My Played Video Games Review: Castlevania: Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis

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Castlevania: Bloodlines is a horror-adventure, platform game developed and published by Konami of Japan in 1994 for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.

So, it is Halloween season and a proper time to play and review horror-themed video games. I never liked the previous Castlevania games on the Nintendo NES and Super Nintendo. The movement motion was a bit stiff to my liking. But this one I dig better because the movement motion is more okay and that more colors are used.

Cool Japanese version box cover of the game. The game was known as Vampire Killer in Japan. (Image source)

The Story

As John Morris, the whippy vampire killer, or Eric Lecarde the skilled spearman, you will chase the demonic Countess Bartley across Europe before she resurrects Dracula for a final chance of terror. But her trail of doom is laden with ghouls and scary creatures. Encounter diabolical traps. Feel the power as you wield again and again sacred weapon power-ups such as Holy Water, the Battle Axe, the Cross Boomerang, and the Mirror of Truth. But in the end, make sure you've saved enough to stop the rise of Dracula!

Manual box and cartridge of the game. (Image source)

The Graphics and Sound

This game has excellent graphics for a Genesis game. I think there are only several Genesis games that exceed it in visuals. The sprites are of medium-sized, good-looking, and blend well with the gothic architecture style of the game. Konami manages to make some SNES-Style Mode 7 effects on this one, with the foggy atmosphere and such surrounding most levels.

The audio in this one has excellent music, despite the console's limits. The usual remixes of The recurring music are there, and almost always match its surroundings. The sound effects here are decent as well.

Gameplay video sample of Castlevania: Bloodlines.

The Gameplay

The gameplay is very good. You play as one of 2 characters. Eric, who is a descendant of vampire hunters, or John, who is a pal of Eric. Sadly, this is a one-player game. Eric uses a cool spear and can vault up levels of the castle or tower. He can also use a spin attack with it. John uses his whip to swing back and forth across deep craters and pits.

The game only has seven levels. All of which are well put together and have well-hidden items as a reward to the attentive player. The game also has plenty of monsters with very unique attacks. Whether it is bone-throwing skeletons, skeletal dragons, or bloody zombies, this game has it all you could want as far as monsters go. Bosses are also quite well made. All of them look very scary and require a strategy to beat. With this game, it takes practice to get good against the bosses. Just like the monsters, the bosses are unique and have strong and weird abilities.

All in all the gameplay is very well done and it is clear that the game developers put a lot of effort into the game.

The game has very good replay value. Each character has its own ending. And once you beat the game once, you can play it again on expert mode. You get an extra scene added to your character's ending. That makes it four playthroughs there.

My Verdict

Castlevania: Bloodlines is one of the best adventure games on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. I highly recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of Castlevania or action platformer, adventure games.

Play it on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console or play it with your favorite emulator.

Let's keep on gaming in the free world!



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