Super Castlevania IV (SNES) Mike Matei Live 

The easiest Classicvania to be sure

Mike thanks for all that you do for the retro community. I have always liked your content.

I have a soft spot for Castlevania 4 because as a kid its visuals and atmosphere just blew me away. Still looks and sounds awesome today.

As a non-Castlevania expert, I have always felt this game has very "clunky" controls. I think for example Bloodlines controls better, I do not know if it is missing animation frames or what, but it feels so clunky.

A Symphony of the night (genesis port ) is in the works. Built more like a traditional Vania .. no grinding. Bet you'll love it Mike.

Still one of the funnest castlevania experiences , thanks for playing it. Regarding the realism talk in games, i was never a fan of it in debating video games , the developer makes whatever rules he wants for his game.

Honestly man, Super Castlevania IV was a game i beat when i was like 9, I look back at like, Super Metroid or Megaman X i had as a kid and definitely could tell the difference in how easy the level design was in this game compared to those other ones. Doesn't really detract from the enjoyment i had beating it. I was definitely more into Sega Genesis's Bloodlines, that game beat my ass and i kept comin' back for more. A hard-ass game for me and still is to this day is the game Demon's Crest. Jesus its hard, i've never beaten it, even on emulators i had trouble. Always good to see your content, bud. Suffering makes us stronger.

This music is amazing!

The most atmospheric Castlevania with the arguably the best OST

For me to properly answer that...I need to actually beat one of them someday. Back then, we didn't have any of the Castlevania games on NES. This one here is actually the only one my brother and I owned while we had the SNES and I remember my brother beating it and being really proud about that. After that I only remember renting Dracula X on SNES once, not being very impressed by it and that was it as far as Castlevania was concerned in my childhood. I do plan on tackling the classic ones one of these days though. This video actually made me think a bit about the topic of the multidirectional whip and other improvements like the more comfortable hit push and being able to change the jump direction while in mid-air. I personally think that the game developers should have made the game harder to accommodate these changes but I would not fault them for trying to improve what several gamers would have thought are valid criticisms. Sometimes you can do changes like Mega Man getting the slide and the Mega Buster in later games without it being a detriment to the game difficulty (though Metal Blade and Shadow Blade are good examples why Mega Man thankfully never got the ability to shoot in eight directions with his normal plasma gun). Sadly, that was not the case here. I am curious: If I remember correctly, James was of the opinion that he liked the multidirectional whip and found it sad that they removed it from later games, right? Game that is missing from your Games I've Beaten On Stream list: -Mega Man 2 - Back To Basics (NES Hacks/Homebrew/Unreleased)

Mike i enjoy watching you ur vids keep me smiling for days thank you

This is such a fun game. It's not perfect, but it's almost there!

Watching this in Holland while my Bulgarian date is painting eggs for easter, god love living in Europe watching American entertainment, love from the Netherlands ✌🏻

Honestly, Castlevania IV would benefit from some kind of difficulty select where you can choose between whipping in 8 directions or a "classic" control scheme. Although being able to change direction in mid air suits the platforming sections of IV really well.

Fan games to try! - Simon's Curse (PC), Resurrection of Vampire Killer (PC), CastleVania ReVamped (PC) by Lv4 games, CastleVania Chronicles 2: Simon's Quest by BMC WarMachine, CastleVania Chronicles 3: Dracula's Curse (PC) by BMC WarMachine, and CastleVania: The Seal of the Curse by ArkHouse (CV2 remake) (PC) to name a few!

I wish someone would hack an 8 way whip into the NES ones and Rondo/Dracula X. Just that alone would make them all much more equal. Why was this the only time we got it, and whip swinging? It added so much fun. Might not be better but I've played them as is and I'd like a fun alternative. Oh and make a 2 way whip only version of this game just for Mike, let him see if it's still even beatable.

One of the most laggy games that comes to mind on SNES is Stunt Race FX

I love that old Konami pause sound, lol. I find Castlevania 1 easier, somehow. I can't finish any of the other classicvania titles.

Yeah, I don't agree with the game being easy because of the 8-way whip. The game is less challenging because the team who made the game(which was a new team within Konami not the guys who made 1-3) decided to make it less challenging. It was actually a design goal for the game, the director of this game said in an interview said that he wanted to make a more atmospheric less challenging game compared to the Famicom games. And you are right that this game is very impressive, especially considering that it was a brand new team and this was a North American launch window game for the SNES. The game could still be challenging with the 8-way whip if the game was designed to counter-act it, but again, that wasn't the design goal with this remake.

My biggest issue is that in previous Castlevania titles were super tightly designed whether it was level design, enemy layouts, and movement/attacking. People love the 8 way whipping, but I believe that it's actually a design flaw. The original game was very purposeful with it's design. It forced the player to really calculate their every move and attack. Super Castlevania 4 is extremely lenient and often feels like a mindless whipping simulator. It excels in scale, graphics, sound, and atmosphere but REALLY lacks in level and enemy design. Again, most fights just feel like your mindlessly whipping and just hoping that you land enough hits while in other titles, enemies and bosses have clearer patterns that you have to carefully navigate through.

Hey, Mike. Enjoy the streams!

54:00 being a sports fan this commentary made me laugh so hard! 🤭

Mike! Can you do Deadly Towers? I know it's awful but I've been looking for a walkthrough for that game that has commentary and I can't find one.

Super Castlevania IV is my favourite of the classic Castlevania games. I find that when you're trying to do a no death run or just a clean run in general that I can go for quite a while and be almost perfect, but the minute I die, then I steat to constantly mess up and die multiple times.

This game is like a pleasant walk home, with your tape of favorite songs playing on your Walkman.

While walking Simon Belmont looks like he's cursing all the time

one of my fave games of all time!

Mike I still watch James and mike Mondays like there new

Thanks for all you do to make sure Bimmy can keep making money

Thanks!

This is the jam!

I remember requesting him to stream this game about a year ago in the comments of another video. Glad he finally got around to streaming it. One of my favourite SNES games, even though I first played it about 4 years ago. And this is obviously not the hardest Castlevania seeing that the Game Grumps couldn't beat the game and gave up on it. Also, I played the PAL version of the game, and it doesn't have any of the lag and slowdown that the NTSC version has. So in a way, the PAL version is the more smooth experience.

You are a legend if you can beat castlevania Chronicles on normal mode for the x68000 or ps1 version. That game is bar none the hardest Castlevania and also also the most fun. It’s a double edged whip.

the level at 1:35:10 gave me so much anxiety as a kid lol

1:14:32. They could design a hook shot in the original Legend of Zelda like they did with Link’s Awakening. Or even use the feather item to jump over pits

Just beat this myself for the first time like yesterday

Hey Mike will you ever make a SOTN playthrough?

Regarding your premium videos like your recent metroid prime videos are they going to stay premium forever or do you make them available to everybody after a while? Thanks.

When you can 360 a whip. Yes thats the easy one

But is it really the easiest? This game is much harder than say the og castlevania if you try a no death run

You must beat this game once. Because then you can select another difficulty.

Loved this game had this for snes in 1992 played this a lot they have ahack to this game mike

In Japan, this game had the exactly same title as the first game on the NES: "Akumajô Dorakyula", which means "devil's castle Dracula". (technically it is transcribed as "Dorakyura", but I prefer to write an L in appropriate places, and Japanese uses a specific sound that is like a mix of L and R anyway)

Am I actually catching this live? Holy shit

The only Castlevania I’ve beaten

CV4 is a total breeze, but I still come back to it even after playing it for about 30 years now. The music and mood are perfection, it feels good with the movement and of course the nostalgia is great too. Game design wise, I feel Rondo of Blood is the perfect blend of decent fair challenge and top notch crafted quality that is expected of the franchise. Rondo is all class. The X68000 Castlevania (on original hardware, not the PS1 version) is the most ridiculous as far as challenge, that game wants you dead lol.

Mike is a true gamer. All hail Mike.

Mike, there are literally two modes of Symphony of the Night that do not involve grinding aka playing as Richter or Maria.

complain to konami where are the new castlevania games

This game (dies) is so (dies) EASY (dies many more times)! Seriously though, I agree that it is one of the easier ones, though obviously not quite as easy as you try to make it out to be as evident by the steep number of deaths (I don't mean to yank your chain here, but it is a bit odd to die that many times on a game you keep saying is so easy). I've played through and beaten it countless times over the past 30 years, and there are still parts that I die on, though that typically doesn't happen until Stage 8 (the dungeon). Easier, sure, but it still provides a good challenge, which makes it worth coming back to over and over. Easily the best of the older Castlevanias for its gameplay & stage design.

I love this game but the one thing that always bugs me about it is how zoomed in the screen compared to the previous Castlevania games. Makes for a very claustrophobic experience!

People are going to crucify me for this comment. But i think Super Castlevania IV is SUPER overrated.

I'd say both Super Castlevania IV and Symphony of the Night are by far the easiest Castlevania games. As much as I love those games, Rondo of Blood and Dracula's Curse both top the list for me not just because of their addictively hard gameplay, but also because of the playable characters and branching pathways. I played a lot of Castlevania in my time and I still prefer the old-school, sometimes brutal challenge of the older games. I'm a big Castlevania fan and a big fan of watching your streaming videos.

To some this is a hot take, but I think Castlevania: Bloodlines on Genesis and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood on Super CD-ROM² are both better than Super Castlevania IV. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Castlevania 1, Castlevania Chronicles, and SOTN are also better. Everyone praises Super Castlevania IV as one of the best ones, but its not even close. Probably because of nostalgia. Super Castlevania IV is better than Haunted Castle (Arcade), though.

Great video, thank you Mike. Some of these early SNES games are so nostalgic. If you're looking for a more challenging platformer, you might enjoy Gargoyle's Quest II on the NES if you wanted to try it again. It has some very challenging stages.

This game was my childhood, the soundtrack blows me away and still does to this day aye aye aye

During development, Konami ran into issues with optimization that forced them to remove a lot of the enemies, as the game would slow to a crawl with too much on-screen. This is evidenced by the leaked beta builds floating around. Konami also had a tight deadline of a Halloween '91 release, so this was their band-aid. Game was way too easy as a result.

Throwing my vote to Castlevania 3 LOOP 2 Alucard route. I wonder which are the best non-NES entries Castlevania hacks ?

I actually find Bloodlines to be easier, but both games to be hard

japanese cart has less lag, oddly enough

Mike is not going to sleep until he finish the game.

I feel like Simon's Quest is the easiest. It's not difficult at all as far as not dying goes, I mean the most risk you run of dying is falling into a pit lol.

I like Super Monkey Ball on the GameCube too. There was a game for the iPhone that I played about 12 years ago and it wasn't bad.

very nice music

hey mike! hope your holding up well.

I still don't understand how those damn cogwheels work; I don't know where you can stand on them, and where you suddenly cannot stand on them anymore.

Thank you for posting amazing retro content Mike, saved my saturday night. God bless

SC4 being the easiest Castlevania game pisses me off, because it's the only one I've been able to beat without abusing save states. Skill issue of the highest order on my part.

I've played Rondo, CV 4, CV1 and all of the DS games and symphony of the night. CV1 was cheap and has cheat mechanics. I think Super CV 4 is way better and strikes the perfect balance of fairness not to mention its creative use of scaling and its amazing music track. All the other Castlevania games have been easier since this one(Symphony, all the DS games because of grinding). Rondo is harder and better but not by much IMO! Just remember when judging this game that its only easy cause we've played it a bunch.

Mike there IS a Zelda 2 with no jumping and using the hook shot instead. It's called BIONIC COMMANDO! 😂😂😂

This game will have no mike matei rage for sure 😂😂

it may be the easiest, but i couldn't finish it 😅

Great to have this vid playing during a relaxing Sunday. Still remember renting this and happily spending a weekend on it and then eventually buying it and happily spending many more weekends on it. This and TMNT sold the system for me, which I purchased from K-Mart on layaway. Minus 1 point for adding a shitload of obligatory life trivia in the hopes that someone else remembers Kmart layaway

I think this game just has a really great vibe to it. It’s really fun to plow through it. I just love it, even though I think Bloodlines and Rondo are superior in general. I think the Castlevania Chronicles game is by far my least favorite 16 bit castlevania game. It just never felt right to me, next to Dracula X for the snes I suppose. That one’s okay.

Does 2 count in the argument of easiest? Simons Quest always felt like the easiest in terms of combat. Maybe not the easiest to figure out how to beat without internet or Nintendo Power, but fighting through the areas never felt tough.

Have you tried the legend of Mario? It combines two of your favorite games. Mario in a Zelda 1 type game

I still think bloodlines is much easier, maybe because its shorter but there are some dastardly jumps at the end of castlevania 4 on that auto scroller part

Indeed, it could be considered the easiest classic-style castlevania, though "Hard Mode" can be pretty arduous, especially considering the longer levels. Also, I noticed the videos now have pretty good sound quality, regarding to noise reduction.

I couldn't agree with Mike more on CV3 loop 2 being the hardest game. It's the hardest game I have ever completed. I also feel that Bloodlines is a very easy game to beat, if you play as Eric. GG's as always Mike!

If you play this game, can you adjust difficulty? I ... don't remember.

this game always kinda bored me. early snes, bland pastel colors that don't pop, trivially easy gameplay, just overall sleepy game

This game was great. I love the overall look of it but you can't top the original trilogy. I got a request. Please, PLEASE play 'The Legend of Mystical Ninja' it's one of my favorite SNES games of all time and that's quite achievement. It's perfect for streaming cause you can beat it in like 3 - 4 hours. Unless you mess around with little mini games. Please consider it man.

I find the tiles hideous now, but the graphics did impress when it came out.

Well easiest compared to other Castlevania but I like the game still has good gameplay,atmosphere,music and visuals but yea even second loop is not that difficult

I enjoy your vids Mike! thanks for doing these longer plays!

Their's a Castlevania SOTN female for the Sega Genesis. It's not finished yet, but u can play wats there

The “Nerd” just said that it’s not like fighting with a hand behind your back. I’m sure I could do it just the same.

How many hours does it take to beat this game?

Man I love Simon quest even tho is flaw really like how the world look the atmosphere at least it tried to build something but sadly a flaw game

Did you ever stream the Castlevania for Gameboy?

Not really the most difficult Castlevania game indeed. Only the last couple of levels are tricky and one or two bosses. After The Treasury level (tough bat boss to beat btw.) it has some difficult moments: The Clocktower mainly in the platforming department. The Castle Keep levels too (the stage that's upscrolling with the moving platforms and the saw coming up from the bottom). The boss I have some difficulty with is: Slogra. And Dracula himself isn't that easy too.

I actually had an easier time with Bloodlines. I think it's because 4 seems so loose at 1rst, and it eventually gets picky about how you move and the flow feels weird.

Mike, what is your opinion on time limits in side scrolling games? Does it make the game more intense or does it make you rush through the game?

Love Castlevania 4.

Dinosaur knight name is solgra

I would say Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for PSP is easiest one, I could finish it using touch screen controls.

Please play the Japanese version of Super Castlevania 4!

Castlevania aria of sorrow is fairly easy , potentially easier than sotn

i have a floppa that refuses to unalive me 🍗🎻⚰️ what shud i do

Still probably the best Castlevania game. Tied with SOTN in my opinion. And your dam good at it