Castlevania Best 2

	Album Title: Castlevania Best 2
	Record Label: King Records
	Catalog No.: KICA-7506/7 (1st Edition); KICA-7902/3 (2nd Edition)
	Release Date: December 5, 1991; September 23, 1998
	Purchase: Buy at CDJapan

Overview

Get ready for another nostalgic collection of Dracula (Castlevania) music. This time it’s two discs, one with the music from the SNES’ Super Castlevania IV and another with tunes from the series’ Game Boy games.

Body

Ever since it was released in 1991, Super Castlevania IV has been a classic with diehard fans. I don’t think it had to do with just the graphics, or the play control, but the music as well. In fact, this music has a darker, more ghoulish flair than even the NES Castlevania scores. While it uses familiar themes in some places such as “Vampire Killer”, “Bloody Tears”, and “Beginning”, it also introduces new pieces, such as the gripping, catchy, rocking “Theme of Simon”.

Although there are plenty of catchy pieces in the score, most of the music is basically ambience and not especially hummable. That said, the music is quite effective in context and sometimes delightful to revisit. An excellent exmaple is the deliciously spooky “Dracula’s Theme”, which really does send shivers down my spine every time I listen to it. I just wish they hadn’t added in sound effects in some tracks and mixed certain tracks into medleys.

As for the Game Boy Castlevania games, the sound quality is obviously only average. However, the music is still great, even though they don’t use any of the familiar tracks in the series. However, there are some loud, bombastic tracks that will give you a blasting headache with their Game Boy synth, another drawback of this music.

Summary

Like its counterpart, this album is another recommended nostalgic treasure. The best reason to buy this album is for the Super Castlevania IV music, but diehard fans may find themselves enjoying the Game Boy music as well.

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