Super Castlevania 4 Review/Guide

Castlevania 4 back in the day was one of the kings of video games.  It was literally the topic of discussion at school for a month at least.  I remember Christmas day when I was younger, my next door neighbor got this game and even though I had a lot of cool stuff to play with, I was still totally jealous of the guy!  Man what a little jerk I was haha, but the game was that huge.

Prologue Music Track

Sitting down for the first time I somehow managed to make it to the cave level (level 3) without dying, no small feat for an 8 year old.  But this game is NOT about my godlike skills with video gaming (intense amounts of sarcasm) but it is about this godlike video game which I recently picked up and replayed with hopes to best my feat of getting past the cave level without dying.

The Challenge.

My cousin and I are nearly homeless, in the fact that we live with family and have lots of free time haha.  We are also a bit competitive from time to time, and on occasion we get in very spirited competitions, winner claims respect!  What is this respect worth in the real world?  Not a damn thing, but who cares these games are fun!

So, we challenged eachother to play Super Castlevania IV the whole way through without dying once.  And honestly, we thought this wouldn’t be too hard as the game honestly isn’t very difficult to play.  But to have the perfect game has proven to be one hell of a serious challenge!

At any rate, it took us approximately 3-4 weeks of time to do this, we played the game every day, or every other day.  Since playing it through takes about 1 hour, and the stupid tough parts don’t come until later, when we died we were way to burnt out to play again so we would give it a day or two before we attacked it again.

In the end, I came out victorious, and learned quite a bit about playing through the game intelligently, that is maximizing the chances of NOT DYING while playing through the game.

What is the biggest challenge in the game?  Managing ZEALOUSY of course!!!!!!!!

o·ver·zeal·ous adj. Excessively enthusiastic

We got overzealous so often and made such stupid mistakes you would be sick, and so did we.  I will go over some of the big stupid mistakes you can make, and god help you you can make it through without being OVERZEALOUS!  (pfft…  impossible!)

The Game.

So enough crap right, sorry about that.  The game starts off with a bitchin prologue showing Dracula escape from his 100 year prison, and Simon Belmont springs to the rescue.

Dracula's Gravestone

Every one hundred years, the forces of good mysteriously start to weaken, thus, the power of Dracula starts to revive itself.  His power grows stronger and stronger every one hundred years.

Dracula has revived many times, however, his sinister actions have been consistently thwarted by the Belmont family.

It’s been one hundred years since the last confrontation between Dracula and the Belmont family, but now the serenity of Transylvania is being threatened by destructive forces.

On a dark and eerie night Dracula rose from his grave to unleash his destructive power over the countryside.

Once again Simon Belmont is called upon to destroy Dracula.  With only his whip and courage he sets out to restore peace to Transylvania.

-Prologue from Super Castlevania IV

Dracula escaping from grave

For the game I thought I would go through each level, and hilight some of the things to remember, tips, and secrets.  But firstly I need to discuss some basics.  Lets start with the weapons.

This weapon seems useful, but it really isn't. Seriously...

Pretty strong, but still crap compared to the boomerang!

Destroy's target object... If this was a beanie babie it's damage would make more sense. Dude, this weapon F%&*ing sucks. TOO WEAK!

I have seen this used pretty interestingly, definitely superior for some circumstances. Excellent on many bosses! TOTAL crap on lots of others.

I feel naked without this. It is the most useful weapon in Belmont's arsenal, yes this is my opinion, but honestly it is useful for every boss, and helpful for some of the tricky spots in the game. Oh and not to mention it makes the whip useless for MOST circumstances, like Dracula for one...

Stage 1

It is really easy….  The whip works fine on the boss.  You can get the boomerang  early on, no sense in trading it in for anything else.  Don’t forget the double shot in the wall here.

secret double shot location

Stage 2

Pretty straight forward.  Only tricky thing in the first part of the level is killing those pesky frogs, which you can easily do if you just hold out the whip in front of you and let it jump into it.  When you get to the boss you can defeat it easily by whipping and using the boomerang.  See the video below.

After you defeat Medusa, you go through a waterway and there is an extra life hiding behind one of the pillars towards the end of the level, review the photo.

secret extra life

Stage 3

This is where the game starts to get a bit more difficult.  This level is full of tricky jumping situations so watch out.  If your going to want to pass this level without losing too many lives you will need to do it patiently, as in don’t rush.  The first part of the cave has one of the three secret rooms in the game, make sure you don’t miss it.

As you progress through the level you will encounter an area with tons of mermen, there are a couple overzealous points where you can get yourself into some trouble.

wait for the stones to stop falling.

watch out below.

This is a video of one spot where I have died many times, make sure to watch out here for those damn pesky mermen.

After jumping and swinging your way through the rest of the level you reach the Orphic Viper, one of the easiest bosses ever.  Hopefully you still have the boomerang, but if you don’t it’s still not an issue.

Stage 4

The instruction manual is wrong! There are 2 bosses for level 4, level 5 has no boss!!

This level is a lot of fun.  Some parts of this level were astounding graphically speaking back in the day.  Especially the one part where the background is spinning back and forth.  I remember feeling sick when playing through it the first time.

The level is not too tricky with the exception of some of these platform jumping spots where it is pretty easy to fall and die.  Just make sure your tapping the jump button like crazy when you land

When you get to the boss, just try to bum rush it with every boomerang you got.  Give this guy a second to get the upper hand and crap will hit the fan.

After you pass the boss you come to the only room in the game that rotates, it is pretty cut and dry just don’t get too fancy on the platform those flying medusa heads can overtake you if you let them.

The rotating room

This is a big overzealousy spot!

Next is the room with the spinning back wall, prepare to be AMAZED!

After not too long you arrive at the boss, named Koranot (?).  It is the hardest boss yet, but still with the proper tactic it is blazingly easy.  The boomerang or holy water works fantastically here.

Stage 5

This is basically a precurser to the haunted mansion level.  Use this level to build up your hearts and make sure you grab the boomerang if you don’t already have it.  There is one super annoying thing that can happen in this level.  These damn griffins holding these red frogs can swarm in if you don’t kill them immediately.  I mean if one of them survive, within seconds another will fly in, and another, and then your DEAD.  See below if you don’t believe me.

After you get to the big door, you begin your adventure in the haunted mansion.  The home of one of the biggest overzealousy spots AROUND!

Stage 6

Paula Abghoul, and Fred Askare. I think they were too burnt out programming the game to take the manual seriously hah!

This is the level that always freaked me out when I was a kid playing it.  That damn creepy organ music just chills my spine every time I hear it.  Altogether this level isn’t too bad but it is definitely home to some tricky spots, and if your not paying attention and being PATIENT you can kiss some lives goodbye.  Playing through with the intention of the perfect game this level was definitely one of the scary spots.

After you get past the first room you are in the rafters, forced to swing from one chandalier to another.  Don’t feel the need to run through this and show off to your friends!

Man... I hate this spot with a passion.

Beyond this area right off the bat is number 2 of 3 secret rooms.  Review the video below for its exact location.

Not too far ahead there is a couple tricky spots.

Those wobbly wavy things are a pain!

Don't jump here you fool!

This spot has killed me many times before.  Make sure you send over a couple boomerangs before you go too far over those breakable blocks or Mr. Skeleton will smack you right into the spikes.  And here is another way to get those snapping coffins.  See aren’t boomerangs SWEET!

Moving along you have to cross over some hands that will choke you as its skeletal friend stabs ya.

You can duck under them.

Or jump over them.

Then you get to a big intimidating group of wimpy coffins.  Boomerang + whip will do the trick.

These must be undead synchronized swimmers.

Then, don’t forget to get that extra life before the boss.

You can get this over and over again if you have trouble with the boss.

Oh, and it’s boss time again.  Paula Aghoul and Fred Askare are weak, so very weak.

Stage 7

This is the last easy level before things start to get really tricky.  It has a couple of spots where you will surprise yourself by making stupid moves, but honestly this whole level is really easy.  It is FULL of health, if your low just start whipping the walls around you and chances are you will find a wholt turkey.

The second part of the level is this really tall stair climbing area that has these floating books which can and will hit you quite easily.  I realized this whole damn part could be bypassed using a trick I have since come to love.  Just fall!  I know that at the bottom part, the entire bottom of the screen is safe to land, so knowing that just fall until the screen doesn’t go down anymore and walk the last bit.  See below.

Right after this area you encounter the big overzealousy area of this level.  Honestly though, this part is really easy, just watch the pattern of the flying books and time your jumps just right.  If your unsure then wait!

Be patient on these books.

The rest of the level doesn’t give you much trouble.  There are a couple unique areas where little monsters under the rug try to push you towards spikes, but just duck as they pass by.

Duck past these things.

And in one of the rooms you will encounter a really goofy sounding fire snake that twirls around the screen.  It is a pain in the backside normally, but if you just do this trick you don’t even have to fight it.  As soon as you see the tip of it, just walk back a bit and then go towards it again.  It disappears!

After some more bats and living paintings you arrive at the boss.  Use the same technique as we have been using for like every boss…

Stage 8

This in my opinion is the beginning of the challenging levels.  This level takes a big leap forward in the difficulty department, has plenty of places where it is really easy to die, lots of spikes, and even the most OBSURD part of the game.  I say obsurd because towards the end of the level, there is a spot where it is a coin toss as to whether you will pass it alive.  Which as you can imagine, trying to get the perfect game, this level is really the one that makes or breaks it.  I couldn’t tell you how many times I made it all the way here without dying only to fall on this godforsaken spot.

Watch out, some swinging spikes swing low, you will have to duck in certain spots.  Make sure to spend time and watch, try to comprehend the pattern before you try waltzing through certain areas.

Swinging spikes.

These falling spikes are dangerous.

It is easy to get hit all over the place, every little owwie whittles down your health, so make sure you grab this turkey before the falling bridge.

Turkey, just in time!

I made a video of a painless way to cross the bridge, normally those bats are a pain to get around, but with the boomerang it’s a cinch.  Also a quick way to pass the vertical stair area in the next part.

Hopefully you still have that boomerang, or at least a holey water for the boss.  The knife sucks, make sure you don’t get stuck between these spikes when you whip at this candle, as there is nowhere to run you have to get it!

Ahh CRAP, don't make this mistake! Especially right before the boss.

I always used to walk past these spikes, and that’s pretty hard.  Only until I played recently did I realize you could kneel walk past the whole thing…

Kneel past these spikes.

Here is the wonderous bridge I talked about earlier.  I honestly think that if you are GOOD you have about a 70% chance of passing this part alive.  There is no real way to predict the bridge, as it is very random and you can’t even see the last half of the bridge before you dive on in.  Good luck is all I have to say.  Review the video.

Now it is time for the boss immediately after the bridge.  He isn’t very difficult, boomerangs work magically on it.  If he throws some of those molotov cocktails you can whip them to prevent damage.

Stage 9

This stage is badass.  Definitely one of my favorite levels.  It is really long compared to the previous levels, and has lots of fun and challenging spots.  One thing you will immediately notice is that there is an unreasonable amount of golden skeletons and bats in the first area.  The golden skeletons aren’t tougher than the normal ones, they are just blingier.  There isn’t as much health on this level so watch out, each bat hit, and skeleton’s bone throwing will dwindle your health and before you know it one more hit and yer dead.

There is a boomerang in the second room, if you don’t have it you will need it for the precarious spot coming ahead.

There is a boomerang up here if you need it.

This next area is pretty tricky, just don’t daudle on these dissipating golden bridges.

If you want the candles, jump and whip down.

After you pass this first spot, you can swing to a secret alcove where there is some health and hearts, watch out for the skeleton wandering out below.

Fishin' for skeletons.

Whew, I need some health!

Okay, fueled up and ready for the next part?  It is another bridge area, with a potential easy death too!  Right when your finished with the bridge there is going to be a skeleton, and if you let him hang around too long he is going to push you right off the edge!  Make sure you send over some boomerangs to get him out of the way, it’s either him or you!!  See the video below for my technique.

Swing over pools of gold coins.

Wait until at least 2 blocks are there, or else you will get impaled!

Once you pass the falling blocks room you will come up to secret room 3 of 3.  Follow the instructions on the video to get to it.

This part has lots of money bags.

Weeee.

Ok, we are ready for the first boss where you actually have to be paying attention!  The safest place to be for the first half of the boss is RIGHT under it.  It will swoop down occasionally, but if your whipping like crazy he should split up into its 3 smaller counterparts.  When these guys are flying around, I find it’s best to unleash a barrage of boomerangs.  When defeated, walk up the ladder to the trickiest level in the game, the clock tower!  Here is a video of the boss battle.

Stage A

Well, expect that if you’re playing this stage for the first time you will die plenty.  Unfortunately, a lot of this level needs to be memorized.  The timing and such for jumping off some of the gears is pretty tricky too, jump too early and you won’t make it, too late and you will fall right there.

Timing of your jumps is crucial on these cogs.

Duck and jump.

Here is a spot where I was talking about memorizing the level, it’s hard to know where to stand when these cogs come flying at you, review the photos below for the specific places you need to stand in order not to get hit.

Stand here to dodge the flying cogs.

Stand here to dodge the flying cogs.

Walking up the stairs further, you see some rings on a moving chain.  This can get tricky, as there are obstacles such as an armored axe knight, and a skeleton snake.  Here is a video of one way to get around.

Directly after this you have one last walkway before fighting the boss, Akmodan II.  This boss can be super easy, or a real pain, it all depends on where he appears.  When he is shooting his strands of fabric at you, you can defend by holding your straight up, but watch out if your on the right side.  The best place to be is on the left ledge, you can always defend against his attacks there easily.  As you see in the video if you get caught on the left you might have some problems.  If he appears on either the left or right ledge, than it’s game on with the boomerangs and whip.  Check out the video below for some strategy.

Stage B (The Last Level!)

don't forget about the bosses Gaibon and Death.

Alright, you have made it!  Prepare for some difficult areas ahead, but don’t fret because your almost to Dracula.  On the first part of the level you will see the rapier wielding headless pirates.  These guys look intimidating, and are quick to the stab.  This first area can mostly be bypassed.  See the video below.

After that we have the famous crumbling bridge, which leads to the last level challenge left.  The bridge is really less exciting than it looks.  If you want those candles, which I suggest you grab, you can jump and whip down at an angle.

You will need every heart you can get for the upcoming bosses!

After the bridge, we enter the last area before the slew of bosses.  This part is dangerous, all the initial stairs fall away as you step on them so make sure you are sure of where you are going before you commit!  To add insult to injury, there is also a big nasty looking saw blade following you, so don’t sit around any one spot for too long.

The last area.

No time for these candles!

Once you climb past the stairs, we have some floating platforms which will take you to the end of the level.  These things are tricky, and if you don’t do anything too crazy you shouldn’t have a problem.  Just remember to watch the spikes above, and limit your jumping to small hops.  Here is a video.

The boss Slogra is the least predictable boss out of the next three.  I can usually get by with only getting whacked once or twice, but sometimes you just get unlucky.  Use the technique below and you shouldn’t have any problems.  One thing to make sure you do is DUCK everytime he flies down after you wack him, as his trident will stick you otherwise.  When he loses his trident, just keep running to each piller and whip him as soon as he is vulnerable.  When all is done there is plenty of health in the next room to fill up any damage that you recieved whilst battling.  Review the video below.

The next boss Gaibon is pretty damn easy to kill.  Just make sure you have a constant barrage of boomerangs floating around the top third of the screen and he should be taken down in no time flat.  With the exception of the attack where all these spikes come flying from the ceiling, most of his attacks are really easy to avoid.  Regardless, there is some health in the next room, which you really don’t need.  See my video below for Gaibon.

Death used to be a real problem with me.  That was until I found out the secret, Death is a big fat wimp!  He looks all scary and stuff, but underneath that holloween costume is the easter bunny, trust me.  Basically, while he is floating around you are going to want to stay in the left corner.  When he is floating above you, whip at him, when he is not, hold your whip straight up and it will defend against ALL is little flying scyths.  He is impervious to boomerangs while he is doing his vacuum attack so don’t waist your time.  Instead head in for a whip or two, jump over his first flying scyth, whip again and get back over to the left side of the screen.  Watch the video this guy is a big fat joke.

You have made it this far, no use waisting any lives on the pushover Dracula.  You might however want to fill up on energy, hearts, a free boomerang, and a triple shot before you fight him.  See the video below fo the secret.

Okay, Dracula isn’t so hard you will just need to fight him a couple times before you figure out what you need to do to not get hit.  Initially he will open up his cap and shoot a fireball, but don’t try to jump over it until after you wacked it and it turned into the two fireballs.  When you get his energy down a bit, he will shoot a wildly floating energy ball at you, whip at it and you can get a turkey leg.  After that you have to fight his fireball minions, who can be tough if you don’t get a handle on them.  Try focusing on the fireballs more than Dracula so you can make sure they don’t sneak up on ya.  More boomerangs and he will turn into his final form.  He bolts you with lightning, which if you have moderate reflexes you should be able to dodge EASILY.  Here is how I beat him.

Finishing him off is no problem, congratulations you beat the game.

Final thoughts

This game rocks.  I hope people still play it, as it’s still one of the best Super Nintendo games around.  If you don’t own a Super Nintendo, but want to play the game, there are numerous places that can help you out.  While definitely not recommended by Nintendo, you can download the game using bittorrent, limewire, or most other file sharing programs as SNES emulation is widely done.  Although for the true fan, nothing but the real thing will do.

Hurray for another 100 years of peace.

Once you beat the game you can play it over in the harder mode.  Enemies are harder to kill, and there are more of them, but the bosses are still wimps.

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