![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Oct. 5th, 2010
Colds and Castlevania.
Oct. 5th, 2010 05:20 pmHave caught cold from mum. Not feeling great, but stumbling on with stuff. Sniffly, sneezy and sore throaty.
I impulse bought Castlevania:Harmony Of Despair off XBLA at the weekend, it's rather fun and a bit different to all the Metroidvania style games on the GBA and DS. It gaves you six big stages, a choice of five characters and a thirty minute time limit to get to the stage boss and twat it. Which isn't easy at first. But you pick up equipment and money as you go along and keep it even if you die. It manages to combine lootwhoring with score and time attacks and is very addictive. Yes, it recycles a looooooot of graphics from the GBA/DS games, but I love those games and just playing a 2D Castlevania on a big telly is a joy. I'm favouring Shanoa now, because she was in the most recent CV game I played, but having trouble defeating the Chapter 2 boss with her, so may use Alucard to unlock stages, then grind away with Shanoa for a few hours.* Also, there's online six player co-op mode**, which I haven't had a go at yet. There's going to be add-on stages and characters too.
I was going to download the demo for Castlevania:Begbie's Big Dracula Adventure***, but the 2Gb file size and the fact CV games with a 3D engine have ranged from complete shite to utterly mediocre meant I didn't bother. Plus, I suspect cinematic aspirations/pretensions and lots of cut scenes, especially with Hideo Kojima involved.
* - Frankie says "Titter ye not!"
** - which just makes the lack of online co-op in games like Scott Pilgrim, Deathspank and others just more annoying.
*** - this may not, in fact, be the proper name.
I impulse bought Castlevania:Harmony Of Despair off XBLA at the weekend, it's rather fun and a bit different to all the Metroidvania style games on the GBA and DS. It gaves you six big stages, a choice of five characters and a thirty minute time limit to get to the stage boss and twat it. Which isn't easy at first. But you pick up equipment and money as you go along and keep it even if you die. It manages to combine lootwhoring with score and time attacks and is very addictive. Yes, it recycles a looooooot of graphics from the GBA/DS games, but I love those games and just playing a 2D Castlevania on a big telly is a joy. I'm favouring Shanoa now, because she was in the most recent CV game I played, but having trouble defeating the Chapter 2 boss with her, so may use Alucard to unlock stages, then grind away with Shanoa for a few hours.* Also, there's online six player co-op mode**, which I haven't had a go at yet. There's going to be add-on stages and characters too.
I was going to download the demo for Castlevania:Begbie's Big Dracula Adventure***, but the 2Gb file size and the fact CV games with a 3D engine have ranged from complete shite to utterly mediocre meant I didn't bother. Plus, I suspect cinematic aspirations/pretensions and lots of cut scenes, especially with Hideo Kojima involved.
* - Frankie says "Titter ye not!"
** - which just makes the lack of online co-op in games like Scott Pilgrim, Deathspank and others just more annoying.
*** - this may not, in fact, be the proper name.