I’ve played just about all the Metroid games it is reasonable to emulate without getting into later 3D titles or DS games. That leaves the other half of the ‘Metroidvania’ portmanteau to check out; the Castlevania series.
I downloaded a ROM for the Gameboy Castlevania game, and perhaps what it did the most was reinforce how impressive the Metroid Gameboy game was.
There are a lot of old school mechanics in Gameboy Castlevania that feel dated now; using up+B for special attacks, random special weapon drops from attacking candles and other background details, a general timer for the level, lives, and a weapon that only does damage in a very specific area.
You couldn’t aim diagonally in these games, making flying enemies like bats absolute nightmare minibosses. Flying enemies come at you in a V pattern, always outside the range of your whip, requiring some kind of backtrack and pivot strategy that never works and frustrates the absolute fuck out of you.
I’ve been trying to play the original Ninja Gaiden and it has much the same problem. Your attacks only count for the very small range of pixels that are your sword, and you need to account for the delay of your ninja swinging his weapon.
Birds in Ninja Gaiden are super fucking fast and do twice as much damage as regular enemies. at one point I put down the controller and had to ask, ‘Why do birds hate ninjas so much?‘
I decided to try bypass these frustrations in the Castlevania series by skipping ahead to the heralded classic:
Symphony of the Night

I had to sit through that infamous opening about three times as I figured out how my PSX emulator worked. I think consoles with discs and memory cards really throw things off.
And great news, a lot of the frustrations I mentioned above are still present in this game.

I understand talking shit about SotN is usually hearsay, but I was a bit disappointed many of these outdated and clunky mechanics carried across.
I may need to play it some more and see if it picks up, but I’m facing a lot of the problems that made the Gameboy version so inaccessible.
In this game you play as Alucard, Dracula’s sexy, aloof son (and Dracula backwards if you hadn’t picked up on that). Whilst that may bump this game up on the horny scale, the mechanics further undo the power fantasy of being a powerful half vampire.
It’s hard to feel like Dracula’s protege when you’re getting knocked from platform to platform because you can’t hit a fucking bird with your sword. Or you’re trying to take out a knight on an above platform, but the floating heads are sapping all your health because they travel in a fucking wave pattern and you swung your weapon a millisecond too late.
It also feels rather silly to go around the castle attacking candlesticks in the hope one drops throwing knives, because I accidentally picked up holy water which is absolutely useless in the section I’m in. Plus, you take all this damage due to the clunky controls and there’s no way to fucking heal, except for save points and rare potions.
What did surprise me about the game, and probably the element most modern games crib from SotN, is the RPG elements. You collect armour and weapons, assign items to each hand rather than a function, and level up from killing enemies.
I know that was an element used in Bloodstained, the successor from main series lead Koji Igarashi. Due to technical limitations you couldn’t see what your character was wearing and Alucard always looked the same. The only dissonance there is Miriam can wear the most outrageous shit during the most serious cutscenes, but that’s all part of the fun.
Another thing that strikes me is how slow Alucard moves. There’s no way to speed him up, and despite his beautifully animated turns, where he hovers in the opposite direction and throws his cape over his shoulder, everything feels so slow and stunted. Not to mention the trailing the game does. Every time you move there are all these sprites of Alucard behind him, which can throw you off a bit during platforming and feels weird to see when he’s going so slow.
Attack animations are quite long and limited in scope, as I mentioned above. Shields only seem to work for ranged attacks, so I decided to go with a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. The old string attack/quick attack combination. At least now I can spam dagger attacks and pray for the best when a fucking floating head waves over to me.
I’ve found the morningstar now. Alucard swings it above his head as he attacks, making flying enemies slightly less frustrating, so we’ll see if things pick up.
Hollow Knight is really the Metroidvania of the moment
In reading how the fuck to even play Symphony of the Night I stumbled across the Metroidvania subreddit, and Hollow Knight really seems to be the game that gets people into the genre.
I played it before getting into the classics myself, and I ended up putting over 60 hours into that thing because I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing.
It is a great game, and I keep going back to it when thinking about melee combat in these style games. Look at this:

See how our little bug boy attacks in a large C motion, that’s maybe one and a half body lengths in front of him? Now that’s an attack. Much better than the needle width riposte Alucard likes to do with his every weapon. Or the Belmonts with their extremely straight flying whips.
You’ll even notice the Hollow Knight’s swing goes above his head for a forward attack. You can attack upwards, the much better option, but perfectly timed you could hit something above your head with a regular attack.
Metroid comparisons

From the little Castlevania I’ve played so far, I’m surprised Metroid is the series with the fast combat and the platforming. I’ve been spoiled by Samus with her fast movement and her diagonal shooting.
I feel like Metroid has more exploration to it as well, and more abilities based progression. In Metroid you’ll fight your way through a section, to then get an upgrade that makes that same section a breeze. Or you’ll find a new ability that makes it possible to traverse a previously inaccessible area.
Castlevania has a little bit more in common with Dark Souls in that you fight your way through an area to access a one sided door that opens up to where you’ve already explored, or a lift that makes a nightmare staircase easier to ascend.
It feels like there are less ways to open up new areas of the map, and they’re more tied to controlling progression of the player instead of encouraging exploration.
But now I’ve said it, let’s bring up the other big comparison:
Dark Souls comparisons

I wondered why Dark Souls hate soup was in my search history
I’ve played the first game and am in the middle of the second, so I’m maybe qualified to talk on this.
Castlevania feels like the main game from the genre Dark Souls draws from. Both the RPG elements and the punishing combat, borne more from clunk than anything else.
You explore the world in Dark Souls and eventually open up new areas and shortcuts to places you’ve already been. Everyone focusses on the combat in Dark Souls, but exploration is a key design element and the most exciting part of the game.
What the series balances well is how you can find a new area and not get bored with the monotony of going through the same place trying to find the next bonfire. But entering a new area is the most exciting part of the game.
Unlocking shortcuts in Dark Souls is similar to Castlevania. You don’t get new abilities in Dark Souls, so there are a lot of gates locked from the other side and switches that only work from the one way.
Weapons are assigned to hands, so you could be a left handed hollow if you really wanted to. You could get around with two swords, or two shields for that matter, and both games have a rather useless backpedal ability.
(I could be using it wrong, but you let me know if you’ve ever used the backpedal ability in Dark Souls. The one where you press dodge when you’re not moving. I’ve found it never jumps you back far enough to dodge an attack, and who is not moving in that game? I’m constantly circling enemies to steal a backstab amongst things. Let me know if I’m missing out on something with the standing dodge and it’s actually one of the greatest mechanics in the game.)
Well, I feel like this newsletter has gone on for long enough as is. We’ll leave it here for the moment and I can take you on more of my Emulation Journey in the next one.