Castlevania Series Run: Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge

God, when I first learned that there was a Castlevania 2 for the gameboy, my heart sank a bit.  If you remember a long time ago, I covered Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest and I thought if this game was anything like that one, I'd be in for a long, boring, slog of a game.

Luckily I was totally wrong and the game is actually quite good, or at least a damn sight better than the first Gameboy Castlevania.  In case anyone was wondering, this game is NOTHING like Castlevania 2 on NES and it's the same side-scrolling goodness that we know and love from classic Casltevania. 

It is basically more of the first game, but the gameplay has been refined so that it's now actually playable instead of being a mess of bad controls and shit level design.  On top of that, they decided to bring back a couple of the sub weapon from the main console games.  That said, not all of them are present, we only get the Holy Water and the Axe, but they are welcome additions and are extremely useful.

The graphics are also a lot better too, gone is Belmont's gammy leg and the enemies look a lot more interesting, and the hit boxes have also been sorted out a bit, so it's a lot easier to tell when you are hitting something and when you are getting hit.

This is not to say that the game is free of bullshit.

Fuck this room

Some rooms near the end of the game are practically impossible to get through without taking a hit or 2 and Dracula, and the boss just before Dracula have some pretty stupid attack patterns that make them more frustrating than actually challenging.

That said, it's a pretty fun game, not as good as the main series games obviously, but at the time it would have been a good little side attraction for on the go vampire hunting.