Castlevania 2 review - Nintendo Gameboy

Count Dracula is back! After the pasting the Dark One received in the original Castlevania, he's spent many years souping up his satanic powers, determined to destroy the person who dared stand up to him - Christopher Belmont. In order to carry out this foul deed, Dracula has summoned all his evil powers of possession available to him, and in a fit of diabolical evil has turned Belmont's son, Soyeiyu, into a massive rampaging demon!Christopher is more than a tad annoyed at this development and sets out towards the new Drac HQ with revenge on this mind. When he gets there, he finds that once again, his skills and reflexes are tested to the max in a four-way scrolling platform-based environment. Armed only with a whip and substantial cunning, Christopher is pitted against the true horrific terrors of seven levels, each packed to the brim with possessed meanies and flesh-eating denizens of the undead!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

I thought the original Castlevania was good, but this is even better! There are loads of things to uncover, including secret screens, and it's a non-stop battle all the way to beat Drac! If you're a platform addict, put this at the top of your shopping list immediately.

What a brilliant platform game this is! Plenty of levels packed with cunning traps and undead-related excitement make this a game you'll be playing time and time again. Go for it!

Retrospective comments

The first Gameboy Castlevania was a real disappointment. Graphically it was a sad, shambling effort, the music was dire and the gameplay was slow and cumbersome. Therefore I did not have high hopes for the second title when I played it all those years ago - thankfully Konami corrected pretty much every fault present in the first title and in turn created one of the finest platformers on Nintendo's handheld - if not one of the finest games on the machine full stop. The action is fast and the main character is responsive. Level design is inventive and varied, and getting to the end of the game requires practice and skill. A special mention must go to the music. Whoever produced these tunes deserves a medal! The Gameboys weedy speaker belts out some of the finest music in the Castlevania series - and that's saying something when you consider the excellent soundtracks most Castlevania titles have. The MM boys were right on the money with this review, as usual.