Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, a game that kids in the old days liked, then later hated, and now it’s just kind of there. I’ve always been fond of this game even though I did, like a few people go through a “screw that game phase.” When I saw James Rolfe first video. To be fair he does make a lot of decent points in that old video. I eventually went back and played the game again a few years after that and found that  my point of view falls more in line with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbto1neHWQA It’s a game that I can look back on fondly now, and of course knowing all the cryptic secrets allowing me to play through the game having an easier time. It for sure strayed from the path from the first Castlevania game, but like Nintendo did with the Legend of Zelda, Konami tried something different.. and it kind of worked or at the very least I liked it. I enjoyed going around and learning the “map” and collecting hearts to upgrade the whip. Of course the tips in the game really don’t help. It really is, as a Nintendo Power game. Or just a game you sink hundreds of hours in until you figure it all out and then play it again trying to get a better ending. That was one really neat thing about the game, the fact that it had multiple endings. This is one of those games that I still love mostly due to nostalgia and the feeling it gave me back then which is why I believe I can still play through it today despite it’s many flaws. It is hard for me to recommend Castelvania II over the other games or any game really. The best way to go about playing it now is to find the Redacted version as it makes the game, well it fixes most of the flaws and you still get the old school feel. The redacted version basically fixes all the text in the game and speeds things up a bit which is nice. So to kind of repeat myself, it was a game I loved then, I still hold some nostalgia love for it, but play redacted unless you want to “true” old school experience and use Nintendo Power. Gameplay: 4/10 Sound/Music: 10/10 Story: 5/10 Graphics: 7/10 Replayability: Low Overall: 26/40 [C]