Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge is a platform game released for the Game Boy in 1991. It is the second Castlevania title for the Game Boy and serves as a sequel to the previous title, mh:crappygames:Castlevania: The Adventure. It is included in color in the fourth volume of the Konami GB Collection compilations.

Plot
Set in the year 1591, fifteen years after the events of Castlevania: The Adventure, and one hundred years before the events of the original Castlevania, Dracula returns and kidnaps Christopher Belmont's son Soleil at his coming of age feast, and turns him into a demon. With Soleil's mystical powers, Dracula retakes human form and rebuilds his castle, forcing Christopher to confront Dracula once again to save his son and Transylvania.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The game makes many improvements over its predecessor.
 * 2) *Many of the returning enemies are somewhat slower or less unpredictable.
 * 3) *Christopher moves at a much less sluggish speed.
 * 4) *There are fewer instances of malevolent enemy placement.
 * 5) *There are now Sub Weapons (the Holy Water and Axe/Cross).
 * 6) *Your whip no longer downgrades when damaged.
 * 7) *The game's skill curve is much more forgiving early on.
 * 8) *You can use the whip while hanging on a rope.
 * 9) Great graphics for Game Boy standards that manage to improve the framerate of the previous game.
 * 10) Awesome soundtrack that uses renditions of public domain songs with the Gameboy's chiptune synth.
 * 11) This game allows the player to play any of the game's four initial stages in any order they choose like Mega Man. There are four themed castles: cloud, plant, rock and crystal.
 * 12) The bosses are made up of enemies that fit into the Castlevania universe unlike the previous game.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) There are only two sub-weapons, that being the Holy Water and Axe (in the Japanese and European versions, the Axe is replaced by the Cross).
 * 2) While it is longer than the previous game, it's only an hour long.
 * 3) Two of the bosses aren't good.
 * 4) *Soleil/Solileyu Belmont is surprisingly difficult because of his habit of dead-zoning you with throwing knives that hone onto you. (The knives only move at specific angles. If you're in the pit across from him when he throws them, move as close to the middle of the room as you can while staying inside the pit; the back two knives will go straight down while the front one flies harmlessly over your head). He also has an upgraded whip and a ton of health.
 * 5) *Dracula, is pretty anti-climatic. His only attack is easy to avoid if you know what you're doing, and unlike almost every other iteration of Dracula in the series, he has only one form.

Reception
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge received positive reviews with most praising the improvements it made over Castlevania: The Adventure. IGN thought the game made better use of the Game Boy's hardware than the first Castlevania handheld game, and applauded its inclusion of traditional Castlevania items, weapons, and having a cleaner graphical aesthetic. It was still hurt, however, by a lack of character speed and its short play time. GameSpy called it one of the best action games on the original Game Boy. Game Informer 's Tim Turi considers it the best Castlevania game on the original Game Boy; he cited the improved graphics and use of sub-weapons.

Trivia

 * Belmont's Revenge was released one month after the original Sonic the Hedgehog and Belmont's Revenge takes place 400 years before its year of release.

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