Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Wii)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.0 stars Good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 6.5 (3.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 11/05/2007
• Released on: 10/29/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (Wii) Review

In the original Castlevania, you journeyed up multiple floors of a castle, merrily whipping zombies and Dracula's generals until you reached the throne room and unleashed your fury against the Count himself. However, as it turns out, old Drac cast a deadly curse on you right when you dealt the fatal blow. So now, in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, you have to break the curse by--get this--recovering the Count's body parts from the various monster-filled mansions the villagers socked them away in. That's not the only twist, either. This second installment does away with the linear level structure from the first game and instead lets you explore a contiguous world of towns, mansions, and haunted wilderness at your leisure.

Don't worry--those forests and mansions contain plenty of platforms to jump across and ghoulish enemies to whip. All of the classic Castlevania stuff you like is here, including the holy water and dagger subweapons that allow you to really go bananas on your undead victims. Day-to-night transitions change the look of the backgrounds and cause enemies to gain strength at night. That's merely a minor wrinkle for a skilled vampire hunter such as you, although it certainly is sweet to see the formerly sunny pastures bathed in moonlight and the villages infested with zombies during the nighttime hours. The main difference between this game and its level-based predecessor is the structure of the quest. You visit multiple mansions, you talk to townsfolk to get clues, and you use the hearts you collect to buy weapons and items from the shopkeepers located in each town.

Before you get too excited about the prospect of playing an open-ended, old-school Castlevania, you have to bear in mind that the game provides very little guidance as to where to go or what to do when you get there. Shop entrances are often hidden behind fake walls. Two mansions are totally hidden until you equip certain crystals and kneel in very specific spots to reveal their entrances. You're supposed to talk to the villagers in order to get clues that'll help you figure this stuff out. Unfortunately, the subtle hints from the Japanese version were butchered by whoever translated the game into English. Somehow, from "hit Deborah Cliff with your head to make a hole," you have to deduce that you need to kneel down in the western graveyard with the red crystal equipped to summon a tornado.

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