It's time for a Castlevania spin-off. Wish there were more than two games for this...
Believe it or not, this is a remake/sequel to the Famicom Kid Dracula game; the only difference is that this got a Western release.
The game begins with Kid Dracula learning that Garamoth (a mistranslation of Galamoth) is causing trouble again and is much stronger than before. Unfortunately, Kid Dracula has forgotten his magic, and he will have to re-learn it all along the way.
You'll learn how to cast the Bat spell: select "BAT" with Select, then hold B and release when the Kid Dracula face in the bottom center is angry. From there, you can fly for five seconds before you revert back to human form. You can also press B in bat form to revert back to human form early if necessary. After some more dialogue, the game begins.
Level 1
The Control Pad lets you move left and right, and you can duck with Down and aim attacks upwards with Up. B lets you attack, and A lets you jump.
The heads-up display is simple. To the left is a three-letter code signifying which spell you have selected. "NOR" lets you throw fireballs, while "BAT" lets you turn into a bat. Pressing Select lets you cycle through your spells. Below that is the number of lives you have left The Kid Dracula face gets angry when you power your attack up by holding the B button (and sleeps when you pause the game), and tells you how much time you have left on certain spells. The hearts are your health, and below that is the amount of coins you have. You can pick up coins by beating up enemies and taking coins that they leave behind.
By charging up the NOR spell, you can get a larger, more powerful fireball than you would if you just tapped the B button.
Wait for the spikes to move up before walking under them.
To climb ladders, hold Up and Down when in front of them to climb them.
The enemies here - the bats, the Frankenstein's monsters, the knights - are pretty easy to destroy, especially if you always charge up your fireball before attacking. The bats fly around, but they can also swoop down The Frankenstein's monsters will alternate between walking slowly and quickly. The knights will throw their lances at you if they see you.
The small heart refills two hearts on your health meter. The big ones refill the whole enchilada.
The see-saw platforms will tilt back and forth as you walk across them. As long as you don't play around, you can make it to where you need to go just fine.
The boss here is a series of ghosts. The small ghost can easily be defeated with four big fireballs. The big ghost will go down in five. Both of them walk back and forth, but will also jump up and down to the point that you can walk under them and stop at the side of the screen to spit fireballs at you that you can jump over.
You'll then fight an old man ghost. Switch to BAT and fly over him. When he does a full lap around the screen, he falls asleep and has to be dragged off the screen. Thus ends Level 1.
At the end of the level, you'll meet a bat who asks Kid Dracula for forgiveness for switching over to Garamoth's side before joining Kid Dracula on his adventure along with his other bat friends.
You'll then learn the Bat Attack. Switch to "ATT" with Select, then charge up with B to throw a short-range arcing attack that defeats any enemy it touches.
At the end of every stage, you can play bonus games, and you can play for coins or for lives. The lives games cost ten coins compared to the coin' games two, and are a lot easier and a lot more rewarding, and I show those off first. There will be four crystal balls, and you'll want to watch the one that you want carefully to see where it ends up so you can select it and play the game that you want.
Of the four lives games, Grab Bat is perhaps the easiest. Move around with Left and Right on the Control Pad and press A to swing the net. The more bats that you catch, the more lives you'll get. Five bats net you one extra life, ten net you three, and fifteen net you seven.
The coin game has you guessing numbers in order to get more numbers. The more you bet on a certain number, the more coins you can win if you land on that number on the wheel. If you land on a zero, you'll get nothing. Also, there are four 2's, four 4's, three 6's, two 8's and one star, making the higher numbers harder to land on for big money.
Level 2
You'll see the world map before every new level.
At the start of this level, you'll be climbing upwards. The ATT spell will make it easier to attack the zombies that throw knives at you and owls that swoop down at you.
The music here is from a Commodore 64 game called Super Pipeline.
The heart in a box increases your maximum health by one heart.
The faces in the walls will take you to an earlier point in the level if you walk into them.
Charge up the fireballs to push the plants back. Also, watch the top of the screen for owls, stag beetles that will drop downwards and the spores that the plants spit out. Make sure not to let the owls make it to the plants, as they can rip the plants off the platforms that move with you and force you to use the lower path if you leave them at the plant long enough. If you can make it to the end without losing either plant, you can get a big heart.
The slightly darker logs in the log segments fall when you land on them. There are fish that you will want to watch out for and destroy with charged fireballs that are aimed upwards, and there will also be logs going downwards on the waterfalls that will block your path.
When you reach the bridges, just keep going right. Go under the first fish, but shoot the second and the third.
The boss is a Jason wanna-be with an ax. Charge up fireballs and throw them at him as he goes for the ax and comes at you. That will take down the first phase very quickly. This then starts the second phase where he has a shotgun. Stay to the left when he is on the roof of the log cabin to jump over and dodge the bullets, then throw charged-up fireballs at him as you keep away from the guy. You'll take him down in no time and learn HMG, which is a homing shot that has to be charged up. When it is, let go of B to attack multiple enemies with homing shots.
Stick 'Em is one of those "stick things in a barrel and hope you don't trigger a game over" games. Pick which hole you want to put a sword in with the Control Pad and press A to make your choice. Four swords will give you one extra live, seven will net you three and nine will net you seven. If the skeleton in the barrel loses his head, the game is over and you will receive your prize, should you have earned one in the process.
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