Paul Munn's Comments

CastleMania : Dracula's Curse speed runs, like all runs, make me look ridiculous

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:44:25 +0000

You have that title pretty much locked down.

CastleMania : Lords of Shadow now in stores

Wed, 6 Oct 2010 15:57:02 +0000

It's an action game. Why would anybody whine about God of War similarities. It's a compliment! I hope to play the demo soon.

CastleMania : PlayStation: The Official Magazine gives Castlevania: Lords of Shadow the two-page treatment

Tue, 8 Jun 2010 16:54:47 +0000

It does sound a bit more interesting to me now, too.

CastleMania : Dracula X Chronicles (Greatest Hits) on sale now at Amazon

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:45:17 +0000

The PS2 is a dead platform. The PSP is a good choice to port 2 because you can connect it to a TV if you want to play on a bigger screen.

CastleMania : Review: Castlevania Best CD

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 16:34:59 +0000

I have to giggle that Trevor Belmont is called Ralph in Japan.

CastleMania : Lords of Shadow has always been Castlevania, but it's a bit of a departure from the past

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 21:01:17 +0000

If they follow the God of War format as closely as the latest videos lead me to believe they will, I think that there will definitely be some backtracking. It's just something most of these action games do.

CastleMania : Gamescom 2009 trailer for Lords of Shadow confirms Belmont, suggests Dracula

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:08:53 +0000

Every gameplay segment looks identical to God of War I and II's combat gameplay. Circular battle arenas, a chained, magical weapon that extends to varying lengths per attack type, even glowing grapple points. The hero's is ridiculously over-muscled, which also fits the GOW style. I was hopeful it would be fast and nimble like Devil May Cry's combat and demonic/angelic creatures but with a great story, but if it's a complete GOW clone it had better be heavy on the Castlevania integration or it will be a tangential cash-in.

CastleMania : Robot Chicken takes on Castlevania

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 00:01:05 +0000

That is hysterical. I love it! Seriously it's everything SNL isn't: fast, biting, and the skit's over fast.

CastleMania : Konami announces "the Best" edition of Dracula X Chronicles for October in Japan

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:26:49 +0000

Well, the criteria for becoming a GH only partially depends on sales, and it's definitely not automatic. The publisher has to decide to go along with it, too, so it could have sold really well and continued doing so so that the publisher decided hey, we like profit, why drop the price now?

CastleMania : Breakdown of Retronauts segment on Castlevania Lords of Shadow

Sun, 5 Jul 2009 04:52:40 +0000

Nice play-by-play.

CastleMania : Is a Castlevania Rebirth right around the corner?

Fri, 15 May 2009 17:02:09 +0000

It's not hard to see why so many developers fail when their game -- even when it's very good -- doesn't light the world on fire. There's something else in play here, and it's called marketing. Until developers learn to get appreciable marketing muscle behind their titles only the dedicated fan bases will know about it. They could've sold DXC as a new adventure or even a -wink-wink- "new retelling of the ancient fight against Dracula" to the unwashed masses.

CastleMania : Is it time for Castlevania to die?

Fri, 15 May 2009 16:55:50 +0000

I think with portables it's able to play it safe, recycling game types that were on full-sized consoles. But on consoles, it needs to make a bold leap forward, a bolder one than the 3D PS2 titles were. Devil May Cry has a similar problem. After 4 games it needs to clean things up or it'll be thrown in the Dynasty Warriors pile of same-game-different-year.

CastleMania : Could the upcoming Castlevania HD be a first person shooter?

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:21:14 +0000

A first-person, 3D castlevania makes me think of the Metroid Prime games. Primarily adventure-style games involving clearing rooms to hit switches, unlock doors, and so on. I'm a much bigger fan of third-person action games, so if they decided to make this a 3PA (my acronym, yo) game like the PS2 CV games that would be something I'd be more interesting.

CastleMania : Dracula X Chronicles is ten dollars at Gamestop this weekend

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:59:26 +0000

I picked this one up about a week and a half ago during their "gamer days" event. Too bad it won't sell, but if I can make it far enough to unlock CSOTN on it I'll be ok with keeping it.

CastleMania : The Castlevania Collection grows laterally when the ceiling gets too high

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:12:11 +0000

Nice stack. Oh dear did I just say something that could be considered racy?

CastleMania : Get a new phone, lose an old game

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:36:09 +0000

Phones don't run pure Java they run variations of it that are generally not fully compatible with each other and sport names like Brew and other things like that. This is primarily why the "feature phone" (non-smartphone) application and gaming ecosystem is struggling/stagnating and not innovating the way Palm OS, Windows Mobile, iPhone OS, and Android have and will. I was going to leave Android off since only one Android phone is known, but a second one was announced yesterday in EU and looks pretty darn hot. http://androidcommunity.com/htc-magic-android-pho...

Aeropause Games : Big Unreal Tournament 3 Update Includes Steamworks

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:38:41 +0000

Very cool of them to do that with Valve.

Aeropause Games : Predictions R Us: Another Tomb Raider Movie is Happening

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:25:48 +0000

That scene with her holding up the hood on that car in The Transformers movie fully energized my reptilian, limbic brain. I won't soon forget it.

Aeropause Games : Microsoft Putting a Focus on Windows as a Gaming Platform

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:19:26 +0000

As long as Microsoft has a vested interest in the failure of Windows driving people to the Xbox 360 they will continue to let Windows be a third-class citizen in the gaming world. That vested interest is a royalty on every game sold for the 360, in case you didn't realize it. That said, if Apple ever wanted the Mac to become a gaming machine which -- let's face it with how many architectures and chipsets rolling around these days would make it almost as bad as Windows in getting things to work right -- this would be the way Microsoft can keep the marketing spin on their own OS being a better gaming OS. But it's not like that's a real threat. Apple stands to do so much better selling games for their portable devices that they wouldn't even think about wasting money on relatively open platforms like Mac OS X.

Aeropause Games : NPD: Wii is on fire; Gears 2, Fable 2 sell like hotcakes; Banjo Kazooie flops

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:14:41 +0000

I think GOW2 and F2 did well because the games are good, not just because of the franchise. I think the LBP and R2 sales numbers are good, actually. LBP I think will have long legs. The new search options have made playing online levels stupid easy and so much fun. I am definitely suffering some shooter fatigue as well, but R2's story is still very interesting to me. I'm just not awake enough these days (newborn in the house) to be able to put up with fighting through the obstacles in single player. I will get there. Same newborn keeps me from committing to co-op and competitive right now, but I really like the co-op mode. I don't think I've played a single competitive multi match in that, beta or full game.