I realize there were several games before HoD that did this as well- Super Castlevania IV, for instance-but putting these game mechanics in a more Metroid-esque context of exploration made for a refreshing experience with a learning curve I could handle. HoD won me over by sanding off the rough edges of its predecessor's gameplay while still retaining the distinctive game mechanics. I appreciated the potential of the original Castlevania with its challenging gameplay and fine assortment of weapons, but the sluggish hero and the extreme penalty for failure (losing all your powerups) ruined the fun for me. Let me tell you a little bit about each one: In the last two months, I've made excellent progress through my backlog by finishing off two new Castlevania games and six (!) different Gradius sequels and spinoffs. Especially after slogging through a series of secret-filled RPGs requiring 40-80 hours of commitment, it was like a vacation to sit down with a game that'd take either 2-3 weeks or just a single evening to complete. I was excited to get caught up on 20 years of popular gaming history many more games were at my fingertips thanks to an gift certificate and the Wii Virtual Console and most importantly, these games were just plain fun. Once I started on Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance and found inspiration to get back into Gradius, it looked like nothing could stop the momentum of my Konami kick. ![]() I already owned a few Castlevania games that I was curious about but had never gotten around to trying, and I vaguely remembered playing through Nemesis, a Gradius mashup along the same lines as the first few Mega Man Game Boy games. I'd previously had some exposure to these games-I grew up with the original Gradius for the NES, I'd played through all of Castlevania (also NES) and I'd had a fair amount of exposure to Castlevania II (NES) and Super Castlevania IV (SNES)-but I was completely out of touch with the last two decades of sequels and spinoffs. In Gradius, you run around a castle, knocking spaceships out of the sky with your whip. If you're just jumping on board and have no idea what either of these games is, here's a quick overview: In Castlevania, you fly around in a spaceship, shooting up hordes of demons and undead on a quest to blow up Dracula. ![]() Well, yesterday marked the finale of our two weeks of Comic-Con buzz, so it's only fitting that I take today to wrap up my two months of playing almost nothing but Castlevania and Gradius. įilms such as Battle Royale use the term Gaiden to refer to supplementary or additional works.If you've been following the blog for the past month or two, you know I've been writing excessively about Konami games. The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask was called Zelda Gaiden in its development stages. In addition, the word gaiden has been used in English titles as well such as Ninja Gaiden (literally "Ninja's Tale", the American title for the Japanese series Ninja Ryūkenden) and Resident Evil Gaiden (a European-developed spin-off of the Japanese Resident Evil franchise), Super Robot Taisen Alpha Gaiden, which tells a future that would happen without the heroes fighting at the time of need as well as Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden (an apocryphal epic detailing the canon account of Charles Barkley, who revives the condemned culture of b-ball to save Neo New York and his son Hoopz from the machinations of the traitor Michael Jordan). Works that includes the use of the word gaiden in their titles include Fire Emblem Gaiden, Ten no Haō Hokuto no Ken Raō Gaiden (spin-off of Fist of the North Star, which is told through the eyes of Kenshiro's brother, Raoh) or Albert Odyssey Gaiden (released in English as Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean). However, some gaiden are retold stories in the perspective of a different character, similar to that of a flashback. The use of gaiden is commonly used in popular Japanese fiction to refer to a spin-off (canonical or otherwise) of a previously published work that is neither officially considered a sequel nor a prequel. Gaiden ( 外伝 ?, pronounced ) is a Japanese-language word meaning " side story" or "tale", used to refer to an anecdote or supplementary biography of a person. ![]() Look up がいでん in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. WikiProject Japan or the Japan Portal may be able to help recruit an expert. Please add a reason or a talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with the article. This article needs attention from an expert on the subject.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |