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Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: Castlevania
Welcome to the hell house! Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: Castlevania includes 158 pages with full reviews of over thirty Castlevania titles - starting from the 1986 Nintendo original up to the 2014 Lords of Shadow 2 - plus reviews of clone games, soundtracks, books, trivia, and more!
158 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 12, 2014
16 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Kurt Kalata
35 books19 followersKurt Kalata has been writing about video games for twenty years. In addition to founding retro game website Hardcore Gaming 101 in 2003, he previously started fan sites The Castlevania Dungeon and The Contra HQ. He has also contributed to several other websites, including 1up, Gamasutra, and Siliconera. He has edited and published over fifteen books through the Hardcore Gaming 101 website, including The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures and The 200 Best Video Games of All Time, and has contributed to several other retro themed books, including The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, Unseen64’s Video Games You’ll Never Play, and The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Video Games. He lives in New Jersey, USA, with his wife, daughter, and two cats.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 11, 2018
Well, it's a pretty damn thorough book about Castlevania. I don't know what to say about it other than it delivers exactly what it promises. Could've used larger images. I'm an old. Oh, also, there used to be that kid in the Gamepro ratings who was like asleep for a 1, bored for a 2, smiling for a three, really excited for a 4, and his hair was exploding off his head for a 5. I looked like that 4 kid while reading this. Except I was on the shitter. That kid may or may not be on the shitter. It's hard to say. He's just a head.
June 28, 2015
Doesn't read too well in book form to be honest, Kurt isn't a great writer and so many of the entries are basically identical and overlong. Could've done with more time spent on games/moments that merited it rather than feeling the need to give everything a set number of pages.
And Dawn of Sorrow is brilliant. ffs.
And Dawn of Sorrow is brilliant. ffs.
October 18, 2015
Picked this up in a recent Humble Bundle sale. A bit dry but a great little book giving you an overview of the whole series. However, if you're after something with a bit more analysis then you're probably better off picking up Jeremy Parish's "Anatomy of..." book on this series.
November 6, 2014
Want a book about Castlevania? Well, here's an awesome book about Castlevania. What a terrible night to not read this book.
May 31, 2021
Credit must be given where credit is due. Lacking an official series retrospective from Konami (a la Dark Horse’s Hyrule Historia), Hardcore Gaming’s Castlevania book is an exhaustive survey of the titular game series that manages to compile a ton of information into a single book.
Unfortunately, that breadth of information isn’t presented in a very attractive way that, in turn, makes the book a chore to read. Outside of a fantastic cover by Rusty Shackles, the book has numerous issues with writing and design. The text is small and cramped, with multiple small thumbnails stuffed onto each page. The eye barely knows where to rest. Grammatical errors permeate the text, which makes one wonder why a copy editor is even credited.
As a source for research, the book is perfectly serviceable. But fans chomping at the bit for a professional series retrospective should keep petitioning Konami to put out an official volume.
Unfortunately, that breadth of information isn’t presented in a very attractive way that, in turn, makes the book a chore to read. Outside of a fantastic cover by Rusty Shackles, the book has numerous issues with writing and design. The text is small and cramped, with multiple small thumbnails stuffed onto each page. The eye barely knows where to rest. Grammatical errors permeate the text, which makes one wonder why a copy editor is even credited.
As a source for research, the book is perfectly serviceable. But fans chomping at the bit for a professional series retrospective should keep petitioning Konami to put out an official volume.
October 27, 2017
Gran compendio y repaso a una de las sagas mas emblemáticas de la industria del videojuego. Atractiva y amena, sólo le puedo achacar que el autor parece cambiar de opinión o contradecirse en varios puntos y sobre varias entregas de la serie. Por lo demás, un gran libro que se devora muy rápido y quizá sepa a poco.
October 27, 2017
Great compendium and review to one of the most emblematic sagas of the video game industry. Attractive and enjoyable, I can only blame him that the author seems to change his mind or contradict himself in several points and on several deliveries of the series. Otherwise, a great book that devours very fast and may even become too brief.
December 10, 2020
Usually these kind of books give me the hitch to play new games or revisit games I already played. Here, in an effort to be as "objective" as possible, the author seems to suggest that the best use of our time would be to listen to the Castlevania soundtrack instead of playing the games, save maybe for the very first and Castlevania III.
February 3, 2025
It has a step by step history and gameplay of the games that were introduced on the nes platform
It is a nostalgia collection to have if your a fan (like me) of Castlevania and the gameplay history that is with it. Fun to read and memorable to enjoy of the Hay-Day of the NES Games.
It is a nostalgia collection to have if your a fan (like me) of Castlevania and the gameplay history that is with it. Fun to read and memorable to enjoy of the Hay-Day of the NES Games.
November 19, 2017
Nice and extensive overview of the Castlevania series as is now expected of HG101 books. The 'rustic' feel of thier books may not be to everyone's taste but for simple and easy to read facts presented with love and passion... you can't go wrong.
November 8, 2024
Un libro muy bueno. A ver, es caro, pero es que viene con tantas fotografías y lo que explica de cada juego es muy interesante y divertido. Es muy completo pero a veces se echa un poco de menos más salseo (la intrahistoria de cómo se llevaron a cabo los juegos, por ejemplo). Pero recomendable 100%.
June 9, 2017
Good read
I love Castlevania as it is my favorite game series. The author knows and seemed to care about the series and lore. If you love the series, then definitely read this book!
I love Castlevania as it is my favorite game series. The author knows and seemed to care about the series and lore. If you love the series, then definitely read this book!
September 10, 2017
Not sure what else you could really include here as it covers everything up to the point of publication and all of the side stuff. Well worth it for fans.
September 5, 2019
Un ouvrage catalogue bien documenté et illustré qui permet de redécouvrir (mais aussi de découvrir) toutes les adaptations de la série Castlevania.
March 22, 2021
Excellent analysis of the series
Loved all the details and history behind each game. Thorough and enjoyable to read. Look forward to more by the author.
Loved all the details and history behind each game. Thorough and enjoyable to read. Look forward to more by the author.
October 7, 2016
I've been a huge Castlevania junkie for years, and when I was a wee laddie just getting into the games, two sites out there really stoked the fandom fires in my brain - Mr. P's Castlevania Realm and Kurt Katala's The Castlevania Dungeon.
This book is a printed collection of information available on The Castlevania Dungeon, except revised and up to date. It's not quite as in-depth as the stuff on Mr. P's Castlevania Realm (tough to be as in-depth as that site), but Kurt's writing is still highly detailed, outlining the pluses and minuses of each game in the franchise as well as the various spinoffs, cameos, manga releases, soundtrack albums, etc.
My favorite parts of this guide were Kurt's looks at Castlevania fan games, especially an old Japanese release called Vampire that I remember downloading as a kid. Also, totally dug the sections at the end where he shows various trends in the series, like all the clocktowers and the "castle crumbles in the background" closing shots. Longer sections devoted to this kind of thing would be appreciated in later revisions of this book.
As for my nitpicks, some of the screenshots seem to have been stretched and ripped from the Video Game Museum, and could afford to be higher resolution. I'm surprised that there isn't more emphasis on Castlevania lore, since the original series timeline is one of the most wonderfully convoluted things in video games, and when it comes to the Lords of Shadow sub-series, I personally feel that Kurt is too harsh. (Then again, most people are.)
Nevertheless, this is as good of a comprehensive printed Castlevania guide that we're ever gonna get, especially since Konami seems to have put this legendary series out to pasture. (Eff Konami, seriously.) Well worth a purchase if you've ever been knocked off a platform by a stray Medusa Head.
This book is a printed collection of information available on The Castlevania Dungeon, except revised and up to date. It's not quite as in-depth as the stuff on Mr. P's Castlevania Realm (tough to be as in-depth as that site), but Kurt's writing is still highly detailed, outlining the pluses and minuses of each game in the franchise as well as the various spinoffs, cameos, manga releases, soundtrack albums, etc.
My favorite parts of this guide were Kurt's looks at Castlevania fan games, especially an old Japanese release called Vampire that I remember downloading as a kid. Also, totally dug the sections at the end where he shows various trends in the series, like all the clocktowers and the "castle crumbles in the background" closing shots. Longer sections devoted to this kind of thing would be appreciated in later revisions of this book.
As for my nitpicks, some of the screenshots seem to have been stretched and ripped from the Video Game Museum, and could afford to be higher resolution. I'm surprised that there isn't more emphasis on Castlevania lore, since the original series timeline is one of the most wonderfully convoluted things in video games, and when it comes to the Lords of Shadow sub-series, I personally feel that Kurt is too harsh. (Then again, most people are.)
Nevertheless, this is as good of a comprehensive printed Castlevania guide that we're ever gonna get, especially since Konami seems to have put this legendary series out to pasture. (Eff Konami, seriously.) Well worth a purchase if you've ever been knocked off a platform by a stray Medusa Head.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews