Kurt KalataHardcore Gaming 101 Presents: Castlevania (Color Edition)

Excellent quality!

I chose this rating because while I enjoyed what the writer was saying, I felt it lacked something. A beastary with some more detail from each game. Maybe some more art work. Even a fan illustration by the Creator's of their favorite character. Maybe it's just me being with everything else out their today. It was well written and as unbiased as anyone could hope for.List of Castlevania games I own:Castlevania 1,2, & 3Castlevania symphony of the nightCastlevania 64, Legacy of DarknessCastlevania Lamont of innocence, curse of darknessCastlevania circle of the moonCastlevania Lord's of darkness, mirror of fate, Lord's of darkness 2I do agree with a lot of what writer had to say about each game. For someone wants to know more about the history of this series. This book covers that and more.Like I said, a larger enemy list and artwork would be nice. Since this series is still going strong, I look forward to newer editions.

For Castlevania fans, this is a must have. Hardcore Gaming 101 is a great site and the author of this book knows his stuff. I've only skimmed the book at the time of this review but I already know that it's worth a thorough read. It covers every game plus some spin-offs and other related topics. When I purchased this I also got the Kindle edition for free so I'm assuming it will always be that way.I have been a Castlevania fan since my childhood years and I'm so glad to see that the series has gone as far as it has. Not sure where it's going, hopefully back to more side scrolling. Anyways check this book out and if you want more check out the isozone or emuparadise in the strategy guide forum section where I have made my own book that shows my appreciation for the series.

This is a great read. This felt like a love letter to Konami's Castlevania series and you can feel that the author genuinely enjoyed the games. No stone was left unturned and as you read you start to understand the great care and detail that was put into this piece. The games are discussed and chronicled in a great way but it's the dictionary presentation that I enjoyed the most. As a lifelong Castlevania fan I still managed to learn things about the series that I had no idea about. I really enjoyed this offering and look forward to more works from Kurt. Great job sir.

I can’t praise this book enough. I have been a die-hard Castlevania fan since the inception of the series and used to visit the Castlevania Dungeon webpage on a daily basis. All of the website’s information (and more) is contained within this book. The design is wonderful and the quality is excellent. The book covers the series in its entirety and does so in a detailed manner. If you’re looking for a Castlevania encyclopedia, this should be your go to purchase.

Loved all the details and history behind each game. Thorough and enjoyable to read. Look forward to more by the author.

Covers Castlevania up to 2014, but feels a bit sparse despite being 158 pages. Most Castlevania fans care little for Lords of Shadows era, but it's given TWELVE pages, more than Symphony of the Night. Castlevania clones are given ELEVEN pages. The above games barely deserve a footnote. While the book has a decent amount of art and screenshots, it really needed a more in-depth character guide, a full enemy/boss bestiary, clear list of weapons, power-ups, ala old school Nintendo Power style, along with maps. Needed more relevant, factual Castlevania information overall, less author opinion on what he thinks is good or not.Okay to flip through for a nostalgia trip, I guess, but wanted more meat, like info typically unavailable to non-Japanese speaking readers.

Their are some problems with screenshots in the book. As the series makes the jump to modern systems that aren't easily emulated the screenshot quality drops off. Instead of the crisp pixels of the early series, you get muddy compressed press screenshots. The book also goes a bit overboard with screenshots using a lot of small ones rather than a selection of larger ones. Since the games tend to be dark anyway this can make it hard to get much out of the images.Still, the writing is a lot of fun and goes deep into the series to create a must have books for Castlevania fans.

Kurt Kalata being a massive Castlevania fan has it's plus. and minus. The book itself which is in full colour looks lovely. It doesn't just cover the games but also includes characters bios as well as a timeline. There are a couple of points were I disagreed with Kurt. Being a big fan of the original games seems to allow his notalgia to cloud his judgement at times. For instance he's well aware of the slightly iffy controls of the original Castlevania game yet tells the reader that the only way to embrace these games is to accept the mediocre controls. While Kalata doesn't gush about how fantastic every game is (of course not every game is) it sounds like at times his Castlevania/Nes fanboy side allows the more retro titles in the series a free pass.This is contrary to how he treats non-Nes Sega Master System game Master of Darkness which he just calls a Castlevania rip-off as well as mediocre. Anybody who's played that game knows it's probably one of the best games for the console and while I have certain bias for it; to overlook what Sega did with that game just seems like a complete waste of analysis.As with any game it's really open to the person and anyone should play the game for themselves before passing judgement. Kalata is perhaps too forgiving in some areas due to his nostalgia of Castlevania as well as the Nes but as a book covering the series with a wealth of info I have to say not bad at all.

Great book. If you're into retro video games or was a child of the 'golden age' of video games and arcades (e.g. late 70s, 80s & 90s) this is a must have. It's obvious a lot of thought, time and effort has gone into creating and publishing the Hardcore Gaming 101 books. I for one will be buying each release when they become available.

Simply a must read for anyone that is a fan of the series. The book is very well researched and covers a lot of the much more obscurer titles that never left Japan as well as giving extensive coverage to the well known titles. A great book that deserves to be in any gamers collection.

+ Rep.

Essential for any castlevania fan. Informative, unofficial, fan made book. Average quality printing and small screenshots detract. The best and only Castlevainia book.