Games of the Abstract: Super Castlevania IV (1991)

 

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

One Player

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

 

Returning to the Castlevania franchise, we get to a jump for the series where they transitioned into the 16 bit era of gaming. Whilst there was a divisive Game Boy game (Castlevania The Adventure (1989)), a significantly better Game Boy sequel (Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (1991)), a maligned arcade game (Haunted Castle (1987)), and a MSX 2 game (Vampire Killer (1986)), this was a franchise which kept its main franchise on the original Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom console for Nintendo. The irony is not lost that, bringing the franchise onto the SNES, Konami even if making more spin-offs to the main franchise for the next few years would effectively focus more on widening the audience to the franchise, eventually leading to one of the game's most important, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997), being a Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation release, Nintendo 64 instead getting an attempt to bring the main franchise to the third dimensional polygons which was divisive. That does not dampen that Super Castlevania IV, effectively a remake of the original 1986 NES game which began it all, was their head long charge into a new era of technological tools to play with even if Konami would expand the franchise onto other consoles from here on.

Coming as a spruced up version of the original Castlevania, where Simon Belmont, heir to a family lineage who fights Dracula, has to deal with the Count, there is not much beyond this simple mission in terms of plot, what progresses is a series of levels travelling through the villain’s castle to the vampire lord himself. Made originally for the SNES, this throws itself into the aesthetic and technological boosts of the machine, it also contrasting Castlevania: Bloodlines (1994), the title released for Sega’s own 16 bit machine which had its own innovations. Both are straightforward platforming games – one direction, hit enemies with your vampire killer whip, and negotiate obstacles – before the series would help create the “Metroidvania” genre. Notably each has their own gameplay differences, and aesthetically they are different to, standing out from each other.

Even in terms of the colour palette between the pair being distinct, the pair together are a reminder that back at this point this was something that could vary between home consoles considerably even in this little touch; different technological choices means Bloodlines is a vibrantly morbid game in look, whilst in contrast Super Castlevania IV has a considerable amount of atmosphere to its aesthetic. The games do stand out from each other as, a side story, Bloodlines has the levels set in different countries and locations, allowing drastically different aesthetics per level, whilst Castlevania IV is set around one location, Dracula’s vast castle, and embraces a connecting aesthetic of a decayed and haunted environment which is out to kill your protagonist. The SNES game has its own personal quirks; probably one of the most obvious is using the console’s “Mode 7” graphics. Designed to allow a background layer to be rotated and scaled, creating many possibilities for different effects, this means using the graphical techniques to create a section where, comparable to those spinning tunnels in haunted houses people walking through, there is a quasi-cylindrical tunnel which rotates as Simon Belmont has to jump across platforms. There is also a section where the gravity changes, having to hang off a grapple hook, and the world rotates around him through this technique. Other techniques flourish on this game, all adding a quirk to the look of the game, such as when you are jumping on platforms attached to giant swinging chandeliers using a quasi three dimensional effect.

There is a great emphasis on platforming here too, where alongside the little touches, Super Castlevania IV intermingles its whipping of enemies with a lot more concern of how to negotiate around sections let alone the whole stage. Here you have full directional use of the whip itself, even the ability to swing it with full rotation using the directional buttons. The platforming is a little precise to the extreme, as this game fully emphasizes the need to memorize ahead, alongside the fact that here more so than Bloodlines, instant death pits and spikes are a lot more common. The passages even become puzzles in having to work around enemies who can knock you off platforms and that, with a surreal number of staircases floating in the air to work from, you will have a lot of scenarios where it is wiser to stay on them and whack a skeleton or two dead again before setting forth on the platform they are attached to. It is telling, even if Bloodlines was a harder game in its own way, particularly with less health power ups and a password system, Super Castlevania IV has plentiful amounts of health replenishing chicken to devour, if off the floor, between challenging sections. The gameplay additions built into the franchise so far too are also as important – powered by hearts you can collect from the likes of candles, side weapons are just as useful tools for boss battles but even to clear paths from awkward enemy placements, depending on what weapon you have collected.

Unlike Bloodline’s intercontinental trip around Europe, this traverses from the castle grounds, to the treasury and dungeons, towards Dracula. Dracula, having the advantage of being a super magical being, can turn anything clearly meant for mortals to traverse into death traps, and that is before you get to the monsters and figures from various backgrounds in terms of threats. Super Castlevania IV is tonally more somber, but it is still a game of campy gothic aesthetic, finding balances between these sides. One of the best levels, in the Halls where even if the ghosts you face can be hard, emphasizes this by having them, even ones who are dancing together, the main focus with their own devoted stage. Alongside having tables trying to attack you or dodging glowing ectoplasm, the final boss for the stage is a ghost couple, man and female, in ethereal waltzing embrace, attacking the player in synchronized choreography and fencing sword strikes.

Eyeballs from Dungeons & Dragons float to get in the way as you jaunt into the treasury and fight a giant bat literally made from gold doubloons, and all of this, for all the challenge the game presents, perfectly encapsulates the virtues of Castlevania. The tonal changes between this and the Mega Drive game do not change how both are from a franchise which allowed their artists and creators to be as inventive even in eccentric ways, thus explaining one of the bosses here being a giant skull where falling bone fragments are also a huge issue. I will still prefer Castlevania: Bloodlines, but with Super Castlevania IV, you see a franchise strut into the 16 bit generation without faltering, and they are both solid gems in their own right. As talked of, this would be a franchise changing into the late nineties, Symphony of the Night changing the gameplay into the Metroidvania genre it gave part of the name from, and with this among those before this change, there is even before this change the virtues of these games from the music to their atmosphere that became their personality. Finally getting to this franchise, these games really justify their legacy.