Ultra Review Roundtable Kid Dracula Game Boy 1993

Ed.: Its time once again for the monthly Ultra Review Roundtable, lovingly assembled by HagenDragmire at www.vgmastersclub.com with contributions from our motley crew of retro gamers (including yours truly, Sushi-XPired.)  This month, we turn our attention to the Game Boy, and Konamis Kid Dracula!

Synopsis

Kid Dracula on the Game Boy is a platform game and the follow-up to the Japan only Famicom game Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun. The story has the Demon Prince, Kid Dracula awakening from a deep slumber and getting challenged by Garamoth who is a dinosaur-type creature. Being the cocky kid that he is, Kid Dracula ends up deciding to take on Garamoth all by himself. A little tidbit is that the Kid Dracula in this story is essentially the child version of Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night fame. Not only did all the 8-bit Japanese Castlevania titles start with Akumajo, but Garamoth also appears as a boss in Symphony of the Night, called Galamoth.

Gameplay
Kid Dracula’s gameplay is your stereotypical action/platform game. The controls are decently accurate and don’t require too deep of a learning curve in order to jump right in and play. The addition of special powers and being able to charge them for an added boost gives you options to how you can tackle every obstacle throughout the game. Boss fights are fun and the attack patterns aren’t too overly cryptic.

Graphics and Sound
The graphics are decently detailed for a Game Boy release. All of the characters in the game have a special charm to them which makes them each likable in their own way. Each level has a different theme which is nice to see on the monochrome handheld. The music is quirky as expected and adds to the charm created by the graphics. Overall, the presentation here makes for a great overall gaming experience that Konami is known for.

“The bosses are a highlight of the game without a doubt, with each offering a varying degree of strategy and technique to overcome.” - videogamesarerad.com

“Kid Dracula wears its black but jovial heart on its sleeve.” - gamingafter40.blogspot.com

“With a great variety of designs and ideas Kid Dracula almost seems like a test game, in a sense of ‘What can we actually achieve with this cartridge.’” - thiskidplaysgames.com

“Having all the different powers is really a great feature to Kid Dracula and all of the boss battles are pretty damn fun.” - vgMastersClub.com

*	Developed by: Konami Published by: Konami Released: 1993 Platform: Nintendo Game Boy Genre: Platforming Perspective: Side-Scrolling

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Sushi-Xpired from gamingafter40.blogspot.com
Favorite Handheld: Game Boy Advance SP
Least Favorite Handheld: Original Game Boy

"Kid Dracula?  I wouldnt go teasing vampires if I was you, sonny. Them bloodthirsty bastardsll tear your throat out soon as look atcha. Why, when I was a boy, if you dropped a penny in the dark, you didnt bend down to pick it up, for fear that some unholy creature of the night would swoop down out of the trees and sink its eight-inch fangs right into your neck. Leastways, thats what they told us kids.  No wonder my generation is all messed up."

This girl is cute enough, but she’s kind of a witch.

Kid Dracula is a cute, cartoonish, thoroughly Japanese spinoff/parody of Konamis Castlevania series, and it wears its black but jovial heart on its sleeve. Theres probably more space devoted to sprite animation than background tiles in this Game Boy cartridge. The zombies, bats, Frankensteins monsters, and other monstrous denizens of its short, platform-heavy levels are rendered with big heads and bug eyes, with comical expressions as they get taken down. And our hero Kid Dracula whisks his cape around and flashes a cheeky, triumphant grin at the end of each section. The end-of-level boss battles are a lot of fun and are sometimes pretty challenging, with multiple forms for each boss giving them a great sense of humor.

The game also benefits from one of Konamis lively, light-hearted 8-bit music scores. I found Level 2s bouncy theme maddeningly recognizable and had to track down its origin. I thought for a while it was from an early Konami arcade game but the closest match I could come up with was the theme from Toypop, which was from Namco and not the right tune either. The Web eventually took pity and informed me that its actually a Debussy piece called "Golliwogs Cakewalk"  which was familiar to me because it has been borrowed for a number of silent movie organ scores. (No, I am not actually THAT old!) It fits the style of Kid Dracula perfectly.

4 Kid Jasons out of 5

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NathanRadness from videogamesarerad.com
Favorite Handheld: Game Boy Advance SP (The version with the real back light!)
Least Favorite Handheld: Game Gear

Kid Dracula is a pseudo sequel, or quasi-port, or maybe even a partial demake of Konamis Japan exclusive Famicom title Akumajo Special: Boku Dracula-kun. Staring a chibi super-deformed version of the Castelvania IIIs Alucard, Kid Draculas pitch perfect parody of the series to which it owes its lineage gives the title a fistful of charm that precisely accentuated by its decidedly Japanese graphical style.

My copy of Kid Dracula.

You play as the titular Kid Dracula, Alucard, and platform your way through stages that expertly blend design cues from the NES Castlevania titles with the varied and creative level design reminiscent of the early NES Mega Man games. Like Mega Man, conquering stages nets you additional power-ups and special abilities you must use to pass later stages. The bosses are a highlight of the game without a doubt, with each offering a varying degree of strategy and technique to overcome. All in all, although the game is a bit on the easy side, certainly compared to its Famicom sibling. Kid Dracula definitely deserves a place in any serious video game enthusiasts collection.

4 Kid Jasons out of 5

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RetroJC from thiskidplaysgames.com
Favorite Handheld: Game Boy Light
Least Favorite Handheld: Atari Lynx

My experience with Kid Dracula goes back to my childhood and my complete lack of knowledge that led to me not knowing I could turn into a bat until I read retro review in a European Nintendo magazine in early 2003, needless to say I was pissed. However for some reason Kid Dracula has stayed with me throughout my youth, proudly and somewhat arrogantly on my shelf as a game Ive never quite completed. Id say this was down to lack of batteries, but in truth Kid Dracula is bloody hard once you get towards the end; especially if you didnt know you can transform into a bat.

Much like my love for Parodius, Konami again parodied one of their finest franchises into a much more child friendly form. However looks can be deceiving, Dr Acula is at its heart a deeply difficult platformer with more trips ups than a broken set of stairs. For the concerned pedigree Castelvania fan youre right to be nervous, as Kid Dracula has very little in terms of homage to its older bretherin. But forgiving that, this little platformer can give every portable Mario title a run for its money and in many cases beats them.

It’s my opinion that Kid Dracula is one of the best portable platformers out there, with an all round brilliant display of graphics, gameplay design, and sound that its difficult to really knock the game down. The enemies and bosses have been perfectly planned to give the gamer not only a challenge, but upon defeat a sense of accomplishment. Only falling short due to its gameplay length, it doesnt devalue the memories I have of this game or most importantly what an essential game this is.

4 Kid Jasons out of 5

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HagenDragmire from vgMastersClub.com
Favorite Handheld: PSP (Emulating nearly every retro system and tons of RPGs!)
Least Favorite Handheld: Virtual Boy

Kid Dracula is way harder than I remember from back in the day. When I was a kid I used to beat this game in a heartbeat, but now I’ve been having trouble on the third stage. This could be because I’m too lazy to get out my Super Game Boy with my copy of the game and I am playing it via emulation on my iPhone with the Wii controller via bluetooth. It took me a while to figure out that I could turn into a bat with select, as I kept dieing on the first level from longer jumps. Having all the different powers is really a great feature to Kid Dracula and all of the boss battles are pretty damn fun. I especially liked battling the Chibi-Jason who not only grabbed his ax but also a shotgun!

The boss fights were a blast.

After playing it again on the Super Game Boy, the controls are so much more responsive and precise then on the ROM version, which allowed me to progress a little further into the game. The music is great throughout and there are quite a few tracks for an original Game Boy release. Alucard has really grown up in latter games, but as a kid he was still pretty badass.

4 Kid Jasons out of 5

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Ultra Review Roundtable

Overall Rating

Unanimous 4 Kid Jasons out of 5

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Ninja Gaiden Sigma Review PS3

Story

Ryu Hayabusa wants to take revenge against those who are responsible in destroying his village and for stealing the Dark Dragon Blade.​

Ryu Hayabusa is a ninja from Hayabusa Village, and went to infiltrate the Shadow clans castle to visit his uncle, Murai. During his visit, he learns that his village was attacked by unknown faction. He quickly went there, only to learn that the Dark Dragon Blade has been stolen by a black armoured samurai, named Doku. After Doku killed Ryu, Ryu went back to life, and seeks vengeance against Doku and the rest of people who is responsible for this.

The storyline is very simple to understand, yet nothing outstanding to make you impressed with it. The story is there, without any real pros and cons. Character developments in the game are quite good, mainly focusing on Ryus and Rachels developments. Rachels story is a bit more tragic, whereas Ryus story is more towards his journey on vengeance. Unfortunately, there is one character that I am a bit disappointed that has little to no development, which is Kureha, the maiden who was killed by Doku in the second chapter. I wish she has more exposure, as I am very curious to know her background with Ryu in the game, specifically.

Gameplay

Take control as one of the most badass ninja in video game history, as he can do a lot of impressive things such as run on the water.​

The gameplay is very well designed. As you take control Ryu, you can do a lot of things, such as running on the water (seriously), wall run, etc. Ryu has a lot of moves that can impress you a lot, but his specialty is on combat side.

You have two attack buttons, which is a quick attack button and strong attack button. Quick attacks are fast but has moderately or weak damage, whereas strong attacks are powerful, but slow to execute. Obviously, you will be using these two types of attacks to defeat your enemies. Defeating enemies will reward you Essence, basically the in-game currency which allows you to buy items, new weapons, weapon upgrades, etc. Yellow Essence serves as the currency in the game, Blue Essence is your health pickup, and Red Essence is your Ninpo pickup. Each enemy have their own lifebar (not viewable except for bosses), attacks, and appearance. Deplete their health while blocking and dodging their attacks is the routine work in playing this game.

Dragons Fang and Tigers Claw is one of the most coolest weapons in this game.​

Ryu has access to various types of melee weapons, such as katana, double katanas, flails, staff, etc. Each weapon have their own pros and cons, and each of them have their techniques for you to memorise to use against your enemies. He also have access to projectile weapons such as shurikens and bow. Most of the time, you will use it to solve some puzzles and defeat ranged enemies.
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Make sure you block and dodge to prevent enemies from killing you quickly!​

You can also block your enemys attacks and dodge them. In this game (and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2), blocking and dodging are two most important techniques to survive, since regular enemies and bosses can hit you really hard, even in Normal mode. Mastering both allows you to have easier time in playing this game, since dying in this game is rather common if you are not a skilled player. Be noted that blocking doesnt block all attacks, as some attacks can break your block or penetrate it easily, which is imperative for you to dodge quickly to avoid damage. Dont forget that most regular enemies and bosses can block your attacks as well.

Ryu also have access to Ultimate Techniques and Ninpo. Ultimate Techniques are basically charge attacks that can inflict high damage to enemies. You can charge up to two levels. Unfortunately, Ultimate Techniques take a long time to charge up, and it is practically useless outside of battle. However, if there is an Essence nearby while you are using the Ultimate Technique, Ryu will absorb the Essence automatically and automatically increase the level of Ultimate Technique, allowing faster activation to defeat your enemies and during the execution of Ultimate Techniques, Ryu is invincible to any attacks. Using Ultimate Techniques to defeat your foes generally will reward you more Essence. Alternatively, defeating enemies without taking any damage will also reward you more Essence. Ninpo is basically magic used by ninjas. There are various types of Ninpo, but each Ninpo have different attack potency and uses. You can increase the level of your Ninpo by using a certain item, but that item is extremely rare to find throughout the game.

This game has 19 chapters, 16 for Ryu, and 3 for Rachel. Technically, this is Ryus game, but some chapters are modified slightly to incorporate Rachels storyline and playing chapters.

Rachels playable chapters is a fine addition to the game, but doesnt provide extra explanation to the games storyline.​

Rachel has three playable chapters, and this is exclusive to the PS3 version. She has different movesets than Ryu, and she is less agile than him. However, her attacks are very strong, and can easily stun and kill enemies. Her chapters give you a breather in playing Ryu chapters, and gives you different experience in playing the game.

For every chapter, you have to solve some puzzles in order to proceed, and find a key or an item to progress in the game. This game is quite different than other action games, since it does not have minimap, and there is no marker as to where should you go next. Thankfully, there are hints by Ayane in certain chapters that will guide you to the right direction. Also, map is not available for every area that you stepped on, thus making it a bit of importance in finding maps to show where you are to avoid getting lost.

Underestimating bosses in this game is a big mistake. Dont be shy using items when you are in danger.​

Bosses in this game are very difficult to fight, but with the right preparations and skill, you can beat them. Each boss have their own unique patterns of attacking, and with different techniques. Since they can kill you pretty fast if you are caught in a combo (especially by human-sized bosses), using blocking and dodging is essential. Like I said before, these two moves will save your life a lot in the game, only if you are skillful enough in using both.

You will be ranked accordingly after completing each chapter, with certain criterias such as how fast you complete the chapter, how much Essence you obtained, etc. For example, Master Ninja is the highest rank given if you have completed those criterias successfully.

The game have one of the best gameplay in an action game. Although, it is to be noted that this game is quite hard for average players, and I think veterans also can have a hard time in playing this game. Completing this game in Normal mode is enough to show that you are skilled enough in playing this difficult game. Otherwise, you can play harder difficulties to prove your worth.

Graphics

For a 5 year old game, it looks way better than some recent action games. ​

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Since this is one of the first PS3 games lineup, the graphics are exceptionally great. However, in CGI cutscenes, you can see that the cutscenes are less detailed than in-game cutscenes, and have a bit of blurriness, that gives people the impression that Team Ninja did not remaster the CGI scenes properly. Either Team Ninja forgot to do it, or they lack the proper technology to properly remaster those CGI cutscenes. Nevertheless, the whole in-games visual department actually was already remastered to HD, making up-to-date to current generation games, so we cant complain much since this game looks great and very detailed while playing every chapters.​

Some technical issues lingered in this game, such as minor screen tearing while rotating the camera, in cutscenes, etc. They are not game-breaking, but quite noticeable to people. Also, the camera system is a bit weird, since the camera is always focused from the bottom to the top, which is weird for an action game. Rotating the camera system is a bit of hassle, but it is needed to give you clear view on your surroundings. However, the camera system is a bit better than Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2s camera system, and there is a camera reset that allows you to reset the camera to Ryus front view.

This game is one of the rare PS3 games that do not require any installation. If you install the game, loading times is reduced slightly. Personally, I will install the game if I have a large storage time and to avoid long loading times in playing games. Be aware that installing the game does not reduce or eliminate any technical issues such as screen tearing in the game.

Sound

Acceptable English and Japanese voice acting that makes the game awesome.​

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Fortunately, the game have good voice acting that spoils it much. All characters have acceptable and appropriate voice acting, such as silent tone for Ryus voice, making the games dialogue great to listen to without any awkwardness and weirdness. It also have Japanese voice tracks, and you can switch between two in the Options menu.​
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The soundtrack is well-made, with both many Japanese style themes. Most themes work appropriately at any playable areas, boss fights, etc.​

Replay Value

Play Mission Modes after completing the game, or play the main game in harder difficulties.​

This game have moderate replay value. After completing the main game, you can play Mission Mode, which is a set of non-canon Missions given to you to complete, such as defeating a certain number of enemies. Or, you can play the game in higher difficulties such as Hard mode. Please be noted that higher difficulty modes are extremely hard and tough, and should not be attempted if you are willing to play it or if you are skilled enough in the game.

If you want to show off your skills, you can submit your Scoreboard online and compare with other players online.

Conclusion
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One of the best action games that features an awesome ninja.​

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Despite there are some flaws in the game, this game is a very solid action adventure game. With an awesome looking ninja, great gameplay design, nice visuals, this game is perfect for those who wants to play challenging and rewarding action game. Personally, this game is a much better than its successor, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, in terms of camera system, uncensored violence, and lesser technical issues.​
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Score
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Story - 8/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 9/10
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Final Score: 36/40 or 9.0/10.0.
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Pros and Cons
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Pros
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- Ryu Hayabusa is awesome.
- Exhilarating combat system.
- Variety of weapons that have its own unique advantages and disadvantages.
- Great visuals.
- Great character designs.
- Ultimately rewarding to those who are looking forward to challenging games.
- Suitable English and Japanese voice acting.
- Great boss fights.​
- Good soundtrack.​
- Lenghty playing time for main playthrough.​
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Cons
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- Acceptable storyline without much memorable plot.
- Minor technical issues such as screen tearing while playing the game.
- CGI cutscenes looked less detailed than in-game cutscenes.
- Extremely difficult for average players or rookie players.
- Moderate replay value.
- Easy to get lost while playing without getting a map for an area.
- Do not expect to play stealth missions just because you are a ninja.

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