Vampires, Weekend

Castlevania (64) wasn't a very good game. I mean it wasn't horrible but it came out at a time (the late 90's) in which the video game industry was going through a transition from sidescrollers to the full on 3D sandbox games that characterize the current generation of platforms. As such Castlevania was a third person linear adventure game set in a world of highly polygonized walls and villains. Hard to believe that at a certain point it retailed for $70.

One of the things that sets this title apart from similar games of its time as well as other Castlevanias is the inclusion of the character of a young blue haired psychic girl that goes by the name of Carrie Fernandez. Now lets set aside the fact that that name is a horrible attempt at diversity and think about what the inclusion of such character meant for the franchise. Castlevania has always been a game in which a sword, whip or axe wielding blonde man with long hair walked through dungeons in search of a dracula. This game included such a character but also this young girl who had no axe, no sword but could throw magic balls of light.

What was the purpose of this? I'm sure they made it fit in to the story but why? was it a relatively early attempt to get female players interested? or was it a vain attempt at getting fanboys even more interested? I've no clue.

As far as character design is concerned Carrie isn't that interesting: typical anime inspired too young girl with big eyes and ambiguous hairstyle. Nothing to get the fanboys too excited, especially considering that far more risque characters existed at the time. She did shoot projectiles which meant she had a longer reach then the other guy but it wasn't so much of an advantage that one would consider her a cheap character.

But getting back to the actual gameplay, yes it was choppy as fuck and yes the camera was worthless but it did have some worthwhile moments, the bosses were pretty freakish and (if I remember correctly) pretty big. I seem to also recall potions and shit but this was ten years ago so most likely I'm thinking of something else.

Whatever happened to Castlevania? I don't know if more games have been released in the new consoles. Not buying a big fan of the series I don't really care to keep track. The only other Castlevania I remember playing is Castlevania Legends for the Game Boy. We're talking about black and white, brick game boy too. That title also had a female protagonist. You know with the whole Twilight and Vampire fad that seems to be running amok these days someone should really think about bringing this series back.