Castlevania Chronicles is a Playstation port of the 1993 Akumajou Dracula for the X68000, a Japanese personal computer that never made it over to the States, so neither did the game, which itself is a remake of the original NES Castlevania. Got that? NES - weird Japanese PC - Playstation. Chronicles, in a stroke of brilliance, features a straight port of the 1993 game, plus a kind of remix 'arrange' of the game, with retooled sprites and music. The original game AND a special edition, living side by side. Hear that, Mr. Lucas?
The arrange version is interesting in that very little has actually been changed, graphically. Simon's sprites have been redone to bring the game in line with more recent Castlevanias... yes, meaning he looks more like a woman. Enemy deaths are also a little different, they now die in a burst of what appears to be polygonal fire, rather than the old sprites. The changes in music are less subtle, but not bad, if you enjoy more beatz in your Castlevania music; judging by a quick glance at OC Remix, many do. Perhaps the biggest change between the two versions, though, is the difficulty. Players must select 'hard' in the arrange version to get anywhere close to the difficulty of the original game.
This release has a few more extras, including a interview with the producer that hints at a potential Dracula X port if Chronicles does well enough. Shame it apparently didn't.
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