Nintendo Wii Fanboy

This is a pretty weird rumor, but perhaps the same could be said of all rumors. Apparently, Konami USA's Shinji Hirano made a reference to new Castlevania games on the Wii and DS during a press conference Tuesday in Sao Paulo. The weird part is that the event in question, according to Arena Turbo, was a launch for Grand Theft Auto IV and Iron Man. Is GTA IV even out in Brazil? Xbox.com says it isn't. And why would a Konami executive even be there making statements? So sketchy. Of course we can't find any reference to this event anywhere but this post and this GameTV post.

But we've heard Wii 'Vania rumors before, and this extremely dubious one doesn't make the game any less likely. Maybe it'll get sorted out next week, as Hirano reportedly said.

[Via GoNintendo]

Where's that latest EGM?! We need to see this one with our own eyes: rumors of new Castlevania for DS and Wii, and since the first has already been confirmed (though we're not sure about this definition of new), we'll go ahead and guess that the second, the Wii title, is likely true, particularly since another trademark has already been discovered.

The idea of a game on the system isn't particularly new, but the resurfacing of the rumor certainly has us dancing in the aisles. Could Castlevania Judgment be meant for us? We're crossing our fingers. Retail game, WiiWare, it doesn't matter -- just give us some vampire-killing, whip-cracking action.

No joke titles, no casual Cho Aniki references, no making fun of the slow release schedule, or any of the usual stuff we do in these -- today is too important, too auspicious an occasion for us to ruin by being jackasses. As of today, Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo, the PC Engine Super CD-Rom Castlevania game, which is the narrative predecessor to Symphony of the Night and also the last traditional Castlevania game, is now available on the Virtual Console in Japan.

Get here soon, please.

• Herakles no Eikou IV (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• Phelios (Mega Drive, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
• Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (PC Engine Super CD-Rom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• Metal Slug (Neo Geo, 1-2 players, 900 Wii Points)

Thanks to its largely flat surface, the NES doubles up as an ideal canvas for those wishing to spruce up their consoles with a custom paint job. Of course, you also need artistic ability, which is where we fail hideously, and eBay user hellokitty11111111111 (yes) excels.

Well, "excels" most of the time, anyway. The quality of these mods does vary a little -- we're not big fans of the Kid Icarus design -- but we do absolutely love the Earthbound, Super Mario Bros. 3, and (highly topical) River City Ransom examples. Are they worth (up to) $149.99, though? At a stretch, we'd be tempted. There's more past the break, complete with auction links.

It's finally happening. When Hudson announced Turbografx-16 support on the Virtual Console, we thought "Oh, great, maybe we'll be able to get Dracula X!" Then when they revealed that CD-ROM titles would start coming out, we got really excited about being one step closer to Dracula X. Next month in Japan, Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo will be released on the Virtual Console for 800 points. As if Hudson hadn't already won at being awesome today.

Other than the amazing Dracula X, there's actually a lot of really great stuff coming out in April. It has actually renewed our faith in the Virtual Console, which is why we're starting to think we're being fooled by a tragic April Fool's Day joke on Nintendo's part. Metal Slug and The Legend of Valkyrie are standouts, as is the incredibly vintage RPG Bokosuka Wars, if only because it reminds us of this shirt.

Famicom:

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Sky Kid
• Volguard II
• Bokosuka Wars

Super Famicom:

• Famicom Detective Club Part II
• Heracles no Eikou IV

Master System:

• Wonder Boy

Mega Drive:

• Musha Aleste
• Phantasy Star III
• Phelios

N64:

• Kirby 64

PC Engine:

• Riot Zone
• Legend of Valkyrie
• Dracula X: Rondo of Blood
• Digital Champion: Battle Boxer
• Monster Lair

Neo Geo:

• Metal Slug

The internet has made it easy to find cheats for games, but we miss the tips pages from game magazines, when the discovery of a new code could inspire you to go back to an old game. These codes aren't exactly new, but oldness is the essence of the Virtual Console! We're bringing back the classic codes every week on The VC Advantage.

Score used to be important in video games. With the rise of Guitar Hero and the Xbox Live Achievement system, it's coming back, but it went out of style for a long time. High scores made a lot of sense in the arcade (which has also gone out of style) since other people played the machines and could thus compete to overtake your three-letter tag as that machine's leader. Home games adopted scoring for two reasons: first, in the older games, there was no other way to determine progression. After twenty minutes of Asteroids, without a score there'd be no evidence that you'd done any better than someone playing for thirty seconds. The game never changes, never reveals new content, and never ends. Score was a very simple way to allow you to progress. Of course, competitive sport-based games like Pong required scoring as a basic gameplay mechanic.

Later (NES and beyond) games adopted scoring mostly as a holdover from classic arcade games. Games like Super Mario Bros. were more about experience than performance, and progress could be tracked by ... actual progress. You moved from place to place, and didn't need some arbitrary number to tell you how far along you were. Even the first Mega Man game had a score display.

The first Castlevania arguably didn't need a score counter at all. Not dying was more than enough of an achievement to wear as a badge of honor. Besides, it already featured another counter in the game (hearts) that also incremented by picking up items. Later Castlevania games adopted experience points, which are exactly like points except that their accrual actually improves your avatar's abilities, but pre-Symphony of the Night games all awarded points for killing enemies and collecting items.

Some of the items, in fact, did nothing but improve your score.

The internet has made it easy to find cheats for games, but we miss the tips pages from game magazines, when the discovery of a new code could inspire you to go back to an old game. These codes aren't exactly new, but oldness is the essence of the Virtual Console! We're bringing back the classic codes every week on The VC Advantage.

Super Castlevania IV afforded players more control than any previous Castlevania. You could whip in eight directions, and even let the whip dangle from your hand. You could swing from strategically-placed grappling points. For the first time, subweapons were given their own button. Until the PC Engine Dracula X came along, Super Castlevania IV had the freest movement of any Castlevania game yet. This no doubt left an impression on frustrated players happy to be able to whip up for once, and contributes greatly to the continued enjoyment of Castlevania IV by many over the NES games.

But the move that is most responsible for Super Castlevania IV's specialness, in our eyes, was not related to whipping. In fact, it was probably unintentional. By holding back while ascending or descending a staircase, you could make Simon face the direction opposite his movement, while the forward stair-climbing animation continued. In essence, Simon would moonwalk up the stairs. It's not technically a code, but it is somewhat of a secret that is accessed by pushing buttons in the game, so we feel it's close enough to a code for the VCA.

The internet has made it easy to find cheats for games, but we miss the tips pages from game magazines, when the discovery of a new code could inspire you to go back to an old game. These codes aren't exactly new, but oldness is the essence of the Virtual Console! We're bringing back the classic codes every week on The VC Advantage.

Today is the perfect day to look at some of the spookier games on the Virtual Console, and then help you face your fears and take them on. It would certainly have been a good day to talk about Ghosts 'n Goblins games, as well, but ... we already did that. Uh, as part of our Halloween special, here's a link to that old VC Advantage! It's ... uh, back from the dead!

Luckily, awkward backlinks aren't the only thing we can present for our Halloween edition of The VC Advantage. There are still some gruesome games we have yet to cover!

And that means that it's now totally scary time! Turn out all the lights and stuff! We're making weird "oooooo" spooky noises, but you can't hear it, because we'll have written this hours ago by the time you're reading it, and also we're not in the same room as you!

Splatterhouse (TG16)
Hard mode: What's scarier than a game in which the main character dies, over and over and over again, forced to relive the same horrific period of a few seconds before he's ripped apart yet again by disgusting, nightmarish monsters? Probably a lot of stuff. Dentistry comes to mind. Loneliness. But what's scarier in the context of video game alterations caused by input of preprogrammed button sequences? Probably still some stuff. To access hard mode, hold Select at the title screen until the word HARD appears.

Castlevania (NES)
Hard mode: Yes, it's another hard mode, but this one seems pretty notable. We had no idea that Castlevania even had one of these, and we doubt anyone else ever would have were it not for cheat devices and ROM hacking-- because you access Castlevania's hard mode by completing the game, and that is impossible. Of all the games to put a hard mode in. Also we heard that if you finish the hard mode, Koji Igarashi will ride a Medusa head to your house and give you a million dollars. And nobody will ever know if that's true.

Kid Chameleon (GEN)
Level skip: Kid Chameleon isn't really that scary, but it is about dressing up in costumes. And that is the true meaning of Halloween (also, candy, which is delicious, when eaten.) To skip straight to the last boss, find some blogs above the flag in the Blue Lake Woods level and jump to the last one. Then press down, right, jump, and special.

[Codes via GameFAQs]

Oh, how we love Mondays. Our wallets, however, have a whole different idea regarding the start of the work week. And, this week, our wallets hate us that much more as the titles on offer cost their fair share of dough. Lucky for us, and for you all, this week's available titles are more good than bad.

Another week, another Virtual Console update. And, with this week's update, we've got three new titles to check out. The obvious high-profile game here is Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, which you all likely remember (whether you enjoyed it or not). That doesn't mean we should forget about the other two games, though.

This week's releases are:

• Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
• Samurai-Ghost (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)
• Magician Lord (Neo Geo, 1 - 2 players, 900 Wii Points)

And, as usual, be sure to stop back later for our video wrap-up of today's releases.

Time to play favorites again! This time we'll look at our favorite series, Castlevania. You've got your Quests, Curses, Laments, Curses, Bloodlines, Symphonies, Rondos, Circles, Arias, Harmonies, Adventures, Legacies, Legends, Chronicles, Portraits, Dawns, and a few that just go by Castlevania. There's also oddball stuff like Boku Dracula-Kun and Haunted Castle. It ranges from life-changing to execrable and from schlocky to gothy.

Given so many to choose from, it may be hard to pick just one, much like it's hard to choose your favorite subweapon. But crack open the candle of your choice and give it a try. What's your favorite Castlevania game? We used to be firmly in the Symphony of the Night camp, but there's something we love about the crushing difficulty of the first game.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest has popped up on the ESRB's ratings page, meaning that it'll be headed for the Virtual Console any time now. As total Castlevania nerds, we couldn't be more excited. We know that a lot of people hate on Simon's Quest for being so divergent from both the original game and the more modern Symphony of the Night style, but we quite enjoy the Zelda II-esque action-RPG gameplay. We also enjoy the Nightcrawler-like black and red suit that Simon Belmont wears in the game for some reason.

The game has been rated E, which, we think, is pretty lenient for a game in which the main goal is to collect a bunch of corpse parts in order to resurrect and subsequently re-murder their owner.

[Via GoNintendo]

Even though we usually support the more obscure VC releases, we can't help but focus our attention on this week's most mainstream title: Castlevania. Finally making its appearance on the Japanese Virtual Console, Konami's side-scroller is a must-buy. I personally consider "liking Castlevania a lot" as an important component of my personality. What an awesome night to have a curse.

Like Castlevania, Power Sports and Dead Moon have both already arrived in the US (Power Sports as World Sports Competition), and Ichidant-R, a Bonanza Bros. spinoff, is the sequel to Tant-R, seen on the Sega Classics Collection. A multiplayer puzzle minigame collection, Ichidant-R is sort of a precursor to Mario Party and Wario Ware.

Hajimari no Mori is a graphical text adventure from Nintendo! Let's all hope for a miracle localization for that one.

• Akumajou Dracula (Famicom Disk System, 1 player, 500 Wii Points)
• Hajimari no Mori (Super Famicom, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
• Ichidant-R (Mega Drive, 1-2 players, 600 Wii Points)
• Power Sports (PC Engine, 1-5 players, 600 Wii Points)
• Dead Moon (PC Engine, 1 player, 600 Wii Points)

This probably doesn't affect any readers here (although, if you're a Japan-local Wii Fanboy, let us know!) but we discovered something interesting while drooling at the Japanese Virtual Console page.

Proving their absolute and irrational devotion to historical accuracy, the version of Castlevania going up on the VC this month will not be the same cartridge version that's already been released in the US and Europe. Instead, Japan is getting the original version, which was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986. The differences include a save state feature and a name entry screen with music unheard in the US version! Which, unfortunately, we can't find. The idea that there's Castlevania music out there that we haven't heard makes us kind of uncomfortable.

Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.

Virtually Overlooked readers know that we love Konami, a lot-- Castlevania in particular. We've talked about three Konami games already in our feature's short history, one of which was a Castlevania. Surely you won't mind if we go back to the well? It'll be worth it. Don't worry, it's not another Castlevania 1 remake. Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun for the Famicom is a Mega Man clone-- starring the monster such as whom mankind ill needs a savior.