Castlevania (1999 video game)

] Later that month, it was revealed that KCEK decided to drop two of the planned four characters from the game "in favor of focusing the programming team's development efforts and moving completion of the game forward." [cite web |url=http://ign64.ign.com/articles/065/065374p1.html|title=Castlevania Revisited|accessdate=2007-05-24 |author=IGN staff|date=1998-10-21|format=HTML|publisher=IGN] In January of 1999 a Japanese release date was set for March 4, 1999 [cite web |url=http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066367p1.html|title=Coming Soon in Japan|accessdate=2007-05-24 |author=IGN staff|date=1999-01-11|format=HTML|publisher=IGN] and "Castlevania" won the "Game of the Month" award at IGN.com [cite web |url=http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066371p1.html|title=N64 Games in January|accessdate=2007-05-24 |author=IGN staff|date=1999-01-11|format=HTML|publisher=IGN] . On the 18th, it was announced that the U.S. release date for the game would be January 26, 1999. [cite web |url=http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066469p1.html|title=Konami's '99 Lineup|accessdate=2007-05-24 |author=IGN staff|date=1999-01-18|format=HTML|publisher=IGN] On that date, the game shipped as planned and was available the day after at a MSRP of $49.95. [cite web |url=http://ign64.ign.com/articles/066/066591p1.html|title=Beware Dracula|accessdate=2007-05-24 |author=IGN staff|date=1999-01-26|format=HTML|publisher=IGN]

The character artwork was designed by Yasuomi Umetsu.

The Villa's exterior is based on one of the façades of the French château d'Azay-le-Rideau. Dracula's castle was based on Mont Saint-Michel.

Several elements of the game were designed to allude to past "Castlevania" titles: Carrie's alternate costume is an homage to Maria Renard's dress in "Demon Castle Dracula X Rondo of Blood", Reinhardt's alternate costume is an homage to Simon Belmont's outfit in the first "Castlevania", and the Behemoth boss in the Castle Center can be crippled, a reference to the crawling Behemoth first featured in "Rondo of Blood".

Audio

The music for "Castlevania" was composed by Masahiro Kimura, Motoaki Furukawa, and Mariko Egawa. Tomokuni Katayama performed the violin solo, a rendition of "Bloodlines" from ', that greets the player on the title screen. The soundtrack was released in Japan on March 26, 1999. It was also released in Europe under the name '.

"Castlevania" also features sporadic voice acting, mainly for the prologue's narrator and several of the game's main characters. Bianca Allen provided the voice for Carrie and Andrew Hanikson for Reinhardt. The PAL version of the game features voice acting for Gilles de Rais in the Castle Wall and Castle Keep levels; the American version did not include the voice work for the latter level.

Critical reception

"Castlevania" garnered respectable scores upon its release, including 9/9/8/9 from "EGM", 8.2/10 from both IGN and GameSpot and a 4.5/5 from "GamePro". [ [http://www.gamestats.com/objects/002/002229/articles.html "Castlevania" review scores] . GameStats.com. Retrieved 12 December 2005.] However, it has also had its fair share of negative feedback. The game has been criticized for having "a problematic camera" and "a steep learning curve for controls".Fact|date=August 2008

Defenders of the game also respond with the fact that "Castlevania" was the first game that Konami KCEK had programmed in 3D. [cite web |url=http://ign64.ign.com/articles/072/072313p1.html|title=Behind the Castle Walls|accessdate=2005-12-12|last=Austin|first=Dean|date=1999-11-18|format=HTML|publisher=IGN] They also speculate that the game was rushed out for a holiday release. Many elements of this claim are evident, such as how the werewolf Cornell and chainsaw-wielding Coller were cut from the game. Technical problems and sacrificed material would later be addressed in its sequel, "".

References

External links

* [http://www.castlevania.de/english/ Konami of Europe's Offical "Castlevania" website]
*GameFAQs|type=/console/n64|num=196882|name="Castlevania"