"Cancelvania," I sure wish it was released.

Dragonmaster_Ruban

You know that amazing machine we gamers call the Dreamcast?  Well, it's a well-known fact we were supposed to have another Castlevania game, though every time I see the beta footage or listen to one of the tracks from the OST I wish it was made.  <_<

Aside from our complete deprivation of a Dreamcast title, perhaps the release of the 3DS will bring another whip-cracker.  I'd be laughing if they somehow brought it back from the crypts of beta development and made an upgraded version for the 3DS with a lot of features from the other handheld titles.  Resurrection coming soon to the Nintendo 3DS.  Hell yes.

As a random side note, I'll buy a 3DS when they re-tell/re-release Tales of the Abyss.

Tanooki

I always was furious at Konami for that crap back in the day. Around that time I more or less got disgusted with them and got super choosy with future purchases as they became the DDR and little else company to me. I really wanted to take Sonja Belmont away from the Gameboy and experience that 3D world as it looked downright fun. I remember the story from someone on the creation team saying some bitter assholes at the Japanese office weren't happy that some dumb Americans could make a better 3D Castlevania than they could so they shut it down. I have no idea what truth there is to it, but that developer wasn't amused. I could really enjoy it if it came back from the depths of gaming purgatory for the 3DS, but I would put that at less than 1% just because of the work behind it.

StanJr

This is one of the great disappointments in gaming development history for me. It was so close, we have screenshots for the love of Mike. The game was going to be sweet from the looks of things. Then again, if the two PS2 Castlevanias were indicative of what 3D Castlevania was becoming, maybe it was for the best? Or would the DC Castlevania have righted the ship? We'll never know.



That said, I would just be happy with a good Castlevania game for the Wii, back on the system it belongs.

SamSpade

Originally posted by: StanJr

This is one of the great disappointments in gaming development history for me. It was so close, we have screenshots for the love of Mike. The game was going to be sweet from the looks of things. Then again, if the two PS2 Castlevanias were indicative of what 3D Castlevania was becoming, maybe it was for the best? Or would the DC Castlevania have righted the ship? We'll never know.

That said, I would just be happy with a good Castlevania game for the Wii, back on the system it belongs.

I guess I'm in the minority but I actually liked the PS2 Castlevania games. I always enjoyed the N64 game and the updated one too. I really think that Castlevania when it made the jump to 3D got a really bad rap. They're still solid games, are they at quite the level of the best in the series, hell no, but I really enjoyed all of the Castlevania games, even the odd red headed stepchild. If you ask me, a Dreamcast incarnation would've been cool, it's really a shame how some of these games with so much potential never see the light of day.

Dragonmaster_Ruban

I actually kind of liked Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness, though at the same time it would've been cool to have a release to already add to my collection of amazing Dreamcast titles.  It would've been up there with Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, and the Shenmue games.  I'm still curious to see what hand held 3D Castlevania Konami might make for the 3DS.

SamSpade

I think you'll probably see a new game released on the 3DS. It always seems like Konami is good to the handhelds with Castlevania being it's premiere title in the handheld market. Really, I think that's for the best, trying to rework a DC game might sound cool but I somehow think it would be more trouble than it's worth. Getting a new game on the 3DS will ultimately yield a better product. In Konami I trust.

Dragonmaster_Ruban

Well said, brother.  It would be cool to actually see the main character be Victor Belmont, though I've always been curious to know when they'd release a title with Julius Belmont as the main character.  I wanna relive the year 1999 when Drac gets his butt handed to him.  We'll have to see. "In Konami I trust."

Tanooki

Well for me the 3D Castlevania games have been bad, in particular the unfinished buggy release of Castlevania64 which is an abomination forced on us by greedy Japanese stock holders on the board forcing a delayed game out incomplete. Legacy of Darkness was the full true title and it's all there, you can't fall through walls, camera doesn't kill you, and there isn't broken collision where you die just standing near things. I like that game quite a lot, just not the rest. The PS3 title is ok but I got very bored of it and quit on it months ago, and it's not really Castlevania anyway other than in name as it really is a poor mans God of War with questionable difficulty and Ai going on with it.

SamSpade

Wasn't Legacy of Darkness just a reworked version of the original? I haven't played either in over ten years so my memory is a tad foggy. As for the PS2 games, I don't understand all the hate those games get. I thought Curse of Darkness was really addictive with the leveling up system and Lament was a good action game that mimiced Devil May Cry fair enough with a Castlevania spin to it. I've yet to play the newest one, just haven't got around to it yet but I do want to give it a shot.

Tanooki

Nah. What happened if you read old gaming mags was that the game was supposed to have 3 parts. You had the part where you used a werewolf, another with a knight, and then another with a choice of two people. Those characters and one other(dumped) got shown in magazines with early renders and scenery. Konami had issues and it got delayed a bunch and they got ordered to get something together and ship it, so Castlevania 64 was born as a buggy game with only 40% of the real intended content. Less than a year later as the team pressed on they finished the title and gave it the larger billing of Legacy of Darkness to hopefully get people to forget the other and buy it, but the media kicked their ass over it and online readers either hated on the game or just bought it (glad I did buy it.)



It's the real deal.

Nightowljrm

Oh, man, I've always been curious about that game, too. A 3DS release would be fantastic. Y'know, I'm still waiting for an amazing 3D Castlevania AND/OR a solid 2D Castlevania similar to Castlevania III on a new-gen console (Similar to New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I guess, but without the obvious shortcuts and lack of sold-out effort). I don't think Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness are as terrible as people claim, but it does fall short. Lords of Shadow does retain some of the Castlevania feel, but I thought a lot was lacking... For one, too many cutscenes and where were the bone pillars and medusa heads? Maybe that'll come in the sequel...



Anyway, the Castlevania: Resurrection, or whatever the Dreamcast installment was going to be called, probably wouldn't've been that great, either, unless they were finally going to work out the kinks in the original 3D games, but I guess we'll never know. Now that I think about it, this is kind of typical about everything about the Dreamcast; unmet potential. Sad. =(

Austin

I was extremely disappointed that Ressurrection got the axe. I bought the Dreamcast on day one and that was one of the games I was looking forward to the most. Now that I look back at it though, it may have been for the better. All I see in screenshots are bare, square rooms. I have the inkling now that it may not have been particularly good. Regardless.. I'd be lying though if I said I wasn't curious to see how it would have turned out.



(the rest is somewhat trailing off-topic, more-so relating to the other games people here have mentioned)



I thoroughly enjoyed the Nintendo 64 games. Legacy of Darkness is the larger game of the two, but strangely I prefer some of the level designs (and higher difficulty) in the original game than I do LoD.. Regardless, both are worth owning IMO if the proper time and attention is given to them. RetroSnow did a great review on the first one and really puts it in it's deserving place.



In regards to the talk about the PS2 games, those are mixed for me.. I really liked Lament of Innocence when it came out. Awesome visuals, awesome music, awesome gameplay mixing both styles the series is known for, awesome boss fights. Good secrets. Not so awesome story or voice-acting though and that's what keeps it from being excellent. Regardless, it's worth checking out IMO and I wouldn't have minded the series to continue in the direction this one was leaning towards.



Curse of Darkness I found to be mediocre at best. I was stoked when I heard it was heading back into more of a SotN direction, but was severely disappointed as I trudged through this game. Weak boss fights, extremely repetitive and monotonous level designs (one long corridor after another, typically), weak enemy designs that also get the palette-swap treatment as the game goes on, and another terrible story with equally poor voice-acting. Ugh. Like someone else mentioned, the leveling-up and upgrade system was cool, but that and the soundtrack is really all it has going for it. I think it would have been better for Konami to release it as a different game altogether, not a Castlevania.

evilive138

I remember being SUPER excited about Castlevania 64 when it first came out. I bought it the week it was released and i think i put about 20 minutes into it and got bored with it. lol At least i had SOTN to fall back on. To this day one of my favorite games.



I just recently(about 6 months ago) picked up Curse of Darkness for PS2 and its actually a pretty decent title. Only reason i quit playing was i got stuck on i believe it was fighting Richtor? Fucker kept kicking my ass and pissing me off. lol. I still need to pickup the other title for PS2 which im sure will be decent too.



Curse of Darkness i think i need to give another shot. I got it on release day(pre-ordered) and thought it was pretty decent but got bored of it after awhile and never got back to it. Seemed repetitive. Im sure eventually i will pick it back up again and give it another go.

StanJr

Castlevania64 was actually better when I went back and played a few years ago, and LoD is pretty awesome too. I think I like them both better than the PS2 games. Those games were ok, but the environments were so restrictive that they didn't feel very immersive. May as well have been empty hallways since very little in any given area was interactive. There were some cool moments, fighting the elementals, that giant freaky ass medusa head, but all in all they are forgettable, unlike classics like SotN and the original.

Phins

Resurrect Resurrection for the 3DS, and throw in SoTN and Legacy of Darkness.

Austin

Originally posted by: Phins

Resurrect Resurrection for the 3DS, and throw in SoTN and Legacy of Darkness.

LOL!! As unlikely as that would be.. That would be freakin' awesome.

gutsman004

Castlevania64....meh,it was okay. Was really excited to play it when it came out and I was kind of disappointed. It wasn't terrible,it just didn't have that wow factor that I was hoping for. I loved the PS2 Castlevania games though. While they may not be the best in the series,I will say that CoD's soundtrack can stand up with the best of them. And I'd love to see the series stay on the big boy systems instead of being on the handhelds. Just not a big fan of handheld systems anymore.

GameBoyScotty

I have the 2 PS2 CV games, but haven't played them yet, cause they look a little too RPG-ish. I would like to see the CV on the Dreamcast get completed, but I think it's dead. The N64 version, I will not own, I have the 3 for NES, and the Gameboy title on the way. I fell in love, with these games, for awesome and difficult side scrolling action! The newer ones just look like Anime took them over. Whatever CV game you like, we all know that the best of the series, ended with Symphony of the Night, before Simon turned into Pokemon.

Dragonmaster_Ruban

I hear you there, though I've played all of them except for Legends, Kid Dracula, and Castlevania Adventure II.  I'm actually on the hunt for the Sega Saturn version of Symphony of the Night with the "lost" levels.  Well actually, I still need to get a NTSC-J Saturn first.  >_>  Admittedly, Resurrection resurrected on the 3DS would be awesome, but that's just a CV fan's dream.  It'd be nice though.  We can all agree that the franchise is has quite a few titles, but how many of them really stand out?  The newer ones for PS2 and 360 are quite nice, though they lack the charm that the original games own.  I love LoS, but I'd still play Akumajo Dracula X:  Chi no Rondo (PC Engine) and the good ol' classics.