Collection essentials #46: Kid Dracula / Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula Kun (NES)

 

Last time was the first time I showed off a Japanese release, but that was side-by-side with an American version. This is our first example of a Japanese game that did not come out anywhere else! It’s Kid Dracula!

Konami back in the day sometimes liked to parody their own work, which I think is amazing. This game is a cartoony parody of Castlevania. Dracula is the main antagonist of the series, and in this game you play as his son, Kid Dracula. The game is very cartoony and does not carry the vibe of a Castlevania game at all. I find the background music of the first level absolutely delightful, as they took the epic ominous first-level theme from Castlevania III and remixed it to sound bouncy and fun. Brilliant!!

Kid Dracula is a platformer like Castlevania, but plays differently. Instead of a weapon, you have a projectile attack that you can charge up by holding the button down for a stranger blast (much like a certain blue bomber we’ll get to soon enough). Kid Dracula also obtains a variety of powers throughout the game, such as the ability to walk on the ceiling or to temporarily turn into a bat and fly. In between levels, you can play a variety of mini games to try and earn extra lives with coins you found in the levels. There are a variety of settings for each stage of the game that seem to represent different parts of the world. For example, one level appears to be New York, and when you get to the boss, Lady Liberty, she tells you that she can’t fight and instead challenges you to a quiz! I love how silly and creative this game is. My only real gripe is that the last level is harder than it should be and a little frustrating, but the game does have unlimited continues so beating it is not unreasonable.

I’m not really sure why Kid Dracula didn’t come out in the USA or Europe. Sometimes the reasons why a game stays in Japan are obvious, but not so much in this case. There’s another Kid Dracula game that we’ll get to at some point which DID get released internationally, at least. Eventually this game did get released internationally, as it was included in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection on modern systems that I keep mentioning. And the Japanese text is all translated, too! Go and check it out.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intro

Image
  I'm about to start a long-term personal project relating to my video game collection. It's actually something I'm doing mostly for myself, but sharing it with others is certainly a nice little side perk. As you probably already know, I have a large video game collection that would make many nerds jealous! I did the bulk of my collecting from roughly 2012-2018. Now I don't buy nearly as many games as I used to. In fact, in 2021 my collection actually had a net shrinkage because I sold more than I bought. Does that mean I've just been a hoarder all this time and I'm slowly growing to regret my life decisions? HECK no. I feel quite satisfied and vindicated with the legion of games into which I've invested time, energy and resources to assemble and I've merely reached a point of satiation. I scratched all the most important stuff from my bucket list. I purposefully was liberal in my choice of buying stuff because I knew how to find deals and I knew that th
Read more

Collection essentials #89: Ninja Gaiden (NES)

Image
Originally, Ninja Gaiden was an arcade game, but rather than simply bring that game to the NES, Tecmo decided to build an entirely new game from the ground-up, tailored for the console, and it paid off.  Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling action platformer that takes place across a series of linear levels. You play as Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja armed with a sword, the ability to cling to walls, and to use power-ups that you find throughout the levels which grant strong and important attacks with a limited number of uses. The controls are tight and the game just feels good to play. And what is perhaps most notable about this game are the cutscenes in between areas. Previously, the stories in most NES action games were pretty simplistic, and sometimes not even mentioned in the game itself, only the instruction manual. But Ninja Gaiden takes things to the next level in making the story an integral part of the experience, as you guide Ryu to get revenge against those responsible for his father’s
Read more

Collection essentials #106: Tecmo Super Bowl (NES)

Image
Tecmo had previously released “Tecmo Bowl” nearly three years before this game, and while I don’t own it and don’t consider it essential, it was a very good football game for its time. But fans of that game had seen nothing yet. Tecmo Super Bowl provided a major upgrade, and is widely considered the best sports game on the NES, and some would even say one of the best sports video games of all time in general. The first noticeable difference is that Tecmo Super Bowl, unlike the original, got the license to use real NFL teams with their logos, and all the real players, which maybe sounds frivolous to a non-sports fan, but believe me when I say people who like sports enjoy controlling fantasy versions of their favorite teams and athletes much more than generic made-up counterparts! When making a sports video game, there are different ways a developer can go about it. The most obvious path, perhaps, would be to try and make it as realistic and true to the real thing as possible. That’s oft
Read more