games, Simon can utilize sub-weapons and whip power-ups. Sub-weapons are powered by hearts found in candles and slain enemies. Specifically, these sub-weapons include a dagger, a cross-like boomerang, an axe, holy water and a pocket watch. Notably, the more powerful sub-weapons, such as the watch, require more hearts to use. Since the control pad is used to aim the whip, the R button is used to attack with sub-weapons, rather than pressing Up and the attack button. On the other hand, whip power-ups, which increase the strength and length of the whip, are automatic, usually found in candles and are not regulated by hearts.
Following the model set by the previous games, Super Castlevania IV employs the usage of many the series' recurring elements, such as moving platforms, pits with spikes and stairs that one can traverse by pressing the Up or Down direction on the D-Pad.
Unique to Super Castlevania IV's level design is its connection with Simon's whip, the Vampire Killer. Occasionally, objects similar to door-knockers will appear in the player's view, and the player must use Simon's whip to grab onto them and swing across pits to gain access to the next part of the stage. Simon is also able to adjust the length of the whip while swinging if the player uses the D-Pad accordingly.
The game took advantage of the SNES's then-state-of-the-art technology to create levels which would have been impossible to render in the 8-bit NES version of the game; one level involves the player running across stationary blocks in the center of a giant rotating cylindrical room, while another involves the player being made to jump from platforms suspended from a pseudo-3D chandelier. Super Castlevania IV has a total of eleven stages altogether.
Technical
CPU
- maincpu 5A22 (@ 21 Mhz)
- soundcpu SPC700 (@ 1 Mhz)
Chipset
- SNES Custom DSP (SPC700)
Display
- Orientation Yoko
- Resolution 255 x 225
- Frequency 60.098476 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 6
- Kind of controler
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
- joy (8 ways)
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Clones of Super Castlevania IV (USA)
Development
The North American and PAL Region localizations of the game contain some differences from the original Japanese version which is named Akumajō Dracula. As with many games on the Super NES, the game was censored. The statues in stage 6, which were originally topless, were redrawn wearing tunics. All instances of blood were removed or recolored. In the Japanese version of the game, there were crosses on top of some of the tombstones in the introduction.
Super Castlevania IV's soundtrack was composed by Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo (credited as Masanori Oodachi and Souji Taro respectively). It also includes remixes of songs from past games, including "Vampire Killer" (from Castlevania) and "Bloody Tears" (from Simon's Quest) and "Beginning", the song from stage 1 of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.
"Simon's Theme" appears in the last stage of Castlevania Chronicles and Castlevania: Bloodlines, and as a secret music track in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
The music was released on Akumajō Dracula Best 2 in a compilation with Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge's music.
Track listing
Audio
Super Castlevania IV's soundtrack was composed by Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo (credited as Masanori Oodachi and Souji Taro respectively). It also includes remixes of songs from past games, including "Vampire Killer" (from Castlevania) and "Bloody Tears" (from Simon's Quest) and "Beginning", the song from stage 1 of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.
"Simon's Theme" appears in the last stage of Castlevania Chronicles and Castlevania: Bloodlines, and as a secret music track in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
The music was released on Akumajō Dracula Best 2 in a compilation with Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge's music.
Track listing
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Critical reception
Upon Super Castlevania IV's North American release, the game was acclaimed by critics. Nintendo Power gave the game four overall scores of 4.0, 4.0, 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5. Among several items, the magazine cited the game's graphics, music, and action sequences as positives. In 2006, the game was then named by Nintendo Power as the 66th best game made on a Nintendo system. Now it has been ranked 27 according to the last issue.Official Nintendo Magazine placed the game at 56 on their list of the 100 best Nintendo games ever.
Aside from Nintendo Power, in 1994, the game was reviewed by Sandy Petersen in Dragon #209's "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.
Aside from Nintendo Power, in 1994, the game was reviewed by Sandy Petersen in Dragon #209's "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.