Game: Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Song: Praying Hands
Composer: H. Funauchi
Above: Praying Hands from Belmont's Revenge
About a week ago, Nintendo announced it was creating a new Virtual Console for the 3DS, one that would primarily feature re-released Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. We quicklyrattled offa dozen of those lost classics we'd love to see return, but one I neglected to mention was Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. While its run and jump action and dinky graphicswill indeed feel dated, the music remains one of the best uses of the Game Boy hardware and further reveals why chiptunes have become such a popular form of music.
Praying Hands is one of the slower songs in the game, but it nonetheless exemplifies how much variation you can get out of the ancient Game Boy. The fittingly morose beginning slowly accelerates into a rising melody, becoming one of my all-time favorite pieces of VGM in history. And that's just one level!
Above: New Messiah is from another early level. Much faster, more game-y and undeniably exciting
Above: Ripe Seeds was always the "main theme" to Belmont's Revenge for me
Above: And now a face-shredding version of Ripe Seeds fromDracula Perfect Selection
Konami loves tossing out re-released classics as much as the next company, so there's a very strong chance you'll see this on the 3DS Virtual Console within the next year. I'd be equally pleased with a WiiWare remake, as was done with this game's predecessor, Castlevania the Adventure. The Game Boy original was touched up and re-released asCastlevania the Adventure Rebirthin 2009 (a great remake, btw), but that obviously took time and money - why go to the trouble to remake Belmont's Revenge when there's a brand new Virtual Console on the way, one that'll allow you to justifiably release the original, unaltered game? Whatever the method, definitely give it a shot, if for no other reason than to check out the rest of the soundtrack.
Colony by Akiropito, Adachi and Kudou
Spark Mandrill by Tomozawa, Yamamoto, Horiyama, Iwai and Takehara
Nate's Theme 2.0 by Greg Edmonson
