Castlevania

THE BAD:
Simple graphics. High difficulty level.

SUMMARY:
The first entry in the legendary Castlevania series helped launch the still-popular horror game genre, now personnified through series like Resident Evil, but Castlevania did it first. The story focused on legendary Vampire Hunter Simon Belmont, whose mission was to rid Transylvania of Count Dracula himself, armed only with a whip and whatever items he found on his journey. The journey spanned 15 stages with a battle against a fearsome boss character every couple of stages.
The graphics are simple but effective, with backgrounds giving the castle a nice European flavor of sorts. Sounds and music are simple yet appropriate-the "whip attack" sound is quite good, as are the grunts when the player gets hurt or the sound of glass breaking when holy water's thrown. Controls are simple and responsive, but sometimes it takes practice to learn how to use the special weapons, especially while jumping or trying to climb stairs. Also, the difficulty level is fairly high although it starts out easy. Luckily there's an opion to continue but it does send you back a little too far depending on where you are in the game.
With this game having just been re-released on GBA as part of Classic NES Series, now is a great time to dig up this title and see where games like Resident Evil & Silent Hill got their inspiration from.