I would love some decently challenging platforming. The extra place in OoE (Not the cave of trials but I forgot it’s name where it’s pure platforming and you can’t use volacitus [flying glyph]) was pretty fun since it was mostly platforming but with the smooth controls of a metroidvania. The metroidvania’s got much easier to control so the platforming got much easier and I feel that they really didn’t modify the stage design to accommodate the abilities the player had.
I still remember in Castlevania 4 things like the gear stages where it felt all trippy with the mode 7 gears, making you go back and forth. I want to see stuff like that but with updated design since the player now has things like double jumps and better jump control. Those stages back then still look unique today.
edit: in fact I dunno if it was the clock stage I’m thinking of since I haven’t played the game in a long time. But trying to remember the stages with moving backgrounds and such.
Problem is, that if you have double jumps then platforming becomes MUCH easier. Part of what was so awesome about the earlier games was that Simon didn’t control like Alucard does and it made not only the killing of enemies harder but the platforming tougher too.
^That is true. Konami mentioned it in a scene In Snatcher for Sega CD. Something about suicide rates going up because players couldn’t jump on or off stairs. They have it on the Castlevania Dungeon site under wierdness i think.
Even though I liked/loved some of the Metroidvanias that came out. It should’ve been done with after Sotn, or atleast have made more Classicvania’s to even the shit out.
^ I wouldn’t say it’s the best, but it’s definitely up there.
Havatchu: Download it on PSN/Live or Emulate it if you have to. I mean, your name is HAVE AT YOU, and you never played SotN? WHAT THE FUCK?
SotN is so good that it spawned a decade of “clone” Metroidvania games and that random Xbox Live game called Shadow Complex that is supposedly extremely similar to the Metroidvania style of games.
No other Metroidvania really reached that same level of awesomeness, although like I said some other games in the series came really close and some of them were better in some ways. The only true problem I have with SotN is that it’s way, way too easy. SotN is an immensely enjoyable experience and is one of my most played through games of all time. I love the game.
Circle of the Moon and Order of E are top tier Metroidvania’s based on difficulty alone.
Personally i thought SotN and AoS were the best of the metroidvanias. Something about the art style and dark atmosphere i liked. I actually haven’t played OoE but i hear good things about it. Just my opinion.
It just shouldn’t have been spammed so fucking much. Half the reason SOTN was so awesome was because it was really fresh. We hadn’t had a Metroid game in a good while, it was a fresh spin on the CV formula that had become stale while still felling like a CV game game. Then it was 4 years till we got Circle of the Moon so it was still fresh (and fucking awesome, COM is just as good, if not better then SOTN). But after that they started churning out the Metroidvania games one after another and it showed.
I shit on Metroidvanias a lot because I only like a couple of them and I’m really fucking tired of the formula but really I don’t want them to stop making them. I just want them to space them out farther and bring back a lot of the old school elements from the beginning of the series life.