Castlevania: Dracula X Gameplay

In Castlevania: Dracula X (Super Nintendo), the mechanics are simple relative to many games made for modern consoles today. The player takes control of a vampire killer who must defeat Dracula by progressing through six levels that are set in Dracula's castle. The player may move from side to side, although progress through the game is largely left to right. The player may also jump. Jumping can be combined with lateral movement for three different types of jumps. One, a simple jump in the air (no lateral movement). Two, a jump followed by a direction (slight lateral movement). And three, lateral movement followed by a jump resulting in a considerably long jump. Once a player has jumped, just like in the real world, they cannot change the direction they are moving. This adds an extra challenge in the game since moving platforms and enemies force the player to think before commiting to a jump. The player can also attack with a whip. The player must be directly in front of the enemy to attack them with the whip. Jumping and whipping can be combined to hit enemies that are on different levels than the player. There are also a number of other weapons that allow the player to attack enemies above and below the player, but only one of these weapons are be carried at a time so the player must choose carefully which one they should take. Also, these weapons can only be used a limited amount which adds to the difficulty of the game. The player only has 3 lives to beat any given level. If they die at some point in the level, they restart in the room they died in. If they die and they don't have any extra lives, they restart the level from the beginning. A password system is used to recover the player's progress should they become frustrated with the game. Finally, a note on the enemies is necessary. The "bad guys" in the game all move in a predictable pattern, but they also adapt their pattern according to the player. For instance, one enemy might throw axes at the player while the player is far away, but as soon at the player comes close the enemy charges forward like a bulldozer on red bull.

EDIT: The preceding blog entry was necessarily brief and did not delve into detail that would do the game justice.