A licensed Hotel Transylvania game that is a... competent metroidvania? This is the first time I've seen a shovelware game based on Castlevania, and frankly, I'm happy it is, because, while imperfect and a bit rushed, it's a wonderful but short game. To start, I should add that this is mostly made by the Shantae team, which is very stylistically noticeable and is also even noticeable in how the game controls. The art looks like Shantae art and each character has nice sprites and character art for their speech (although the more frequent characters usually have better art, except Dracula who looks off in both his sprites and art), with Mavis' sprites being the best and having some really good animations. It feels like a mix of Shantae and Castlevania, other than the fact that... you jump on enemies' heads? Like in Mario?? Weird choice but I think it's a fine change. You play as Mavis on a quest to save Johnny from Quasimodo and get to enter and explore the castle. Sadly, the free exploration is limited, as Dracula instantly gives you quests. This is my main issue with the game: quests. Admittedly, I understand why they did it since it's a game targeted towards kids and making it an actual goalless metroidvania would be a bit hard for them. It's annoying, but I get it. Each quest is given out by a character, usually to find something for them or a different character and bring it back. This does mean there's a decent bit of backtracking which is annoying too but I think the game's fun movement makes it less of a problem. Speaking of fun movement...
The game has possibly one of my favourite abilites in a game EVER that I don't think I've seen before: a hypnotic laser that makes enemies stay still. Now that seems simple, but it is both amazing as a weapon AND a traversal tool and is amazingly designed. Not only does it stop the enemy moving and harming you, it also allows you to use them as a platform, a geniusly designed way to impede progress by allowing you to jump from enemies that I LOVE. It's a bit like the Portrait of Ruin thing where you can jump off the other character but much more usable, useful and fun. This game did something better than Castlevania. How. HOW. Anyway, my point here is this game has some fun abilities. It does copy bat form and mist form from Symphony of the Night, but the wall run, hypno beam and electric laser attack are all really fun and original. The electric laser is a good combat mechanism and is used to activate generators, used for quests and for opening gates to new areas. The wall run is SO FUN and is just amazing, one of my favourite wall running features in a game just because it's so fluid and fun to jump between walls. Sorry for using the word fun so much but this game's movement is REALLY FUN.
The game's "bosses" are just small challenges of trying to get stuff from the wolf pups and give it back to the monster the pups are tormenting, which aren't too fun but are a bit challenging and are kinda unique? I guess? The final boss is almost exactly the same and is just a pattern of shooting Quasimodo with electricity, then running up to the top of the screen and getting him hit with some fireballs that spawn. It's really not a good final boss and feels worse than some of the pup fights, sadly. If you expected an epic ending, that's not really the case. It's just a short bit of dialogue about Quasimodo being sad because he wanted to make something nice for Mavis and Dracula asking him to make a cake. Nowhere else to say this but the game is very slightly buggy, sadly. I fell through the floor one time and had to restart, but luckily the game saves in every room so I didn't lose any progress.
This game has some great music, composed by Jake Kaufman himself, that is clearly trying to imitate the Castlevania style while also being its own thing, which I like a lot. I don't have much else to say about the music, sadly, and there's only a fairly small selection of it, but I do enjoy it.
The box art is just basic renders from the movie. There's nothing to say really. Game: 8/10 Music: 7/10 Box: 3/10
Imperfect and a bit short, but still a very good Castlevania clone that I think would make a great introduction to the series for a child. It's not all that difficult if you're not a child, but that's understandable. If you wanna get a kid into an amazing series, this is a good gateway drug.
