Super Castlevania IV

Super Castlevania IV
North American SNES box art
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami
Director(s)	Masahiro Ueno
Producer(s)	Kazumi Kitaue
Composer(s)	Masanori Adachi Taro Kudo
Series	Castlevania
Platform(s)	Super NES, Virtual Console
Release date(s)	October 31, 1991 Super Famicom/ SNES JP October 31, 1991 NA December 4, 1991 EU November 23, 1992 Wii Virtual Console JP December 2, 2006[1] NA December 25, 2006 EU December 29, 2006 Wii U Virtual Console JP September 11, 2013 NA October 31, 2013 EU October 31, 2013
Genre(s)	Action, Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player

Super Castlevania IV, known in Japan as Akumajou Dracula (Japanese: 悪魔城ドラキュラ, Hepburn: Akumajō Dorakyura, Devil's Castle Dracula^[2]) is a 1991 action-platformer video game and a remake of the original Castlevania on the NES. It was developed and published by Konami and is the first Castlevania game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was originally released in 1991 and later re-released on the Virtual Console in 2006 for the Wii^[3] and in 2013 for the Wii U. It features expanded play control, 16-bit graphics featuring SNES Mode 7, and a soundtrack featuring brand new pieces and remixes based on previous Castlevania music. Following the same setting as Castlevania, the game takes place in 1691 Transylvania, where the vampire hunter Simon Belmont must defeat the vampire Dracula.^[3][4]

Gameplay

The whip is a large part of Super Castlevania IV's gameplay.

Super Castlevania IV is a side-scrolling platform game where the player takes control of Simon through eleven levels.^[5] Players begin the game with three lives, and the game results in game over once they have lost them all. The player will lose a life if all of Simon's health gauge is depleted or if they do not finish the level within the time limit.^[5] The health gauge can be restored through food items that can be dropped from candles and enemies, or with the Magic Crystal, which is received after defeating the boss at end of each level.^[5][6] A password can also be entered to continue the game.^[7]

With Simon's whip, players can attack enemies in eight directions with the use of the control pad.^[7][8] By holding down the attack button, the whip will go limp and can be waved around with the control pad, which can be used to block projectiles.^[8] The length and power of the whip can be increased up to two levels by collecting an item called the Morning Star.^[6] The whip is not only used for fighting, but also for latching onto rings to swing over areas that are too wide or dangerous for the player to jump across.^[8] In addition to jumping, the player can control Simon to move while crouching.

Like its predecessors, players can use secondary weapons that consume Simon's "Hearts", which are dropped from candles and enemies.^[6][9] The secondary weapons include an axe which can be thrown in an arc, and a watch which stops all enemy motion.^[9] Collecting the items known as the Double and Triple Shots allows the player to throw secondary weapons up to three times in a row.^[6]

Development and release

Super Castlevania IV was directed by Masahiro Ueno (credited in the game as Jun Furano since Konami did not allow the use of real names at the time), who was also the main programmer.^[10] His first 16-bit game, Ueno's team possibly started development on it during 1989. Ueno liked the original Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System the most and wanted to make a pure action game that was similar to it.^[10] Ueno only considers Super Castlevania IV a remake of the original Castlevania to some extent. Many features in Super Castlevania IV were introduced to make it a less frustrating game for players, such as giving them more control over Simon when he walked up stairs.^[10]

Due to the team being small, everyone was involved with the design and some ideas came from the creative artists and others by the programmers' experiments. The team drew maps on paper and a lot was changed as the game was worked on. Mitsuru Yaida (credited as Yaipon) programmed Simon and also implemented the game's whip system, which was to introduce some new gameplay that was not possible on the NES.^[10] As the enemy and boss programmer, Ueno conceived some rough ideas and additional programmers would implement more detailed boss patterns. Earlier bosses were designed to be easier so that players could discover weak points and effective weapons without retrying.^[10] Ueno also worked on both the Japanese and English versions of the game, with the latter featuring some instances of censorship.^[11] He was asked to alter the color palette in the English version in order to remove some depictions of blood in stage eight.^[10]

It was re-released on several platforms, such as the Wii U's Virtual Console.^[12]

Audio

The soundtrack for Super Castlevania IV was composed by Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo (credited as Masanori Oodachi and Souji Taro respectively). Ueno wanted to make the environment of Super Castlevania IV more interactive and was proud of how the game's sound effects and music contributed to the atmosphere.^[10] The music was released on Akumajō Dracula Best 2 in a compilation with Castlevania: The Adventure and Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge's music.

Reception

Ratings
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 82.06%[13] Review scores Publication Score AllGame [14] GamePro 5 of 5[15] GameSpot 7.8 of 10[16] IGN 8 of 10[17] Nintendo Life 9 of 10[18] Nintendo Power 4.375 of 5[19]

Upon Super Castlevania IV's North American release, the game was acclaimed by critics. Nintendo Power gave the game four overall scores of 4.0, 4.0, 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5.^[20] Among several items, the magazine cited the game's graphics, music, and action sequences as positives. In 2006, the game was then named by Nintendo Power as the 66th best game made on a Nintendo system. Now it has been ranked 27 according to the last issue.^[21] Official Nintendo Magazine placed the game at 56 on their list of the 100 best Nintendo games ever. Game Informer wrote that it "perfect[ed] the classic formula" due to its whip and less stiff gameplay. It also praised its use of Mode 7.^[22] GameZone ranked it as the second best Castlevania title. The staff praised its gameplay, audio, and visuals (in particular its "multi-scrolling playfields and wicked special effects.")^[23]

In 1994 the game was reviewed by Sandy Petersen in Dragon #209's "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.^[24]

The game sold a little over 500,000 copies worldwide.^[25]

References

External links

• Super Castlevania IV at MobyGames
• Super Castlevania IV at Votable.com