Vintage Gaming: Castlevania: Bloodlines
By Miodrag Kovačević | November 27, 2011 | Features | No comments | Share
Last week, we talked about Contra: Hard Corps, Konami’s Mega Drive/Genesis exclusive for a franchise previously found hanging out mostly with Nintendo as far as home consoles were concerned. The second exclusive was also from a critically acclaimed franchise: Castlevania. The title of the game was Bloodlines, or, if you were in Europe or Australia, The New Generation. Yes, bloodlines was apparently a very grotesque word for a continent that had monarchies abound throughout its history and an island which is the only location where a hellspawn like the platypus is allowed to exist.
The plot is fairly simple. We can blame vampires for causing World War I this time around (shifts the focus from Serbia, I guess). Elizabeth Bartley wishes to revive her Uncle Dracula, so she conduct some sort of ritual which leads to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and which, in turn, causes the Great War. What she gains from this is a claim on the souls of all the casualties of the war, which she can then use to resurrect her dear uncle.
You take up the role of either John Morris, the current wielder of the Vampire Killer whip, or Eric Lecarde, a spear-wielding 
lanceman from Spain, on a never-ending quest to avenge his girlfriend. Well, there’s possibly a bit more to it than that, but as vast as the Castlevania mythos is, the story was never amazing. Frankly, Bloodlines has one of the more interesting premises, quite reminiscent of something you’d see in the World of Darkness setting from White Wolf.
Each character controls differently and has a few special skills. Morris can use his whip to swing over gaps and pitfalls, while Lecarde can launch himself in the air, damaging opponents in the process, as well as reaching some tricky places. Aside from their weapon of choice, the characters handle much differently compared to previous Castlevania protagonists. Whereas your typical NES and SNES Castlevania had the main character control like a stone slab on wheels, Morris and Lecarde are much more nimble. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be running around like Hayabusa, but at least the movement is more fluid. The game’s not easier for it, as Bloodlines is probably on the more difficult side even for the series’ standards.
The real charm of the game lies in how it uses the capabilities of the platform. While the SNES did have more colors and stronger 
hardware and whatnot, Bloodlines proves that the Mega Drive was much better in motion. As in plenty of other games late into the Mega Drive’s lifespan, the levels are quite eventful. Water effects are excellent, parallax backgrounds are done right, the sun’s rays pierce through the windows of a dark mansion. Everything just looks so alive, unlike the Super Castlevania 4 or Dracula X which had static backgrounds at worst and three-frame gifs at best. It’s a real 16-bit spectacle adventure, something akin to a Mega Drive version of God of War as far as presentation is concerned. The level design works hand in hand with the visual delivery. Scaling the Pisa in Italy, fending off an aquamage before he drowns you in the flood he is creating. Heck, one level actually cuts the screen in three horizontal layers and distorts it, making it harder for you to navigate.
And then there’s the music. It’s done by none other than Michiru Yamane, meaning the tracks in Bloodlines are on par with every other title of the franchise.
What’s interesting is that, much like Contra: Hard Corps, Bloodlines never saw a release on any other platform, even something like Virtual Console, PSN or XBLA. It’s quite a shame because it’s an excellent title. Considering many indie developers dabble in 2D sprite graphics, I’d suggest anyone thinking about working on such a project give Bloodlines a go, as it is a prime example of proper 2D presentation.
Castlevania: Bloodlines (or Casltevania: the New Generation in EU and AUS) was released exclusively for the Mega Drive/Genesis in March 1994.
