[Phantom Stranger]

Castlevania Bloodlines.

What to say about this one? If I had to sum up my experience with it, it would be Okay. That's it, Bloodlines is an Okay Castlevania. It is by no means a bad game, but I certainly feel is is somewhat flawed, even for it's time. The game suffers from knock back like others in the series, you don't have mid air control, your jump is rather stiff, and your method of attacking can be somewhat limited for the situations you sometimes deal with ie: questionable enemy placement.


Good thing I had a screen nuke and not a boomerang.

Unfortunately you also have limited lives and continues. There is a password system, but I still would've preferred at least having unlimited continues, especially considering how difficult this game can be at times. Going back to the beginning of a stage is bad enough, but having to enter a password? Come on, that should just be for when you turn the game off and on.

The music here is fantastic, and happens to be the first Castlevania soundtrack handled by the great Michiru Yamane. We have great remixes of old tracks as well as new ones like Iron Blue Intention.

Seriously this is a great soundtrack. I'd argue I enjoy it more than IV's. Yeah, I said it.

Level wise the game is varied and quite nice to look at. Level layout is also very fun and never dull in structure. (the munitions plant is a personal favorite.) Environments are colorful, there are nice details to be seen in every stage, and there are even a few surprises in how enemies interact with the environment, such as Minotaurs swinging columns at you in Greece.
If there are two things I would point out as questionable, it's that early stages of the game really freaking love auto scrolling sections and pseudo 3D effects can be found throughout. Sometimes its okay, other times is feels like they're trying to hard to make use of the Genesis capabilities without considering how well it meshes with gameplay and visuals. This also extends to certain bosses, which can be confusing for a first timer. Being unable to tell what is a hit box and what isn't, if they're a bit too Vectorman-ish.

There will often be times where getting through a level or beating a boss is just trial and error. There's no way you'll know what new attack it will do, or that an enemey will spawn behind you with another in front. Your movement is too limited for reflexes be of use for what are often times much faster enemies. Ironically some late game bosses are rather easy, like Death and Medusa.

Again, I do not find Bloodlines to be a bad game, it can be tolerated, the NES version of 3 this is not. But it is flawed in that this system of gameplay was already archaic by the time it came out. IV and Rondo of Blood were already out by the time this hit the Genesis and are far superior in the control department and enemy placement, if nothing else.

Can I recommend playing it? Sure, it is fun if albeit infuriating at times.(This was on normal btw) With that said, I would still suggest most other Castlevania titles over this.