Castlevania Adventure 1989 By: Konami

Overview:

A challenge you can't walk away from!

After getting his wings clipped in Castlevania and Simon's Quest, the death defying Count has risen again.


Desiring revenge even more than blood, he'll descend upon your Game Boy, with fangs glistening by the light of the silvery full moon.


To survive his maze of torture chambers and vampire crypts, you must unlock the castle's secrets by locating hearts, crystals and crosses. You must also possess the strength to master the Mystic Whip, which wards off unearthly evils like the She Worm.


So risk your neck and accept Drac's challenge. Because if you fail to destroy him now, he will rule the night forever.


- Castlevania: The Adventure (Box Art - Back)

The idea of bringing Castlevania, the action of slaying evil creatures and vampires, on the go, seemed to be a great idea and one that could have been executed greatly such as with Mario. However, Castlevania: The Adventure turned out to be a bit of a flop. The gameplay is on the slow side, and I believe it covers up for the fact that there are only four levels of play in the entire game. The graphical presentation is nothing special either: nothing too bad but nothing to write home about. The soundtrack, to me, just doesn't live up to the other Castlevania titles and sort of fails in that department. On the whole, I'd say that if you want a good portable gaming experience, pick up Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo DS, because this Game Boy title is a miss and, in this gamer's honest opinion, the weakest of all the Castlevania titles.

Directions:

What is most familiar about Castlevania is the weapon of choice: the whip. Now like the previous titles, you can upgrade the leather whip to have a chain that's longer, hits harder and so on. But the challenge comes in when you're struck by an enemy; when one hits you, your whip is downgraded. This makes it much more difficult to defeat enemies and, ultimately, bosses.
Due to the onslaught of enemies you'll potentially encounter, you'll need to find some quick energy. A familiar part of Castlevania, the hearts, comes into play here. Now, with other titles in the series, the hearts usually indicated the abundance of the special weapon you had. However, in this game, they will help replenish your health, and this might be more easy to figure out for those not so familiar with the series.
As well, unlike the previous Castlevania titles, there are absolutely no secondary weapons for you to use. This means no holy water, no throwing knives, nothing else at your disposal aside from the whip. However, you can upgrade the whip to hurl fireballs with the use of two powerups you can pick up. This is a means of long range and an attack you can surely benefit from.
At the end of each of the four levels, you'll encounter a boss fight: with Dracula, following the tradition of most Castlevania games, being the final boss you fight.