A Monstrous Resurrection
REVIEWERS NOTE: After some intense research (clicking on the Castlevania Chronicles wiki page), it has been determined that this was not originally a PSOne game. I, however, stand by my point that this game looks terrible compared to a lot of games that were also released on SONY's original system.
This is my fourth review in as many weeks. I can honestly say this pace is brutally difficult to keep up. After Symphony of the Night, Medal of Honor, and *gulp* Crash Bandicoot, I made the mistake of starting Front Mission 3. Almost thirty hours in and facing an arbitrary deadline of my own creation, I needed something quick to buy myself another week. So enters howlongtobeat.com. For those who are unfamiliar, this is a site that will tell you the average playtime of just about any game. It pointed me in the direction of Castlevania Chronicles and promised an accomplishable three hours of length. Seven hours later, I'm seriously questioning the honesty of some of that site's users. Maybe I just suck.
Castlevania Chronicles is a remake of the original Castlevania. I've never played the original, so I can't speak to whether or not it is a pixel perfect recreation, but it has almost the exact same feel and identity as far as I can tell. It controls very slowly, and you'll spend the entire time trying to navigate the typical and typically infuriating Castlevania staircases. All the same power-ups return and they work basically the same as they always did.
Nothing is wrong with this version from the standpoint of a faithful recreation, but nothing feels fresh either. The bosses are better balanced from what I can tell about all the old NES baddies, and this means that basically everything is hard as hell. You'll die a lot, restart a level, and then die a lot again until you can remember and perfect every little movement necessary to get to the next stage. It's trial and error of the most nauseating proportion. Having to start over after getting hit by a Medusa Head near the edge of a screen is in no way entertaining, and you'll only have a few lives to get past multiple stages and a boss before you have to start those stages all over again. The torturous lives system feels like a lazy way to make a half hour game ten times as long. It's acceptable in an NES game, but never outside of an eight-bit system. There is a decent sense of accomplishment when you finally beat a boss, but you have little time before it's back to the grindstone.
If you do end up playing this game, select the “Arrange Game” option from the title screen. You'll take less damage and won't be pushed backward after every hit. It's the only way to play for any of us that don't belong in an asylum.
Usually when writing a review, I do a paragraph or so on the visuals and a paragraph or so on the story. I have the advantage today of being able to put it in simple terms. There is no story and the game looks like shit. Seriously, if you didn't know better, I doubt you would imagine this was a PSOne game.
Castlevania Chronicles is miserable for all but about three seconds out of every hour of playtime. There is no fun to be had here and for the life of me, I can't figure out who this game is for. No one should have nostalgia for this game and it offers nothing new to the formula. If you ever feel the need to go back and play every Castlevania, let me desperately beg you to skip this one. I'm not saying it for my own health.