#18: Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge
Finally, a good Game Boy Castlevania
This review was originally posted to Twitter on December 22, 2018.
Initial release: 1991
Developer: Konami
Platform: Game Boy
After the dull, frustrating mush that was Castlevania: the Adventure, one could be forgiven for not expecting much of the sequel. One would be wrong, though, because this game is actually pretty good. I’ve mentioned before how appalling it is that Castlevania: Legends bore no improvement from Adventure despite an 8 year difference. It’s even more appalling when you consider that it’s a marked step back from Belmont’s Revenge. But oh well, 1 out of 3 isn’t the worst score.
The major advantages of Belmont’s Revenge are multiple quality of life improvements. Christopher moves a little faster and jumps better, his whip doesn’t downgrade when he gets hit anymore (except by a certain enemy,) there’s subweapons (only 2 tho) and the game looks and sounds better.
There’s not much of a plot. It’s 15 years after Adventure and Dracula has kidnapped Christopher’s son Soleiyu at his coming-of-age ceremony, using Soleiyu’s magical powers to resurrect himself, or some such. Point is, there’s four castles to explore before you can kick Drac’s ass.
You can actually pick the order in which you visit the castles, Mega Man-style, and there’s no real advantage in picking one over the other as they’re all about even in terms of difficulty. After you’re done, you do a few levels of Dracula’s castle and that’s it. Longer than Adventure, but better too.
The level design isn’t as aggressively unfair as Adventure; if you’re careful, most of the game won’t present a tremendous challenge. Even the bosses can be handled with ease, especially if you’re playing the European version which has the cross subweapon. (The US version has the axe instead.)
Like Adventure, Belmont’s Revenge has a re-release as part of Konami’s GB Collection series, which were only released in Japan and later in Europe, with the European versions featuring Game Boy Color features. You can find it on Volume 3 (Volume 4 for the European version — they moved some of the collections around.) It looks great, making good use of color, especially in the rock castle.
In any case, Adventure can be forgiven for being released very early in the Game Boy’s lifespan; Belmont’s Revenge is by far a superior title, and if you’re really interested in seeing what handheld Castlevania looked like before Koji Igarashi took control of the franchise, this is your best bet for a good experience.
