COUNTDOWN: Ten Games to Play on Switch This Halloween #8 Castlevania Anniversary Collection
Before you ask, no it did not occur to me to cheat this whole countdown thing and consider Castlevania Anniversary Collection as games #8-#1. Well, I mean I guess just typing that means it did but either way you must have seen this one coming: A compilation of 7 classic titles (as well as the never before released Kid Dracula), in both their North American and Japanese incarnations, along with a cool History of Castlevania digital "book.” All at a pretty great price and ready to be played on the big screen or in handheld mode during those private moments. Sounds pretty rad, c’mon ever since the NES original, Simon Belmont cracking that whip across the foreheads of countless mummies, bats, fishmen, ghouls and old man Drac himself has been a go to staple for players looking for a spooky fix. So this collection must be an absolutely essential, perfect way to play these legendary titles during the Halloween season right?
Essential? I’d say yes. Perfect, mmm…not quite.
Let’s talk about the nice things first! There’s no denying that the selection here is strong, just take a look:
Castlevania
Castlevania II Simon's Quest
Castlevania III Dracula's Curse
Super Castlevania IV
Castlevania The Adventure
Castlevania II Belmont's Revenge
Castlevania Bloodlines
Kid Dracula (never released in English before)
History of Castlevania - Book of the Crescent Moon
And while some players may moan about the lack of Symphony of the Night or any of the subsequent titles trying to be Symphony of the Night, an argument can and is being made by me that the series really branched off into a different thing there. This right here is the core run that the get off my lawn crowd thinks about when thinking about Castlevania. And if nothing else, I’d happily throw a $20 at Super Castlevania IV all by itself.
But there is unfortunately one undeniable (and oddly, completely avoidable) con: The presentation. And I’m not talking about the title screen or menus because that all looks hot as Hell. Nope, I’m talking about your actual in game video options. At first, you’ve got what appears to be the standard issue list of display settings: Original, Pixel Perfect, and 16:9 (for you psychos out there), all with the option to apply CRT scanlines for a retro look. The problem however is that the original setting crops the image on both the top and bottom along with the sides, so the gameplay screen winds up wrapped inside of a big black box. Aside from applying one of two provided borders, the only way to get around this is to play 4:3 which is the best possible ratio but for some bizarre reason comes along with that CRT scanline filter which cannot be turned off! Boy, someone sure dropped the ball there.
If you can look past that and borders and CRT filters happen to be your thing, then right on: This is some perfect October video game playing right here. If like me, you need to kill Dracula real quick every October, it isn’t a total deal breaker but I’d still have to say the SNES Classic is the preferred officially released way to hear that sweet, sweet Super Castlevania IV ending theme.
