Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest LCD

Go for the quest!

JP release: 1989
NA release: 1989
EU release: 1990
AKA: Dracula Densetsu (Japan)
Developer: Tiger
Publisher: Tiger
Inverted Dungeon Review: 4.1/10
Platforms: LCD Handheld, LCD Watch
Version Played: LCD Handheld

Tiger Electronics created over 150 different handheld devices with games based on lots of licensed properties – films, TV shows and video games. The LCD games use technology similar to a calculator – the screen has different sections of ink that become opaque when powered up, which creates the limitation of all the” “sprites” having to exist on its own part of the screen. They were also really difficult to see. The first Castlevania was lucky enough to avoid this fate, but Simon’s Quest got an “adaptation” to this format.

If there was any logic to these games, the severe limitation would suggest that the games themselves would be simple, but no, Tiger attempted to make stuff as close to console games as the technology would allow, which always resulted in a complete mess. Simon’s Quest is no different. It may look like a simple high score game where you hit enemies that come at you from different directions (which would work for a system like this), but it’s a 2D sidescroller.

Or, more precisely, a 2D sidescroller with no sense of movement, so you can’t really tell that you’re moving forward. You have to move to the right (indicated by the bricks at the bottom “moving”) while hitting enemies that appear in the same spaces every time. Controls are slow and fiddly and it’s just a complete and utter mess.

Believe it or not, the game actually has levels – The Forest, The Graveyard, The Castle and The Castlevania. You’ll only know this from the manual as the background is just a bit of card and doesn’t change, and levels just end randomly. LCD games can be fun, Nintendo had already shown this to be the case and Sega had a bunch of enjoyable ones as part of Happy Meals, but Tiger made all of theirs unplayable by just not understanding the format

Worst

Also, of note, there was a watch-shape version of this game as well. The controls for it are even more limited, but the basic function of the game is, more or less, the same. That also means, of course, that the game itself is still pretty crappy. The novelty is still there, but there’s little to recommend this game in either form factor.
Mike Finkelstein, Inverted Dungeon

Remake or remaster?

No.

Official Ways to get the game

No.