The best castlevania on the nes.
The gameplay is what youd expect from the old Castlevania games. It can get frustrating at times but there are also parts that just seem way too easy for how difficult every part around it was.
The graphics are pretty good for the time. Although the backgrounds can be a little strange. One level had this blue thing in the back and i wasnt sure if it was supposed to be the lake or if it was a storm cloud of somethin. If kept shifting the pixels so I just assumed it was either movin water in the lake or a storm cloud with lightning. Sometimes ya have to use your imagination wit these old games.
The sound it pretty good. The music is better in this one. I personally think its the best soundtrack of the old school Castlevania games. There was even a secret sound test mode to listen to any song in the game at the menu. This also told you the names of the songs which is good cause until i saw this I had no idea what they were called.
The spirit partner system works pretty well and gives you a variety of play options. You could run through the entire game without accepting any of their offers to help you. The game limits you to one partner at a time though. So if you take one and later find one you want more, you can trade out for the new one, but you cant keep both at once. Also they play in a different way than Trevor. The characters you keep available to play as also changes some parts of the story and affects what ending you get. This adds tons of replay value.
If you are into the series its a must own. If ya never played any of the games before its a good one to start out with to get a feel for how the 2-d games started the series' gameplay. Even if your just a platformer fan its deffinatly soemthin worth lookin for.