The Shrine

.... And I've already finished it =)

It's a nice play. The graphics are above Super Castlevania, as are the animations and sound effects. The handling is just like Trevor Belmont, no different. The game is more forgiving than other original series games (Medusa Heads were easy to take down) except the fifth level may offer some challenge. Every boss has their weaknesses, and I found them relatively easy to figure out; if you're quick and follow their strategy, you can avoid getting hit. This is a game that is more of a one sitting type deal (like Ninja Turtles games or Knights of the Round).

This is a good game as an intro to the older games for newer players. It is less dark and oppresive, relatively flashy, and has no awkward locations. Though for more advanced players I would get this one after Dracula's Curse and Super Castlevania. Dracula's Curse is 5 bucks (a steal for such an atmospheric and fun old school game). Super Castlevania is also a better game in my opinion, and costs 8 bucks. This one was flashy and fairly fun to play through for 10 bucks.

If you want to get into the original series, this game is the best starting point as the others are more difficult.

One thing I did notice was I unlocked "Classic Style" after finishing the game; I am not sure what that means.

That one surprised me. I was expecting Rondo of Blood to come out and we got this instead.

I'll have to check it out eventually.

Did anyone ever get Contra Rebirth from WiiWare? That one looked pretty good too.

Isn't Rondo coming at some point soon?

It is, I am guessing not until at least the summer, they seem to space these ones out 6 months or so.

ManaMan wrote:Did anyone ever get Contra Rebirth from WiiWare? That one looked pretty good too.

Well, considering I can't test drive the game, no. I'm really surprised at the mindnumbing low number of demos. I'm can count them on a single hand. Seriously. Five, there are five demos.

Nintendo has actually announced that there will be Wiiware demos coming very, very soon. Yes, they're way behind the times as usual, but they are coming.

What I was really surprised about is how they didn't use the demo system from Super Smash Bros Brawl and just implement it in all of their VC titles (and now WiiWare as well). What's-his-name simply put a timer on the NES game included in that which would signal the end of the demo version. The games are miniscule anyways (most NES game would come in at under 1MB, SNES games at under 6MB - only Tales of Phantasia was that big- and most N64 games at under 16MB, the largest one was RE2 at 64MB) so they could just do what Microshaft does and have you download the entire game and let it run only in demo mode unless you pay to remove it. Considering it's already been developed it almost makes no sense for them not to use it.

Even if you wanna use the "the 5 minute demo would stop most people from buying the NES game" argument, they should still have implemented at launch for the WiiWare games. It's just their legendary short-sightedness at work.