Yes, 2KY has been a nice lil’ year for me. Specifically, this summer was when I got back into the Castlevania series after a 3 year or so hiatus. I saw that the Castlevania Dungeon was still around and went there, seeing that it had become simply enormous. When I went to the Video Games section, I saw quite a few CV games I had never heard of before. There was one called “Akumajou Dracula X68000”. The title of it was strange enough to make me read the review. It said at the top that it was made for the “Sharp X68000”, which because of the Sharp name I thought was a computer(I was right). As I read the actual review, nothing jumped out at me. Kurt said it was a remake of the original CV with enough new stuff included to make it worthwhile. What got me interested, however, was when I got to the bottom of the review. He said it was insanely hard and he had never beaten level 5. I’m a glutton for punishment and figured I’d like that kind of challenge. Thus, I went to the emulation section, got the EX68k emulator and game ROM, and got everything to work with some trial and error(I’d later find out that many others haven’t had my success with getting EX68k to work.)...

First thing I notice is that there’s this screen with 3 options, all of which have Japanese words by them. The text file that came with everything said to pick #3, so I did. Game start...

I hear this little sound like a drum, then a tune starting...it’s music for the loading wait. I then see the familiar Konami logo with familiar sound accompanying it. The sound is a MIDI or something. The screen cuts to a dark scene with spiders crawling. It scrolls a bit to...the forerunners to Shaft! They’re all in purple robes, no less. The head one(The Bad Mutha himself?) performs a ritual and you see a flash of light come out of a coffin with a silhouette of Dracula. Nice graphics. Then it goes to the title screen. The title’s in Japanese, but thankfully the options are in English. There’s two: GAME START and SOUND MODE. Oh yes, there was music to the opening, and by this time I figured out that all the game’s music was MIDI.

So I eventually figure out that Z and X are both like Start buttons and start the game. I see a screeen that has...3 save files? Since when did this become Final Fantasy 4? So I pick file #1, and am asked to give a name. I use my real name(which I don’t wanna give out here) and go to...Simon Belmont standing at the castle gate, with his whip. It’s much like the Bloodlines intro, except with better graphics. So far this is lookin’ pretty cool. The actual game(YAY!) begins with Simon standing outside the castle. He seems to have gone back to his all-light brown look from older games. The music is this MIDI remix of “Vampire Killer”, which doesn’t particularly interest meI take a crack and see that the leather whip feels leather indeed, with a cracking sound effect and light brown color. The background looks *really* nice. Quite a bit of greenery, with the grass and trees in the background. I walk forward a bit, collecting my obligatory whip upgrades and dagger, and all of a sudden WHOA! Lightning just hit one of the trees and now it’s falling and burning! That was nifty. I shortly after enter the castle...

I walk in, and unlike the beginning, not much has changed since the original Castlevania. As I expect, zombies come up slowly at me, and I crack my Vampire Killer at ‘em. It now looks shorter and bulkier than it did in CV4, and it doesn’t look as much like a giant chain as that particular game’s version of it. While playing around with the controls, I found out that you can change direction in midair and whip diagonal-downwards while jumping. You can’t, though, jump on and off stairs or do any of the other advanced stuff from CV4. Anyway, I crack through the orange and purple zombies(I note that Symphony must have gotten that idea from here) while also noticing that this place got some new windows since 1990. Peeking at me through these windows is one of those flying eyeball-thingies from Bloodlines. Hm...anyway, I eventually make it to the end of the block(there was a painting of some fat chicks near the end), where I grab the rosary in the last candle even though there are no enemies. Hey, if Konami’s taking the trouble to put these references in, I gotta use them, right? On to block 1-2...

First thing when I enter, I notice that this room is the same as the one from the original. Except that that eyeball-thingy is lying on the high wall and starts flying at me. I take care of him no problem. I go down and remember that the wall here in the original had a pot roast. I break the wall here, expecting the meaty goodness, but something else came out...IGORS! Dozens upon dozens upon DOZENS of them! ARRGHH!!! I’M GONNA DIE! In desperation I try whipping the wall on the left, and THERE’S the meat! I take advantage of my invincibility from getting hit and go down the stairs alive. Whew...now THAT was just an AWESOME trick, Konami. Now, when I went down the stairs, once again(notice a theme here?) the room is the same as the original’s. Same mermen jumping out(I still say Bloodlines has the coolest mermen), same stopwatch hovering in a candle above the water. No new surprises here. I climb back up the stairs, and head up and through the gate to block 1-3...

OK, once AGAIN, this looks familiar. Indeed, it is, as I whack candles, grab an invisibility potion, and then an axe. Whacking through more zombies until I see a platform and some stairs up to a gate. I whip a block on the platform, and whaddya know, it’s a nice double shot for me axe. Was expecting an infinite amount of ravens to come out or something. I walk a bit more to the right and "Vampire Killer" stops. Then, all of a sudden, this new music starts up, which is really cool! The Phantom Bat appears and I’m in for boss fight #1! He looks the same here, just sharper. Like this level in general. I jump and throw an axe and...what the hell?!? He just turned into all these mini bats and they just dive-bombed me! Dangit! I keep hitting him, but can’t figure out a way to dodge his dive, and end up dead. Dead on the Phantom Bat...something tells me this game ain’t ordinary. I retrace my steps back to The Big Black Bat, and eventually figure out that hitting the mini-bats makes them go away. I defeat him easily this time and grab that magic red ball (my friend calls it "Dracula’s Left Testicle".).

The game cuts to the map screen. I see the castle’s grown a lot this time, and Simon put up a cross where the Bat was. I also see a giant skeleton-dragon creature at my next destination, and it’s on to level 2!

Wait a sec...oh crap...Neo*Geo taking...over...brain...NOOO!

SPECIAL KING OF FIGHTERS ‘94/98 BONUS TIP: If you ever accidentally pick the American Sports Heroes, immediately reset the game.

Whew, now I feel better. Now, where...

Oh yes, level 2. The level starts and it’s...a cave. Now this is new. A pretty cool-looking one, better than CV4’s. The new music here is nice also. So, then, I drop down the platforms, whacking candles. A couple bats fly at me, they die no prob. I fall down a bit more, then walk to the right and see...phlegm? Yup, three big “gates” of the stuff, and I whip through them to continue. It looked cool when they snapped apart. The rest of the block is pretty blah, as I whip through bats, jump over spike pits, and get to the gate. As I walk towards it, I see some green pitchfork guys in the background...

2-2. Now this is cool. I got two paths to pick. I take the top one, and it takes me to a stream. I still see those pitchfork guys, and now I’m fighting them as well. That’s when it hit me: These are the Imps/Demon Familiar from Symphony! Too bad there don’t seem to be any buttons around here. Anyway, they’re not too tough alone, but when combined with those blasted floating eyes, I get hit a couple times. Hm...I take 3 points of damage from everything *already*? Damn. Well, anyway, I make my way through the stream. In the middle, there’s this giant wing of a skeleton. I hit it and it moves a little bit. Heh, if I showed my brother that, he’d probably have fun with it for half an hour. Well, after the stream, I see...my first Bone Dragon! And...eh. They look rather flat here, not scary like in the others. He fights pretty well, though. So well that I get killed. Starting again, I decide to take the bottom path, which is rather nondescript. Except for when I grabbed an invincibility potion and these two giant sandworm-looking things crashed into me and died. At the same area where the wing was on top, there’s a leg here. I jump and hit it, and it does the same thing. More fun for bro, yay. I make it to Mr. Dragon and die again. Blargh. Start again, take the top path again, and I figure out that jumping and swinging downwards protects you from the dragon’s fireballs really well. After I kill him, I see a wall behind him and smack it. Secret room, baby! I go in there and see this hooded guy appear and offer me 4 items. They’re all hearts and money, so I smack him and he gets a new set. More crap, so I repeat this until a pot roast is available, and I take it. I’d never meet up with him anywhere else in this game...strange. Later, I’d play another rare CV find, Vampire Killer, and see merchants all around who looked similar. I guess this guy would be a reference to that game then. Anyway, I fight some more and wonder when the next gate’s gonna be.

Eventually, I see a bunch of water with a raft floating on it and a lion’s head over to the right. I jump on the raft, smack the head, and...WHOOSH, the water level starts rising really fast! These platforms smash into the raft and break off parts of it. As this is happening, I see mermen jumping out to shoot fireballs at me. I try the best that I can, but it’s kinda hard when...Simon is INVISIBLE when he’s hit and invincible. This hadn’t bothered me up until now. So I get knocked off the raft and lose my last life before long. I save it, try to go through a few more times, and each time get killed at that one part(oh yeah, I figured out that the raft is the start of block 2-3). After this frustration, I asked a question at the Dungeon message board about the invisible Simon, and somebody told me to change the frameskip from 2 to 3. The game got a little slower, but it worked. Yeah! After a few more tries, I made it past that part to see a bunch of platforms with candles on them. I jump on them, snag the goods(one of them being an axe), and quickly get back to the raft before I drown. After this, that familiar music starts up, and it’s...The Bone Dragon King? This guy is supposed to be him, I guess, but it looks nothing like him. It’s that skeleton I saw parts of earlier in the level. He’s easy. He breathes fire and flicks his tail at the raft to try and knock me off. Neither move is very effective. I chuck axes at him and he dies before long. Wow, pathetic. It would be the last time I’d beat a boss on the first try...

Back to the castle map, and the boss of level 3 is...a wizard, it looks like? Cool. You don’t see those around much.

Level 3 and...everything’s black! The background is the start screen(NAME 01, DELETE NAME, etc.). The music is this remix of the original CV’s level 3 that’s just...strange. It’s rather peppy. I walk forward and this monster pops out of nowhere and hits me. Wait a sec...4 points of damage at Level 3? I sigh and immediately realize how hard this’s gonna be. I take care of him and as the screen scrolls forward, everything’s back to normal! Glad that problem wasn’t permanent(it would, however, be very common in this game due to the bad emulation). I see that this area is a courtyard, like CV’s level 3. Aha, so then this is another redone level. A few more of those monsters appear, but at least now I can see the trees they like to pop out from. I walk to the right more and...Hey, kids, it’s time for our favorite game...HARPIES & IGORS! I’m sure any CV-ite should be familiar with this. It’s harder here because the hit detection in this game is almost perfect, meaning you must duck to hit Igors. I get hit once here, but make it through alive. Next up is something new...a fountain. As I walk past it, these little blobs of water spout up and fly at me. This wouldn’t be hard, except there’s like 10 or 15 of them at once. I get hit once more here, but make it through. One more and I’m gone, there better not be any other tricks. Well, those hopes get shot down quickly as I see these ancient Greece-esque statues that shoot arrows at me. Heck, these guys can even aim pretty well. I get past the first couple OK, but the one after those kills me. So I try again(in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I tend to screw up a lot when faced with something new). The statues are hard because they take a lot of hits, so I avoid as many as I can. I always take the low route, even if it means missing candles, since the arrows can’t go through platforms. With this, I successfully make it to block 3-2...