Castlevania Anniversary Collection

The main reason why I would not recommend the Castlevania Collection to anyone (even on sale) is that it doesn't have scans of the original manuals; they only have a new 1 page controls listing graphic for each game. Anyone who's played classic consoles knows that the old print manuals are inherently part of the gameplay experience and in a lot of cases it has info the user needs to play and experience the game properly. As this collection stands the purchaser is left to buying the original manuals on ebay at best! If they can bother to scan a BTS e-book as well as the games original box art then the original manuals shouldn't be too much to ask for. The collection could stand to use some improvements for it's price point: -The user has to press the left trigger button on the controller to access the options menu for each game. This isn't explained on the main menu or the list of games menu. -It could use a 4:3 display with the original or pixel perfect view without the scanlines. (the original and pixel perfect views don't reach the top and bottoms of the screen.) -The collection could use a frame of a period CRT monitor and wall like the Sega Classics Collection. -It would've been interesting to see the Japanese versions of the games to see what differences there were but that's not exactly a deal breaker for me. They feature the scans of the box art of the Japanese versions of the games but don't include them or scans of their manuals as part of the package? Also translating that Japanese text to English would be useful to get the true intent of the developer's work for their region. -The program requires a gamepad to operate the menu (not having a keyboard & mouse control option is odd). -It's ebook is inside the program itself and requires a gamepad to operate it (not exactly ideal). Also the zoom in and out of the ebook is imprecise in it's zoom function-it's too fast-holding another button to zoom in slower would be a lot better. -It's surprsing that they didn't do video interviews of the devs behind all of the Castlevania games. Video game documentarians like No Clip ( https://www.youtube.com/c/NoclipVideo/videos ) could easily do that for them. A positive is the game does utilize cloud saves plus it remembers the control modifications as well. But with that said those save states actually makes the game artificially easy taking away the experience and challenge of playing NES games back in the day. It even nullifies the purpose of the...

These games are all classics that have been reviewed a million times over. In short, they're all worth playing, especially if you enjoy retro games or platformers. Instead, I'll review this port. Rather than the questionable legality of emulation, this port is the best way to legally play these games on PC. They run flawlessly and seem to have zero major issues, at least in my experience. When you play these games, they really do still give you that vibe of playing on your NES/Sega Genesis/other console on a Saturday morning back when the industry was in a much simpler, more charming state. As a kid, I played a LOT of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and playing that today, it reminds me of why it was such a great game. It really did do a lot of stuff that was ahead of its time, including somewhat of an open world (as much as a side-scrolling platformer can have), shops and vendors where you could buy gear to approach your obstacles better and so forth. Tie that in with impeccable gothic atmosphere and it really did create such an impeccable game that too few people actually give credit to. The only complaints I have about this port are regarding a lack of any sort of controls information, which makes me unable to see whether or not you can quit one game and jump to another without restarting the application. I hope I can figure that out, because you get SO much content with this package that I'd hate to get frustrated every time I want to switch games. Even so, frustrations aside, you easily get your money's worth here and will be able to play some fantastic classics without having to buy a retro console!

A must buy if you like classic games: here you'll find some of the most iconic Castlevania titles of the '80s and the 90's. Castlevania 4 (SNES) is a masterpiece even today.

The only good thing coming out of Konami is these collections

Played throught the first game in the series so far. Look forward to playing the rest. Really like the option to add a screen filter, for that CRT look on modern monitors. If you want a hassle free way of playing all these games, I would definitely recommend this.

Castlevania Anniversary Collection seemed like a good installment for the eight titles it offers, especially one that we did not think we saw around here, like Kid Dracula. As long as hours of fun and duration is quite acceptable, you will not leave it soon if you resist the frustration ... unless you are good, very good and you finish them in one sitting; Even if that is the case, you will have a lot to entertain yourself with. The bad? Maybe and just maybe they could have included a few more titles. And I include the disadvantage of not being able to accommodate the controls to your liking, especially since between game and game, and if you constantly switch between one and the other, you can get confused. AND!, Why not add a wider variety of frames? Even so, I highly recommend the anniversary collection: a good number of games, different ways to enjoy the screen settings, as it suits you, saves that can help you in difficult times and an art book that contains everything digitally, its instructions, vintage covers, ugh! A jewel.

Fantastic game great content with all the games included get it if you are a Castlevania fan

Great collection of classic Retro Castlevania games. Run and plays great on my steam deck. Highly recommend for long play session or quick jump in and out play. Five star