Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Review – This game has aged badly. I didn’t realise how bad the early days of 3D action could be when they were still trying to figure out how it works.
First the camera is bad. There are 3 configurations where the computer automatically controls the camera and you have no way of manually controlling it unless you lock onto an enemy, or if an enemy isn’t around, it locks on behind the player. But when you lock on, you can’t move the player.
Which brings us onto combat. This is terrible. Enemies always come towards you so you need to run away as there is no dodge button.
The enemies like to reappear a lot too which is very frustrating, especially on the first level when you are getting your bearings and trying to explore. The skeletons keep respawning as you play. Other levels that have multiple rooms have enemies respawn when you re-enter the room. This is super annoying on levels that do a lot of back tracking, and even worse when it’s a room that you can’t open the door until all the enemies are destroyed.
The worst part of this game is the jumping. It is very difficult to judge jumps between platforms because of the floaty controls and the game makes platforming a big part of it. Most of these jumps result in you dying and restarting from the last save. This was harshly introduced on the first level where you have to jump across some platforms over a poison river with a very awkward camera angle, and then do a leap of faith to a platform that looks too high. I died multiple times before working out that you have to hold on to the jump button to grab the ledge and climb up. This could have been explained at a safer part of the game, but there were no opportunities to learn this prior. The ledge grab ended up saving my life a lot of times but there were still so many areas that I would die over and over again on seemingly easy looking jumps.
There is a day/night element which I completely ignored as I didn’t notice the time go by and the instructions manual doesn’t tell you anything about it. The only time it matters is to complete puzzles like, if a door has a moon on it, you need to use a moon card to change to nighttime, then the door will open. Not very taxing, but then you go to the extreme opposite where I was stuck on a level for ages so had to look up a guide. The solution was that I had to be in a particular room between 3-6am. There was no clue that I had to be there at that time so no wonder I was wandering around aimlessly. Even when I knew what to do, I had to wait for ages for the time to pass around. Using a Sun and Moon card doesn’t help either because they start the time at 6am and 6pm. This is a terrible puzzle design. This time specific moment only unlocks a cutscene with a character you never see again and you don’t get anything from them. To get the key to progress, you have to go back to another NPC that I had exhausted the dialogue from so I didn’t see any reason to speak to him again. Even after knowing I had to speak to him via the guide, he was asleep when I found him.
After this diabolical moment, an even more diabolical moment occurs. Where you have to make your way through a maze. This wouldn’t be so bad if you weren’t being chased by 2 wolves, and a Frankenstein with a chainsaw, and none of them can be killed. This is terribly frustrating as you are trying to work out your way through a maze, and if you take the wrong way, you have to go back towards the bad guys that are always hot on your tail. If a wolf catches you, it makes you freeze for a few seconds and Frankenstein often catches up and takes a massive amount of damage that usually kills you. Even if you escape the first wolf, the second wolf sits there waiting for you to be unstuck and grabs you again. This is highly infuriating, all while trying to memorise a maze.
Although the final boss is the easiest in Castlevania history. I did the first form without getting hit, the second from hardly hit, but then the third form was challenging, but I could just use the health I had my inventory.
When the irritating things aren’t happening, some of the exploration is quite rewarding, and some of the platforming can be ok on some occasions. I do like looking around and working out what to do next, as long as the objective isn’t completely obscure and require lots of backtracking.
Rating 3/10
Difficulty 5/10
Original game played on PAL Nintendo 64
Picture split between CRT TV for my own viewing and OSCC scan converter with 2x line doubler, upscaled to HDMI for recording
PAL version
No Cheats
Box art from thumbnail is taken from my own collection
#castlevania64 #n64 #nintendo64
Review – This game has aged badly. I didn’t realise how bad the early days of 3D action could be when they were still trying to figure out how it works.
First the camera is bad. There are 3 configurations where the computer automatically controls the camera and you have no way of manually controlling it unless you lock onto an enemy, or if an enemy isn’t around, it locks on behind the player. But when you lock on, you can’t move the player.
Which brings us onto combat. This is terrible. Enemies always come towards you so you need to run away as there is no dodge button.
The enemies like to reappear a lot too which is very frustrating, especially on the first level when you are getting your bearings and trying to explore. The skeletons keep respawning as you play. Other levels that have multiple rooms have enemies respawn when you re-enter the room. This is super annoying on levels that do a lot of back tracking, and even worse when it’s a room that you can’t open the door until all the enemies are destroyed.
The worst part of this game is the jumping. It is very difficult to judge jumps between platforms because of the floaty controls and the game makes platforming a big part of it. Most of these jumps result in you dying and restarting from the last save. This was harshly introduced on the first level where you have to jump across some platforms over a poison river with a very awkward camera angle, and then do a leap of faith to a platform that looks too high. I died multiple times before working out that you have to hold on to the jump button to grab the ledge and climb up. This could have been explained at a safer part of the game, but there were no opportunities to learn this prior. The ledge grab ended up saving my life a lot of times but there were still so many areas that I would die over and over again on seemingly easy looking jumps.
There is a day/night element which I completely ignored as I didn’t notice the time go by and the instructions manual doesn’t tell you anything about it. The only time it matters is to complete puzzles like, if a door has a moon on it, you need to use a moon card to change to nighttime, then the door will open. Not very taxing, but then you go to the extreme opposite where I was stuck on a level for ages so had to look up a guide. The solution was that I had to be in a particular room between 3-6am. There was no clue that I had to be there at that time so no wonder I was wandering around aimlessly. Even when I knew what to do, I had to wait for ages for the time to pass around. Using a Sun and Moon card doesn’t help either because they start the time at 6am and 6pm. This is a terrible puzzle design. This time specific moment only unlocks a cutscene with a character you never see again and you don’t get anything from them. To get the key to progress, you have to go back to another NPC that I had exhausted the dialogue from so I didn’t see any reason to speak to him again. Even after knowing I had to speak to him via the guide, he was asleep when I found him.
After this diabolical moment, an even more diabolical moment occurs. Where you have to make your way through a maze. This wouldn’t be so bad if you weren’t being chased by 2 wolves, and a Frankenstein with a chainsaw, and none of them can be killed. This is terribly frustrating as you are trying to work out your way through a maze, and if you take the wrong way, you have to go back towards the bad guys that are always hot on your tail. If a wolf catches you, it makes you freeze for a few seconds and Frankenstein often catches up and takes a massive amount of damage that usually kills you. Even if you escape the first wolf, the second wolf sits there waiting for you to be unstuck and grabs you again. This is highly infuriating, all while trying to memorise a maze.
Although the final boss is the easiest in Castlevania history. I did the first form without getting hit, the second from hardly hit, but then the third form was challenging, but I could just use the health I had my inventory.
When the irritating things aren’t happening, some of the exploration is quite rewarding, and some of the platforming can be ok on some occasions. I do like looking around and working out what to do next, as long as the objective isn’t completely obscure and require lots of backtracking.
Rating 3/10
Difficulty 5/10
Original game played on PAL Nintendo 64
Picture split between CRT TV for my own viewing and OSCC scan converter with 2x line doubler, upscaled to HDMI for recording
PAL version
No Cheats
Box art from thumbnail is taken from my own collection
#castlevania64 #n64 #nintendo64
