Virtual Console isn’t dead yet! Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is whipping its way to North America.
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, the precursor for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, was a Japan-only PC Engine game. This lost classic stars Ricther Belmont who kills Dracula the beginning of Symphony of the Night. OK so, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood wasn’t totally lost. We got Dracula X, a shoddy Super Nintendo port, and Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, a PSP remake which included the original game. And soon you’ll be able to purchase it as a Virtual Console download.
The ESRB spoiled the announcement by rating Castlevania: Rondo of Blood “T” for teen, but didn’t say if the game will be translated or not. Would be really neat if this was a fully localized Virtual Console import.
Other games coming out, according to the fine folks at the ESRB, are Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom and Ghoul Patrol a Zombies Ate My Neighbors follow up from Lucasarts. Here are descriptions for those.
Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom
This is a "point-and-click" adventure game in which players control Sir Cucumber on a quest to rescue a Princess, save Salad Kingdom, and become king of the land. Violence is minimally depicted, presented as "rock, paper, scissor"-style standoffs between fruits and vegetables. Some 2D still-screen images depict banana enemies breaking into pieces (via a "nut bomb"), or other fruit enemies getting punched. One sequence discusses a "torture room . . . filling up with water," but no fruit, or vegetable, or person gets hurt. The game includes a brief depiction of an an unlit cigarette in an ashtray.
Ghoul Patrol
This is an arcade-style action game in which players control Julie and Zeke, a "Ghoul Patrol," who walk through themed levels to collect coins, keys, power-ups, their neighbors (tallied as "Victims"). The victims must be found before time runs out, before monsters attack and cause them to dissolve in a wisp of flame, a skeleton image. Scattered across levels, the monsters look 2D and cartoonlike: small ghouls, ghosts, sprite-like spirits, plants that sometimes eat flesh, zombies that don’t eat their neighbors. The game’s slightly top-down perspective, side-scrolling action, and somewhat minimal graphics (mid-90s renderings), make the violent acts seem more detached, less immersive than a "beat-’em-up" or shooter—though plunger arrows, ray guns, and plasma projectiles can be used to defeat the monsters. Also, a handful of boss battles may depict more protracted one-on-one fighting. Overall, the tone of the game is best summarized this way: Players may encounter "possessed" copy and fax machines that can and should be destroyed.
Published: Jan 25, 2010 06:05 am