![]() It sticks out, not like a sore thumb, but as this little silly reprieve from trekking all over creation and back collecting Dracula’s body parts. ![]() “Monster Dance” is an odd tune within Simon’s Quest, as it truly is something more groovy than the rest of the game’s music, and maybe that’s why I like it so much. “Monster Dance” – Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest.While “Vampire Killer” may be the most remembered of the game’s soundtrack, this track to me always drove home the idea that you were knee-deep in monster territory with no turning back and just to valiantly push on towards big daddy Drac. The iconic first game composed by Kinuyo Yamashita and Satoe Terashima. (I’m omitting the Pachislot games as they’re basically all re-used music and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate since I never played it) Granted, OSV has covered the music of Castlevania several times before, but consider this a brief perusing through of the history of the franchise’s music in all its iterations. Thus, in a bit of self-indulgence and as a tribute to 30 years of whip-cracking, wall meat-finding, vampire-slaying goodness, I’ve made a list of my favorite music from each game in Castlevania‘s lifetime from the very first game all the way through to Lords of Shadow. ![]() If I played it at 8 or 28, the series soundtracks are hands down my favorite of any game franchise. Granted, I loved my Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe as a Genesis kid, but the soundtracks from the Castlevania series stuck with me, and impacted a lot of how I perceived game music from childhood to adult hood. On September 26th, 1986, Akumajo Dracula, or Demon Castle Dracula as it translates, was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, and the legendary feud between the Belmont clan and Count Dracula was born.įor me, Castlevania was not only an indulgence of my childhood love of vampire stories and movie monsters, but the music of the series became the baseline for which I rated so many game soundtracks through my life. I don’t know what Tim’s position about all this is now (the videogames developed under Action Button Entertainment are unambiguous endorsements for that dogma), but I reject it without hesitation.This past Monday was the 30th anniversary of Castlevania, a franchise that has been a cornerstone of video gaming for so many of us since our childhoods. Naturally, the narrowness of dogma blinds it to its own ironies, like how videogames are in fact uniquely positioned to make the HUD a persistent, artful part of the experience, rather than it being an unseemly detail to always try to whittle down to invisibility. But, to me, what is as ridiculous as the tone is the omnipresent dogma - a part of nearly all of the reviews, and the guiding force for the Top 30 list - about what constitutes the good videogame, with every bit of hyperbolic condemnation and congratulation pining for, essentially, an action-oriented product with minimal or nonexistent HUD and no cutscenes. At the time, even, I recognized it as unlike the way I wanted to write such, however, was the ABDN brand, and it was encouraging to receive the support from an engaged readership who swore by the attitude. ![]() When I read my reviews today, I wince and feel embarrassment because the tone is so obviously forced, so ultra-affected. Here was that admired trait of Old Man Murray: a culture of (mostly) young men whose communicative dynamics prized sarcasm, misogyny, bullying, and snobbery. Users occasionally came out of the woodwork of lurking to say nothing more than that they were too intimidated to wax about videogames in the presence of others so powerful and witty with their words. The IC forum really did function as a kind of cult. Let me also explain that my use of the term “cult of personality” is not used for approximate convenience. This was during the height of my interest in the Castlevania series, and these essays struck me for their unusual focus on the titles’ aesthetic qualities and, secondly, their determination to illustrate a creative narrative (again, there’s that aspect of New Games Journalism - this hypothetical window into the developmental activities hidden from view, even if the window is built of fiction and/or speculation). Let me jump back even further to explain that my involvement with any of this began when I joined the IC forums after discovering, somehow, a couple of reviews for Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow by Aderack.
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