LEGO Castlevania not coming to consoles, handhelds, but it should

By Stephen Munn | April 1, 2009

So, I was thinking for a while about setting up an April Fool’s joke about a LEGO Castlevania game, and here’s how it was going to go: I was going to actually build a full 3D scene involving LEGO bricks and minifigures and everything, it was going to be epic. The only problem is, I have a life. Well, part of one. OK, I just was busy. Playing MadWorld. It’s awesome.

A deal bricked together by Konami and Traveller’s Tales will bring the popular LEGO brand treatment to my favorite video game franchise, Castlevania, this fall. As was done with the two Star Wars trilogies, LEGO Castlevania will apparently be a walk through the first three Castlevania games, in their classic side-scrolling glory, but presented to look as though all the graphics are done with LEGO bricks and parts. The games will be offered as direct downloads via XBLA, WiiWare, PSN, and DSiWare for play on 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, and DSi. There is no mention of a DS cartridge release of the game, but I’d be surprised if they excluded so much of that console’s audience from this.

The image here is an image from a collection of game scenes redone in LEGO from a few years ago on Flickr. Check that out here.

So instead, what I’m doing is saying, why not a LEGO Castlevania? I’m sure Konami and Traveller’s Tales could get together on this one and pull something out that has the same camera problems the LEGO Star Wars games are known for, but with far poorer sales. Well, at least you and I would buy it. OK, I would.

What do you think? Would you buy LEGO Castlevania?

Source: Castlemania

Etsy merchant offers cool gaming stuff and custom orders

By Stephen Munn | March 14, 2009

Gears of War pendant While browsing over at Etsy tonight I managed to notice a couple of great items with a Castlevania theme, but if you’re not into Castlevania, perhaps I can catch your eye with… Gears of War? Ah, I thought so. Check out these items over at Etsy. There’s a zombie sprite-embroidered onesie, and this great Dracula pendant. The maker of the Dracula pendant offers a number of Xbox 360 and Gears of War related items as well as pointing out that custom orders are always welcome.

Source: Castlemania

Advantage: Programmar bring the NSFW gaming lyrics to you with style

By Stephen Munn | January 31, 2009

advprodisiac What would you say if I told you that there exists a band which performs classic video game themes and sets lyrics to them? Lyrics that not only have nothing to do with the game, but tend to be very cleverly written and often contain large amounts of profanity? You’d say “sign me up,” wouldn’t you. Now what if I told you they did multiple classic Castlevania tunes, and did them well?

Ready your credit cards.

A band called Advantage: Programmar has an album available as MP3s for download from Amazon.com. The album is called Advprodisiac, and it contains covers of the songs Bloody Tears from Simon’s Quest, Wicked Child and Vampire Killer from Castlevania, and Evergreen from Dracula’s Curse, turned into songs called Come + Go With Me, I Really Need You, Can We Go Now? and It’s Time for Bed.

If you’re not just a Castlevania fan then there’s plenty more here, with selections from Final Fantasy, Mario, Mega Man, and even that awesome Batman game for NES from Sunsoft. Have a listen to samples of the songs and tell me if this isn’t some great work.

Source: Amazon via Castlemania

A stroll through the castle with Simon Belmont and Dracula

By Stephen Munn | December 12, 2008

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 20 years now since the first Castlevania game came out. As I continue to struggle in the final battle of Order of Ecclesia, I think about all the times I’ve faced off against the various supervillains of Castlevania over the years. My collection of games is nearly complete now, and I’ve received word that my review copy of Judgment is on its way at last, so it shouldn’t be too much longer before I’ve got the whole library of North American releases in the Castlevania franchise. Once that happens, will I want to play them all through once again, start to finish? Should I play them in chronological order? There’s an idea.

Let’s have a look at where the franchise has been over the years as I get ready to tear into a game that could provide an excellent retrospective of some of its most important characters.

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Weekend Gaming Score: All hail PlayNTrade, all hail my pal Jonathan

By Stephen Munn | December 6, 2008

If I’ve worn my love for PlayNTrade on my sleeve and tired you folks of it, it still hasn’t been enough.

A friend of mine named Jonathan is a regular at the store now, and every time he’s there, he dutifully checks the place for things I might like. Yesterday he texted me, asking if I wanted a cartridge-only copy of Legacy of Darkness, and I declined. I’m still looking for a boxed copy of that game, as the cartridge is not too hard to come by.

Today he texted me telling me there was a boxed copy of Castlevania Adventure and I called him immediately. It turns out he wasn’t kidding. Someone had just traded in a complete copy of Konami’s first and most horribly unplayable Gameboy game. Better still, it apparently is in near mint condition, opened but still in the plastic and has all the original inserts. It gets even better, as all they wanted for it was $8.

Naturally, I asked him to pounce on it for me, and he did so. I’ve been heaping thanks and praise on him for this, and here’s one more. Rock on, Jonathan.

This makes the first of the three Castlevania Gameboy games I’ve obtained complete, and I hope it won’t be the last. I have a badly worn cart of Legends and a cart and manual for Belmont’s Revenge. Speaking of which, just last week I watched in horror as just the box for Belmont’s Revenge sold for over $60 on eBay. Just the box.

The Castlevania Collection footprint balloons alarmingly

By Stephen Munn | November 26, 2008

What have I gotten myself into?

One of the things I hadn’t considered when I started this ill-advised adventure was just how much space a collection of Castlevania releases would occupy. I’m going to have to put some serious thought into where I want to keep this collection once it’s done, but here’s what it looks like right now.

The collection isn’t nearly complete, but it’s getting there. I need boxes for the three Game Boy games and the manual for Legends. I need the box for Super Castlevania IV, and of course, all of Dracula X for SNES. I need Legacy of Darkness for N64. I need Harmony of Dissonance for GBA still, because somehow I keep losing auctions for that game. Aside from that, I’m just waiting for my review copy of Castlevania Judgment to appear, and I’m all set. When I discovered that the original Castlevania had also come out for several other platforms, such as Commodore 64 and Amiga, I immediately ruled that idea out. I’ve never even seen a copy of that. I don’t plan to pick up any imported Castlevania either. That means I’m truly in striking distance of completing this collection now.

Next up: Metroid. Considering I’m only two games shy of complete for that collection, why not, right?

The Castlevania Collection: Here’s how it’s going

By Stephen Munn | October 25, 2008

I mentioned not long ago my desire to have a collection of all the Castlevania games, and how I’d felt discouraged by other people’s willingness to pay a lot of money for these old games. You won’t be surprised to hear that I’ve adapted to this obstacle and have overcome it. I now own several old Castlevania games, though some of them have yet to arrive in the mail from eBay sellers. I’ve developed a set of strategies that is serving me very well, so now I’ve managed to become the owner of the following games. Many of these I already owned before this foray into eBay buying, but here’s the list. Note that all the games are complete, with their original box and manual, except where indicated.

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Aeropodcast #54: Show That Cat Who’s Boss

By Joe Haygood | October 21, 2008

Koss, Fourhman and Joe come to the table to discuss all things digital ownership, wondering how much of what you buy on your consoles and PC do you own. What happens to your games that you buy through the marketplace when the new consoles come out. The discussion also looks at the idea of download caps on things you buy, currently in use in the Sony online video store and the Electronic Arts digital store.

We also have a ton of community news including some new reviews and a question about how we got our online nicknames. In the news we talk about the Soulcalibur 4 DLC (duh), a possible new Syndicate game and the Motorstorm 2 demo, to name a few topics.

Music this week is from Revolution Void, and can be found at www.revolutionvoid.com

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below: Also make sure to review us on iTunes.

The Castlevania addict tries to go home, but lacks depth of pocket

By Stephen Munn | October 15, 2008

My history with Castlevania is a long and complex one, but I’ll keep it pretty simple: I started with Simon’s Quest and was hooked solidly. I bought Castlevania III at launch… it goes on from there.

Somewhere along the line all my Castlevania games wandered off. I had complete copies of several of the games… who knows exacly what happened? Anyway, I decided recently to go back and pick up complete copies of all the old games on eBay, and that idea just kind of fell away not long after that. It turns out there are people with an even more overdeveloped sense of nostalgia than me, or at least they have more disposable income to commit to games that can be had much cheaper on Virtual Console.

That wasn’t before I landed a copy of Castlevania: Bloodlines for Genesis, which is one of my favorite games in the series that somehow is thus far overlooked for release on Virtual Console. I’m looking forward to playing that again, though it may have to wait for me to mod my Genesis if it won’t run on my AtGames Megadrive. At any rate, I’ll need to mod my Genesis to play it in stereo sound, since there’s no way to do that at all on the AtGames device.

Next time I try to collect old games, I’ll pick a shorter franchise.

Aeropodcast #53: Get Your Official Wii Box Accessory

By Joe Haygood | October 13, 2008

This week, Stephen, Fourhman, Koss and Joe are back in the mix in a podcast that was issue free for a change.

This week, we looked at the two big conventions going on, Tokyo Game Show and Blizzcon, and picked some of our favorite topics from those shows. Some of the highlights include a No More Heroes sequel, new footage of the 360 and PS3 version of Castlevania, a date for the 360 dashboard update, and Lets Tap the game you control with a box.

We also gave much props to George Walker, one of our writers who is taking a break from writing to spend some time with his family…who are we kidding, it is to get the rest of those Legendary achievements in Halo 3. Seriously George, good luck, and we’ll leave the light on. In news we had advertisements from the Obama campaign in Burnout Paradise, Fallout 3 PC specs and some Castlevainia pre-order goodness, along with other items. This week, our bumper music comes from Castlevania, which is a Konami brand.

Download the podcast from here or subscribe to the podcast using one of the services below: Also make sure to review us on iTunes and Digg the podcast.

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