Super Castlevania IV (Wii)

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Description

Super Castlevania IV is, story-wise, a remake of the first game in the series. Set in the year 1691, the game casts the player in the role of Simon Belmont, a vampire hunter armed with a powerful whip, on a quest to defeat the evil Count Dracula in his castle. Despite the identical plot, the six castle stages have different layouts and themes; also, five initial stages that depict Simon's advancement towards the castle through various environments have been added.

The gameplay consists of traversing timed, linear platform stages, defeating enemies with the whip or sub-weapons that require collecting hearts and can be found by destroying parts of the scenery. Simon's stand-out ability in this installment are eight-directional attacks with his whip, which allow him, among others, to damage enemies standing below and above him. Holding out the whip will block enemy attacks. Simon can also latch his whip on special grappling points to swing over pits and obstacles. Game progression is saved by passwords given to the player after a stage has been completed.

Visually, the game uses hardware "Mode 7" effects such as parallax scrolling, rotating rooms, and pseudo-3D objects in some locations.

Screenshots

There are no Wii screenshots for this game.

There are 40 other screenshots on file for other versions of this game.

Alternate Titles

• "惡魔城" -- Chinese Title (traditional)
• "悪魔城ドラキュラ" -- Japanese Spelling
• "Castlevania 4" -- Common Informal Name
• "Akumajo Dracula" -- Japanese title

Part of the Following Groups

• Castlevania / Akumajō Dracula series
• Fictional character: Count Dracula
• Theme: Vampires

User Reviews

There are no reviews for the Wii release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.

The Press Says

Nintendo Life	Dec 26, 2006		90
Jeuxvideo.com	Aug 04, 2009	17 out of 20	85
Mag'64	Feb 28, 2010	8.5 out of 10	85
Gaming Target	Jan 08, 2007	8 out of 10	80
IGN	Jan 11, 2007	8 out of 10	80
Eurogamer.de	Jan 31, 2007	4 out of 5	80
GameSpot	Jan 10, 2007	7.8 out of 10	78

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Odd resolution	1	Mobygamesisreanimated (10788) Jul 12, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The SNES version of Super Castlevania IV appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Boss names

There are some interesting and quirky boss names in this game. The level 4 mid-boss "Puwexil", the skull with the lashing tongue, when spelled backwards is "Lix Ew Up". The level 4 end boss, a huge rock monster named "Koronot", when spelled backwards is "Ton O Rok". The level 6 end boss, the dancing spectres "Fred Askare & Paula Abgoul" is an obvious and very quirky play on names for Fred Astaire & Paula Abdul.

Version differences

There are differences between the US and Japanese releases of Super Castlevania IV. In Japan, the game is simply known as Akumajo Dracula. The cross on the tombstone at the beginning of the game was removed, for fear that people would be offended by lightning destroying the icon. Also, the name "Dracura" is visible in the Japanese version, but is merely a smudge in the American one.

There was also another censorship issue...the statues in level 6 were originally topless, but a toga was added for American release (why they changed this and not the nude Medusa is unclear). The font used in menus and the status bar is entirely different.

Then there is the gore. The opening logo drips blood. All of that green slime in level 8 was original red, and even bits of gore were cleaned off the spikes in the English release. Cryptically enough, the tears of the crying eyeball thing are still red.

Awards

• Retro Gamer Magazine
  • (Issue 37) - voted #19 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll

Information also contributed by PCGamer77 and Xantheous

Related Web Sites

• Mr. P's Castlevania Realm (A comprehensive hosted fan "shrine" site dedicated to everything and anything related to Castlevania including Super Castlevania IV. Tips, cheats, walkthroughs, enemy lists, backstories, collectors collections, the Castlevania timeline and more.)
• OC ReMix Game Profile (Fan remixes of music from Super Castlevania IV.)
• The Castlevania Dungeon (A hosted fan "shrine" site devoted to all the games of the Castlevania series, including the SNES game Super Castlevania IV. Content includes game info/descriptions, plot summaries, various kinds of media (images, MP3s, etc.) and links to other Castlevania-related sites.)
• The Castlevania Treasury (A fan "shrine" site dedicated to all the games in the Castlevania series including Super Castlevania IV. Includes music from the games, backstories, walkthroughs, trivia details and much more.)
• Video review of the Castlevania series (WARNING: Language) (The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews games in the Castlevania series. In part 3, he reviews Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania: Dracula X, both on SNES as well as Castlevania on Nintendo 64. He mentions Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness but does not review it.)