Super Castlevania IV

Super Castlevania IV is a platform game where the player takes control of Simon through eleven levels. Players begin the game with five lives, and it ends in a game over once they have lost them all. The player will lose a life if all of Simon's health gauge is depleted, fall into a hole or if they do not finish the level within the time limit. With Simon's whip, players can attack enemies in eight directions with the use of the control pad. By holding down the attack button, the whip will go limp and can be waved around with the control pad, which can be used to block projectiles and hit enemies (albeit for much less damage). Like its predecessors, players can use secondary weapons that consume Simon's hearts, which are dropped from candles and enemies. The secondary weapons include an axe which can be thrown in an arc, a watch which stops all enemy motion and a dagger that can be thrown across the screen. Collecting the items known as the Double and Triple Shots allows the player to throw secondary weapons up to three times in a row. == Development and release ==

Super Castlevania IV was directed by Masahiro Ueno (credited in the game as Jun Furano since Konami did not allow the use of real names at the time), who was also the main programmer. His first 16-bit game, Ueno's team possibly started development on it during 1989. Ueno liked the original Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System the most and wanted to make a pure action game that was similar to it. Many features in Super Castlevania IV were introduced to make it a less frustrating game for players, such as giving them more control over Simon when he walked up stairs. He was asked to alter the color palette in the English version in order to remove some depictions of blood in stage eight. The game was released in Japan on October 31, 1991 for the Super Famicom. It was released in North America in late December 1991. Factor 5 created a short demo of the game running on the Mega Drive and presented it to Konami. Konami was impressed but ultimately chose to keep all Mega Drive development in-house, and did not pursue porting the game to the system. The game has been re-released on several platforms over the years. It was re-released on the Virtual Console in 2006 for the Wii, In September 2017, it was included on Nintendo's Super NES Classic Edition, a miniature replica of the Super NES featuring many built-in games. The game is included in Castlevania Anniversary Collection, a compilation of past Castlevania installments released on May 17, 2019 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. ==Audio==

The music for Super Castlevania IV was composed by Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo (credited as Masanori Oodachi and Taro respectively). Ueno wanted to make the environment of Super Castlevania IV more interactive and was proud of how the game's sound effects and music contributed to the atmosphere. == Reception ==

The game sold 800,000 cartridges worldwide. Upon ''Super Castlevania IV's release, the game was acclaimed by critics. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin generally complimented the game with three reviewers praising the graphics quality and three praising the control and gameplay, specifically the ability to use the whip in different angles. In 1994 the game was reviewed by Sandy Petersen in Dragon'' #209's "Eye of the Monitor" column. In 1992, Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Vampire noir: dark, earthy colors; ominous, almost subliminal sound effects — and when your hero swings from chandeliers or dispatches monsters with his iron flail, a spine-tingling sense of impending doom." Super Castlevania IV has been praised in retrospective reviews as well. In a 1997 Castlevania retrospective, GamePro said it "is still one of the all-time best games". It was named by Nintendo Power in a 2006 issue as the 66th best game made on a Nintendo system. It was ranked 27 in the last issue. Official Nintendo Magazine placed the game at 70 on their list of the 100 best Nintendo games ever. Game Informer review opined that it "perfect[ed] the classic formula" due to its whip and less stiff gameplay. It also praised its use of Mode 7. In a review for the release on the Wii U's eShop, Nintendo Life wrote "Unlike many of the other 16-bit platformers of the era, the game has a mature and distinguished feel to it", and concluded it was the best of the original Castlevania installments. In 2018, Complex listed the game 13th on their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time", writing: "Next to Symphony of the Night, this is the best Castlevania game of all time. The control is perfect, the progression is perfect, and even the ramping up of the difficulty is flawless, as it gets difficult in all the right spots. Also, it has the best soundtrack ever." In 1996, GamesMaster ranked the game 55th in its "Top 100 Games of All Time". Several publications have lauded it as one of the greatest video games of all time. ==Notes==