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1. CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD PSP EXCLUSIVE BOSS PORTABLE
2. CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD PSP EXCLUSIVE BOSS SERIES

CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD PSP EXCLUSIVE BOSS PORTABLE

I'd already waited a decade and a half, after all, and I was confident that the Wii's Virtual Console (already a year old by that point) would save me from having to dust off my portable PlayStation and plunk down 40 bucks. Then, just a few years ago, we American Castlevania fans finally got the chance to play this long-lost installment in English - through Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, a 2007 PSP remake that also contained an emulation of the original version.

We did get a different SNES game called Dracula X, but it wasn't the same game - it had elements in common, but it was an inferior attempt at a conversion. The game was only released in Japan as " Akumajo Dracula X Chi no Rondo" originally, for Hudson's PC-Engine platform (the TurboGrafx here), and never got an English localization in that era. The reason it's my first time playing Rondo is the same reason it'll be the first for many of you, too - this is the first time it's been made available on a Nintendo system.

CASTLEVANIA RONDO OF BLOOD PSP EXCLUSIVE BOSS SERIES

So it's all a very odd hybrid, and especially interesting to be playing for the first time now, years later, when I know both where the series came from to get to this point, and where it went after this installment concluded. But, again, stages still have a defined beginning and end - even if there's more than one end to find in any given level, you'll always get that little red orb that signifies "Stage Clear" along with a tallying-up of your high score when you beat a boss.

The+Clock+Tower+level+is+always+the+best. You can explore at your leisure, like Symphony of the Night. And, all the while, there's no clock counting down, forcing you to be on the move. You'll often come across the opportunity to choose which path you take to progress, and the choices you make can take you to entirely different areas of the castle - facing a totally different set of environments, enemies and boss battles on your way to the ultimate showdown with the Count.

In Rondo, you play the role of a whip-cracking Belmont hunting Dracula through non-straightforward, untimed stages that have a defined beginning, but frequently more than one end. Rondo of Blood is the missing link between those two eras, because its design bridges the gap by containing elements of both. When I returned to the castle later in the '90s, everything was different - the environment was open and interconnected, you weren't playing a Belmont any more and there was definitely no clock demanding you had to be anywhere at any specific time. When I left Castlevania in the early '90s, it was still a linear adventure - a whip-cracking Belmont hunting Dracula through straightforward, timed stages that had a defined beginning and end. Because hey, Nintendo loyalist or not, everybody picked up a PlayStation controller for that one.Ĭastlevania: Rondo of Blood is like the missing link between those two eras of the brand. After that first super sequel, though, I lost track of the franchise - it deviated a bit to the handhelds and the Genesis for a few years - and then I finally jumped back on board for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Like many young Nintendo loyalists in the late '80s and early '90s, I followed the Castlevania series through its first four installments on the NES and SNES - playing through and loving every minute of the original, Simon's Quest, Dracula's Curse and Super Castlevania IV.