What Is the Best Castlevania? (AVGN) rant

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, usually I'm mostly fine or enjoyed an episode of the web show. The Angry Video Game Nerd however his most recent episode, I finally see what many are saying. They are so convinced James no longer writing his web show. Thus the spirit of it seems to be either running low or almost gone.

What is the Best Castlevania?

First I wanna repost my long original YouTube comment on the matter here down below...

Usually I don't have much criticism but in this particular occasion I have several. For starters, I can't believe you made this not changing your favorite Castlevania game. You kinda made this more of a not necessary AVGN episode, it could've worked as a shorter bonus video though. This episode really felt notably off from the usual AVGN style. I'm not criticizing the theme of it but more of the overall tone itself. Not only that, I actually have a particular Castlevania game in mind you should consider taking a look at. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Yes it has some notable criticisms you have. This game really has so much going for it. You get a lot of abilities as well as weapons this time around. You also have a few characters you can play as. The actual map is very well designed from all the ones I played this style. Easily, one of my absolute favorite Castlevania soundtracks. Soma is the closest of playing as Dracula in the classic Castlevania timeline games. It even blows playing as Alucard in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night away no joke. Especially for a GBA game, it packed such a force you can't deny it's greatness. I guess I'm a little mixed this didn't make it into this episode. I'm not done yet, Castlevania Advance Collection has that plus Dracula X, Circle of the Moon and Harmony of Dissonance. Dracula X is somewhat mixed but a little better than expected. The other two GBA Castlevania games should've gotten considered as well. Circle of the Moon for a launch GBA title was surprisingly decent. It does have a card system that's a little complex to use. The actual map is interesting enough in it's own right. The soundtrack is one of my favorites for an handheld Castlevania game. Some of my absolute favorite animations in Castlevania series ever. I felt this game deserves more respect. Harmony of Dissonance has some notable issues I confess. Like being forced to explore two similar castles. The spells can make the game even on Hard difficulty very easy. The merchant shows up in a few spots rather than in one particular location. You can easily grind up money even the highest amounts fast. The soundtrack isn't the best but it still had some good songs. You get a few playable characters across two modes. Simon from Castlevania 1 can be unlocked with a code. The game itself is a direct sequel to Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest but notably better. The main Belmont is oddly similar to Alucard in a few ways. Another major issue I had was the concept itself felt both forced as well as uninspired. Especially if you were going to tie in to 20 years like this. I honestly felt massive disappointed, you didn't get more creative with plenty of other options that would've been more entertaining than this. I would even dare to say your worst Castlevania episode to date. I know that's rather harsh of me to say. Let's be honest, a handful of Castlevania games got looked at for the first time. What else do you have going for you here? Sadly close to nothing, I really wanted to enjoy this episode. It's kinda challenging when you easily could've done something more refreshing and inspiring than this.

New thoughts since I posted that comment

I am aware he wanted to focus on the main Castlevania games on consoles. Indirectly he's talking about those in the original timeline. I knew right off the bat, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows series not going to be included here. I'm actually fine with that since that's vastly different from the classic series. A lot of Castlevania fans either heavily disliked it or surprisingly enjoyed em.

I also knew the N64 Castlevania games were considered among his worst Castlevania list. This episode was more about the best of them. I rather had a longer rant Castlevania episode centered on the worst Castlevania game than this. Very likely twenty times way more entertaining in comparison. I know the character usually doesn't think highly of portable games on the show.

I kinda forgot to include the DS Castlevania games. Which I still haven't got to play but really would love to. I actually heard some truly amazing things about all three of them. It's bad enough he didn't include any honorable mentions or handheld Castlevania games for that matter. These Castlevania games are rather impressive.

A great example being Portrait of Ruin has ten maps that all have their own 100% map completion. Which adds up to the insane 1000% map completion. Easily, the highest Castlevania game completion in history, it's not even close. Just imagine all three GBA Castlevania games with each having their maxed map completion each.

All of that adds up to 400% map completion. Still short of 600% map completion in comparison to Portrait of Ruin. I also mention that game because it's a direct sequel to Bloodlines, a personal favorite of mine. Dawn of Sorrow is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow, another Castlevania game I truly loved. Some felt it's better than Aria of Sorrow or it comes close to that, it differs between people.

Order of Ecclesia is a rather ambitious Castlevania game even for an handheld device. This one they didn't hold back the punches. Some of the toughest boss fights like facing both Dracula and Death at the same time rather mind blowing stuff. All three of DS Castlevania games goes even beyond all three GBA Castlevania games.

I know he loves to keep criticizing Castlevania 2 as the worst Castlevania game. Let's be honest, it's mixed virtually it's more bad than good alright I felt. The way he was talking about it again, which is starting to get old. Obviously he didn't play either Haunted Castle or Castlevania: The Adventure. Which both can be on multiple platforms thanks to particular compilation games.

Both of these are notably much worst than Castlevania 2. Castlevania: The Adventure virtually too short with the difficulty being higher than expected. Your character walks amazingly slower than in most classic Castlevania games. There's only four stages in the entire game. Even it's sequel Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge aka the better Castlevania 2 game improved a lot.

Even some of the big name bosses aren't presented in this. There does exists a downloadable remake that included some of them. The game itself barely feels like an Castlevania game at it's core. A handful of sections are simply poorly designed, flat out cruel. Obviously playing this on an actual Game Boy would be much worst than on consoles.

Haunted Castle is another alternate version of Castlevania 1. By now you covered the original Castlevania, Super Castlevania IV and more recently Castlevania: Chronicles. There's two other versions of Castlevania 1 he never reviewed before. Vampire Killer on MSX, a rather interesting version of Castlevania 1 that predates Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest's non linear game play.

The game is considered somewhat of a forgotten gem. The same really can't be said for Haunted Castle. First problem if it isn't notable already is why not Castlevania? This is like many years later, Umbrella Corps lacks Resident Evil in the United States title wise. But in other regions it maintains that.

This is an Arcade game with many notable problems. Often considered one of the most challenging classic Castlevania games ever made. Once again, all for the wrong reasons. Another odd thing is a related compilation to Castlevania Anniversary Collection. No not the most popular Castlevania Advance Collection.

Konami's Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection. Majority of them are 2D shoot em up games with Haunted Castle being one of the exceptions. Not to mention, it's small portion of the achievements are rather lackluster too. Anyway, this likely the single worst version of Castlevania 1 ever made. You know it's bad even when the basics are horribly done.

This game was designed to waste your quarters at the Arcade, it shows. Now I could overlook if this were an fun Arcade game like many classic beat em up games. This game felt rushed like TMNT: Tournament Fighters on Sega Genesis no joke. Even that TMNT game has some stuff over this garbage.

Let's not even forget about Castlevania 2 on Tiger as well. Which I know he barely talked about it before. You know reusing watch mechanics rather than giving people an actual video game on the go. Tiger was the more cheaper alternative to both Game Boy and Game Gear respectively. I am rather curious why wasn't even this mentioned in the episode at all?

This new AVGN episode more or less felt like the extended Castlevania game comparison from the four episode Castlevania Halloween special. Which also ran a little over Halloween but those were great episodes. You know considering the more recent Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde episode. At least that was done in a rather somewhat fun way.

He likely knew people were tired of him ranting on that game. Somehow with a ridiculous horror movie parody plot, it kinda works. Here virtually little to nothing to help save the episode. I mean it kinda felt slightly better than the previous AVGN episode. Which also had some criticisms not from me though. My Horse Prince, this weird mobile game.

I got to be honest, that was more interesting than this. The game was on the lines of "Somehow this is an actual game!!! while trying to recreate doing a mobile game review. There was some creativity with that episode. Also we were due for an episode like that for a few years now. Obviously I rather rewatch that episode three times over in comparison.

I really don't wanna say a few things because if I do. A lot of AVGN fans aren't going to like me much. I can understand a few major things. James has a few kids, he wants to keep making videos. But also still be a good dad to them, I respect that. He also has some possible video projects he wanna do as well. End of the day, he wants to make people happy to the best of his ability.

Some of them will take away from AVGN show sadly in a few ways. I also felt you know he's been entertaining people a long time. The man deserves to go out to live his dreams. Speaking of that, he also in a band as well. Considering many years ago, he barely done any of that. James is realizing life would've simply pass him by if he didn't change things up soon.

I just wanna make all of that clear, this was never meant to be any form of me personally attacking. One of my biggest idols in life. I still heavily respect the man to this day. His AVGN show still to me one of the funniest shows I ever watched period!!! I simply felt soon he's going to end AVGN show, which I'm not looking forward to.

I know some people are taking some of his recent episodes a little out of context. Like "He's running out of ideas or games." Ideas is debatable here let's be honest. As for the games on a few accounts, no he isn't running out of them. He's got a room filled with games on many platforms. Even if he doesn't, people could send in gaming stuff to help with his show.

Not only that, people kept giving him requests what to review over the years. I'm sure the demand for many bad games is still quite a long list. If anything, he does need to stop coming up with an excuse to review some games he previously reviewed before. A handful of times I'll allow it like a particular NES bible game, The King of Kings.

I felt one of my favorite more recent AVGN episodes is Mortal Kombat Rip Offs. To me, this was one of the absolute best AVGN episodes in years. This had virtually had exactly everything you could possibly ask for. Now this particular episode I probably could rewatch twenty times in a row, it's great. Especially being a follow up MK episode.

I know I'm ranting so hard over a very recent AVGN episode. Some might see my expectations for his web show to be a little too high. Maybe there's some truth to that statement. The show always meant a lot to me for a long time. I just prefer something vastly different instead of what we ended up gotten. If the show continues around twenty years plus do something not Castlevania related please Rolfe!!!