You guys will give a hundred yes votes so enthusiastically to any given Castlevania game but immediately dismiss this as boring? Has anyone here that voted no actually watched a classic Castlevania run on here? If anything, this run is more interesting because it actually uses more then one weapon. Maybe I'm biased because I never actually played Castlevania and I thought this game was intriguing if only for it's well executed retro mash up but if you ask me, this doesn't look a whole lot different from something like the original NES Castlevania run or even the GB Castlevania one. By the way, people who say this game isn't pleasing to look at clearly never appreciated having an NES in their childhood. Although I will admit the sound quality is abysmal, but after Nikujin, I started forgiving that in games like this.
Bonus points for using Castlevania II music from the FDS version at times. That was positively unexpected. (I don't know if Nach recognized that when he posted his comment about the music.)
The NES Castlevania games are known for amazing music and fantastic graphics. They also are also known for being difficult and a TAS makes them look easy, which is great. This game has neither of those, just some ugly, poorly used tilesets. This has nothing to do with Castlevania and your comparison makes little sense, besides as a personal rant about a generally very acclaimed series.
You guys will give a hundred yes votes so enthusiastically to any given Castlevania game but immediately dismiss this as boring? Has anyone here that voted no actually watched a classic Castlevania run on here? If anything, this run is more interesting because it actually uses more then one weapon.
The gameplay is what I was referring to, which should be obvious, since I was responding to people calling the action boring, which is primarily the gameplay's job. It's taken almost directly from Castlevania with some Mario elements mixed into it and really is not any easier then the classic Castlevania games (you'd know if you had played it) so I believe my comparison is actually very accurate.
The issue, I think, is the level design. Castlevania's Stages tend to be very small and tight, without much room for messing around. Stairs, Blocks, Enemies and Candles, all of it is really close together, and enemies present a real challenge that way. It works well with Simon's slow movement, limited jump arc and slow attack. However, the subweapon use and damage boosts are what makes the Castlevania run stand out. With Super Mario XP, on the other hand, we get long and slow stages without much going on in them. It's simply not as tight as it should be to get the most out of Mario's limited moveset. Despite that, Mario still had to slow down and wait for enemies several times, which simply looks bad. Neither was there much room for damage boosts or subweapon use in the run. Perhaps more subweapons could have been used in the run, but as far as I'm concerned, the boring stage design is what makes this TAS unenjoyable. //In a nutshell, I think I come to this conclusion: Castlevania's limited moveset + Mario's Stage design doesn't work. Doubly so, if the aesthetics and sound are not pleasing.
Multimedia Fusion games... that's a can of worms that should remain firmly closed.
