3/5 ★ – RawMetal's review of Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge.

System: Game Boy Started: October 4, 2023 Ended: October 6, 2023 Castlevania: The Adventure was like a curse made by Dracula that I was forced to play it on the Game Boy since it has to be completed in one sitting. Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge, on the other hand, felt like the curse was lifted and I finally got to play a good Castlevania game. Belmont's Revenge is a huge improvement from the first Game Boy game with all the problems that I addressed were remedied. 15 years after the events in the first game Dracula was not truly dead, he bided his time until he kidnapped Chrisopher Belmont’s son, Soleiyu. And sprung up 4 Castles for Christopher to infiltrate and defeat the bosses before going into Dracula’s Hidden Castle. At this point, Christopher Belmont is by far my least favorite Belmont which is why he was never mentioned in future Castlevania games at all. Especially in Portrait of Ruin that he was not in the ‘Greatest Five’ Special Move. Belmont’s Revenge has improved better than I expected and adds interesting design choices. It plays almost similar to the Mega Man games as you have a choice to pick which four castles you want to go to. There is finally a Password System so I can continue where I left off after shutting down the game. The Music is superb, notably the Rock Castle (Psycho Warrior) theme that is still stuck in my head as I am writing this review. There are actually some brilliant game design moments such as the Rock Castle stage when you encounter the dark room. The room goes dark whenever the candles you see are offscreen and there are pitfalls and enemies everywhere. Turns out if you have holy water or not hitting the candles in that room, you can see and there is a risk/reward factor of hitting the candles for hearts. And the best part: Christopher Belmont is not slow in this game and can obtain subweapons. A newest feature is that Christopher can now slide down the rope that makes him go faster which builds the flow of the game and finally, the penalty for losing the fully upgraded whip has been toned down. Except for that one enemy that spewed Fireballs. This is still ok since there are not many of them compared to the first game. Overall, my complaints for Castlevania: The Adventure have fully been answered. As much as I think that this could be one of the best Castlevania games, this however, still falls into the upper-average games in the franchise. One part for instance is the high difficulty spike once you get to Dracula’s Castle. The Four Castles were easy to beat. But once you get to Dracula’s Castle, the difficulty gets cranked up to 11 all of a sudden. The Boss right before fighting Dracula was a Nightmare. Even the Dracula Boss Fight was tough but thankfully you can continue right before the Final Boss. This game includes cheat passwords, especially the 10 lives code. So, chances are you might need that for that Boss before Dracula. Castlevania: The Adventure has been dubbed as “underappreciated” by certain people on the Internet. From me, I say in good faith that I think Belmont’s Revenge is my underappreciated Castlevania game. People would ignore this game possibly due to its pixelated Game Boy graphics and prefer the colorful graphics of the Home Console entries. After all, this game came out the same year as Super Castlevania IV and any Castlevania fan at the time would get the Super Nintendo. But don’t let that fool you, this game improved a lot from what I wanted in the first game although it's a short game but perfect for a Halloween night. I would give this game a try. Sad News is that this game is pretty pricey for a Game Boy game, so it must be played on the Anniversary Collections or emulation if you want to save a lot of money.