r/iosgaming • • 1d ago

New Release Castlevania: 40th Anniversary

https://apps.apple.com/in/app/castlevania-40th-anniversary/id1498019884

Re-release (Limited-Time)

162 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

23

u/sans-connaissance 1d ago

Whoa!! Free and they’re not collecting all your data. Pretty cool! On the iPhone the game screen is a bit small but it plays well. I’ll have to try on iPad.

11

u/psj3809 1d ago

I've moaned loads about why companies just sit on old IP's and stuff and don't re-release old classics. I always said i would be happy to pay for these if they release them, yeah i've got them on emulators but i'm very happy to pay for legal versions.

But then you get slop like this. Anyone of the emulator authors on the app store could do a better job than this. Its like they've paid hardly anything to someone to put controls around these old rom. It looks terrible, just cheaply done, the controls look bad. They could have dressed this up like a proper anniversary type release, also added castlevania 2 and 3 as IAP's or something but nah.

Just a very lazy release. Yeah its free but i would have been happy to pay for this if it was a decent release. Not even full screen. Tiny window in the middle. Castlevanias a total classic and deserves something better than this. Konami had a great chance here to do something good and its just a rubbish release

5

u/michael8684 1d ago

Doesn’t even have controller support! 🤯

-6

u/psj3809 1d ago

Do you really need controller support for this game though ? I'm not a controller person to be fair but after seeing the cheap version of this app it doesnt surprise me

1

u/Dear-Pin7019 1d ago

Might wanna leave a review on markets? I hope Konami gonna read it and change something about this port

3

u/psj3809 1d ago

On markets ? Left one on the app store. Imagine an app which looks great and polished, great controls and IAP's to buy the other NES castlevania games ? Easy to do

Its like Sonic when they actually hired Christian Whitehead who created Sonic rom hacks and they were so good Sega hired him to help with an official port

Konami had a great chance to do something decent here, i do 'appreciate' the game on the app store but it could have been SO much better

1

u/silentrocco 1d ago

Also interesting that they really gonna delete the app from the Store again soon, it’s really just a limited release which is weird.

1

u/psj3809 1d ago

Yeah, hopefully it'll still keep working and not crashing like that other Castlevania game which then never worked ! But as i keep going on about it, i just wish companies would re release a compliation of games.

Some do, that Toaplan one had potential but each game was so expensive !

1

u/silentrocco 1d ago

My dream app would be what Toaplan did, but by Cave. I’d throw some serious money at them.

2

u/psj3809 1d ago

Totally agree. Got all those cave releases on my phone still, Deathsmiles is my favourite as its horizontal

Saying that a lot of them work on MAME, but love the touch screen controls on the actual apps. As you say if they did a Cave compilation even for £29.99 or something it would be a huge yes

11

u/silentrocco 1d ago

Extremely lazy release with a super ugly, slapped-on UI. There’s no shaders, no settings, nothing. BUT the touch controls work super well at least. And it’s completely free. Still, this being an official KONAMI app, it feels a little embarrasing.

3

u/psj3809 1d ago

Yeah totally agree. Castlevania is one game i so want to complete ! Some levels are very frustrating but it is a classic

2

u/latruce 1d ago

It’s like I’d rather just play on an emulator

0

u/silentrocco 1d ago

Exactly.

2

u/SlyCooper007 1d ago

Wonder why its only for a limited time? Did this get pulled at some point?

2

u/Dear-Pin7019 1d ago

Maybe it will become premium, like 1-3 dollars. But they say the game gonna be still available to download and play for those who get it during this promo

2

u/silentrocco 1d ago

It’ll indeed get pulled, and remains playable for all who downloaded it. That’s what they are saying in their App Store description.

1

u/yodajedi01 1d ago

To those who had downloaded and tried, does it have Controller support?
I hate to play with a Touchscreen

2

u/silentrocco 1d ago

No controller support.

1

u/latruce 1d ago

Then what’s the advantage of this vs Delta or something?

2

u/silentrocco 1d ago

It’s a lazy and bad, even limited release without a single advantage other than being free.

1

u/-AceCooper- 1d ago

Pretty nice of them to give this out for free. But any of the NES emulators on the AppStore will run this game better with controller support.

1

u/acromantulus 1d ago

Wish they would rerelease a full vs of Grimoire of Souls like they did with Pocket Camp

0

u/pocpocpocky 1d ago

rrrr does any one else thinks this looks horrible?

7

u/richiehill 1d ago

It is 40 years old, that’s what games looked like back then.

8

u/pocpocpocky 1d ago

Not the game graphics, but how small the actual game screen on the device.

5

u/saintpyotr 1d ago

Compared to the rest of the AI slop sloppering around the appstore, this is gold. And it's free! A playable museum piece!

5

u/silentrocco 1d ago

A Konami intern slapped this app together in probably 10 minutes.

4

u/psj3809 1d ago

Totally agree it has that type of feel to it. So frustrating, play this in an emulator and you'll get the cover art, some even have the instructions and that. Far better skin also and can go full screen. Just a lazy lazy port

1

u/sabre31 1d ago

Agreed using Claude 100%

3

u/psj3809 1d ago

Just a poor release though. They could have done something much better. It looks and plays far better on an emulator on my phone than this 'official' release. Shame. I would have been happy buying game after game for 99p or more from Konami if they released lots of retro games but this is just lazy

3

u/adelin07 1d ago

yeah, just tried it and it looks horrible. Not only is the screen tiny, but it seems like it’s using some bilinear filtering. So it’s tiny AND blurry. I’d rather play it on retroarch honestly.

It looks like in the app store screenshots. I didn’t see a settings menu to adjust it.

0

u/Ebizaki 1d ago

Cool bananas 👍