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WildcatJF

Let's Pock (Art @szk_tencho)
(he / his / him)
Limited Run debuted their Castlevania Anniversary offerings today. A regular ol' physical copy is $34.99, but there's some deluxe options:




That last one sure is tempting. Seeing such a premium treatment for my favorite series really has my brain a thinking, haha.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Apparently the season was already written before they tossed him into the trash, but he is in the trash now

Anjmation seems MUCH nicer this season, though
 

Super Megaman X

dead eyes
(He/Him)
Season 4 was written by Ellis before all that stuff went down. It's rumored that the supposed "spin-off" even exists as a concept is to get away from the storyline and characters he wrote while keeping the Castlevania license. Which is fine by me, because as great as this show has been, there's only so much you can mine from one era of Belmonts. On to the next!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I’m about midway through season 3 in rewatch into the series and;

Hey, Isaac? Maybe the reason nobody likes you has less to do with them being racist and narrow minded and more to do with the fact that you have an army of monsters that eat people alive around you all the time.

Also because you give off a strong “I want to kill literally everybody” vibe.

I just don’t think the blame can be placed on the people reluctant to be sliced in half and eaten by a big spike-wolf
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
I sure hope it's better than S3. I thought that was a'ight right up until the end. The Alucard stuff felt very out-of-character to me.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
They were really struggling to find something for Alucard to do that season.

And so they settled for the... worst possible character arc for him
 

gogglebob

The Goggles Do Nothing
(he/him)
I feel like Season 3 Alucard was trying to tell the story of how a debonair dhampir (or vampire) could ultimately come to the idea of spending the rest of his eternity sitting around in a boss room waiting for the heroes to show up. Like, a separate telling of "this is how you get to be Dracula" that didn't distinctly include the franchise's usual tale of murder 'n misogyny. That said, literally everything else about that story was a little... off.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Just watched the first episode of season 4.

Cant honestly say I was expecting Varney the Vampire.

Pretty low on the list of things i expected from a Castlevania cartoon, truth be told
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Color me surprised - I thought this last season was really good. It would have been even better if Season 3 hadn't been as wonky as it was.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
Cyril over at Defunct Games did a rundown of EGM's full look at Castlevania in two videos this week, and boy, I did not see the top three (or the #1) coming at all. I really love when he does this stuff, it's always fascinating to see what the press of the time thought of the games with the hype trains and recency bias vs. how the wider gaming zeitgeist remembers them.

 

Dracula

Plastic Vampire
(He/His)
I have a game mag with a preview for SotN inside (then still called "Dracula X"), and they bemoan how the graphics look primitive and not up to the current gen.

Different times.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
I've been reading a lot of magazines from that time for video research lately, and honestly, the fact that the press of the day largely shit on the best-looking pixel art that's ever existed while simultaneously lauding the worst 3D is a fuckin' headscratcher. I mean, I know that 3D was the new hotness, I was there, I was also in love with 3D, but I definitely was not shitting on SotN or Mega Man X4 in their day because "lol, 2D."

Also of note: this is the same publication that in the same issue they reviewed SotN, they said it was the 12th best game of all-time.
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Yep. The gamers weren't the only ones that thought 2D was rendered hopelessly outdated by 3D. I remember this being incredibly common during that era, and I have a ton of mags to prove it. :p

EDIT: Okay, yeah, did not see #1 coming. I knew #2 was going to be there - I have that issue and remember the excitement about it. #3 is a surprise, but also unsurprising. I think #4 was definitely impacted by the era, and #1-3 also benefit from exceeding the platform's expectations. Reviews make for such an interesting time capsule.
 
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Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Wut.

Number one, "whip"? Number two, the original games didn't let you do that either.
 
I've been reading a lot of magazines from that time for video research lately, and honestly, the fact that the press of the day largely shit on the best-looking pixel art that's ever existed while simultaneously lauding the worst 3D is a fuckin' headscratcher. I mean, I know that 3D was the new hotness, I was there, I was also in love with 3D, but I definitely was not shitting on SotN or Mega Man X4 in their day because "lol, 2D."

Also of note: this is the same publication that in the same issue they reviewed SotN, they said it was the 12th best game of all-time.
I read through the entire run of Game Player's recently and found this to be pretty amusing. I think the most egregious thing that stood out to me was them giving Battle Arena Toshinden perfect 10s. Even they sheepishly admitted a few months later how stupid that was and apologized in their reviews of the Saturn version. EGM certainly never missed an opportunity to shit on 2D for a while as well.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
The next season of Castlevania is going to be in the Rondo era, with Richter and Maria

And without Warren Ellis
 
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