A few weeks ago, I had won an auction for a Famicom cart, Holy Diver, which I had heard played a lot like the Castlevania games. When I got the game, I was very impressed though my fingers hurt a bit due to the game being a bit tough.

Since I had mentioned the game being tough, I'll talk about this factor first. Holy Diver starts out at a nice slow pace, stage one was truely a breeze to get through. Stage two is a bit harder but by the time you get to stage three the game is very tough. I heard the game has a total of five stages, two which I won't have the pleasure of viewing unless my skill improves over the next few weeks.

The gameplay is a lot like the Castlevania games. For starters, your character looks like a Belmont. The belt, the hair, the stature...it's all there. However, the Holy Diver dude throws fireballs instead of using a whip. Throughout the game you find different weapon upgrades which you can select. Using an ungrade uses some of your magical power which can be refilled by grabbing the various blue viles thoughout the game.

I was quite impressed with the Holy Diver graphics. For a Nintendo game with a release date of 1989, they are fairly nice, nothing great compared to some of the later games but not too shabby either. The musical scores are average as well. Some of the sounds would fit in nicely with the Castlevania games while others are too atmospheric and not as enjoyable.

Holy Diver is one of the few (or should I say many) Famicom exclusive games that is actually quite enjoyable to play. The game reads "Castlevania Rip off" though I mean it in a good way, unlike some of the poorly made Castlevania clones. I would suggest buying Holy Diver if you ever see the game, however the game is incredibly hard. You have been warned.