How to beat Castlevania

Have you beat the Grim Reaper in japanese Castlevania III ? He's waaaay harder than in the US/EU Castlevania III.

And I disagree about Battletoads. Of course the game is hard but its difficulty is overrated. I can go to the Rat Race level without cheating anyway, then going further becomes very hard, but definitely not harder than beating death in Castlevania I or III.
The only trick in BT is that you have to do exactly the good thing or you'll die. Just reproduce what you see in some videos and the game becomes very doable.

Ninja Gaiden is only hard because :
- Enemies respawns all the time at a ridiculous rate
- There is that 6-1 continue bug. I call it a bug because when you die in any level you restart at the start of the level, but when you die at 6-x you always restart at 6-1. If this is no programing error then this is pure sadism and not what I'll call "difficuly".

If both of those bugs were fixed I'm pretty the game would be a piece of cake.

The trick here is that, unlike in the first two games, enemies do not respawn. So long as you're careful, take it slow, and take on enemies one at a time, it's a little easier.

I...  didn't actually notice this.  Wow.  That's kinda cool, actually.  Although I think it was always environmental hazards that tended to get me.  Stupid spike traps.

Have you beat the Grim Reaper in japanese Castlevania III ? He's waaaay harder than in the US/EU Castlevania III.

Yeah, I beat the Grim Reaper in CV3J.  I didn't remember him being that hard, but what do I know? 

I'm not sure people would consider Ninja Gaiden a piece of cake, even if it continued at the right point, but infinite continues certainly alleviate some of the frustration.  The game is still tricky, and pure memorization and twitch memory is the only thing that will see you through.  And it's not so much the rate of respawns, it's where those respawns occur.  There's one jump in 6-1, in particular, that is tricky as all get-outs.  Hawks that spawn while you're in mid-jump are evil.

Battletoads is still crazy-hard.  I know it's not impossible, but that Rat Race level is the one that generally takes me out.  I also abuse the heck out of warp zones.  There's very little to no margin for error in the game, so I suppose one could call it "easy" if you maintained perfect memory of what to do, maybe not unlike what I tend to do with Contra.  That's a game that I always expect on "hardest games of all-time" lists, yet find it rather easy.  But then, I realize it's just because I've played it so much.  And it's pretty easy to say "just do what you see in the videos", but often times, it takes amazing skill to reproduce and execute on that plan.  It reminds me of watching that first-round KO video of Tyson, thinking, wow, that looked easy... Psh.  Yeah, right.  It takes pitch-perfect timing.

I do have to admit that I've never sunk the kind of time into Battletoads necessary to get that good at the game.  I should probably try to do so sooner rather than later, before all my reflexes disappear in old age. 

Anyway, I know everyone gripes about the Speeder Bike level in Battletoads, but I also find that to be kinda easy.

EDIT:  Plus, you can apparently cheapshot the crap out of both incarnations of Death.  The same can't be said for Battletoads.

Plus, you can apparently cheapshot the crap out of both incarnations of Death.  The same can't be said for Battletoads.

Actually...All four of them.

The last one isn't even as cheap as I usually do for Super Castlevania 4. Castlevania taught us all that the skilled can conquer even Death!!

I agree with you SargeSmash, the difficulty of the turbo tunnel is TERRIBLY overrated, however the rat race really is difficult.

And you're right, it's not that easy to reproduce what is seen in videos. It just gives you an idea how you can procceed. For some reason it worked fine for me in Battletoads, but I've never managed to beat Death that easily.

The video you posted is from CV3 EU or US, but it's a possibility the same strategy (throwing axes with Grant) will work on the J version. In the J verison, Death has 4 scythes instead of just 2 and does 4 bars of damage instead of just 3 when you get hit. (This is why I'm pissed of people who keeps saying CV3 EU/US is harder than Akumajo Densetsu which is not completely true.)

Speaking of regional differences, have any of you played Battletoads (J) ? It's probably one of the only non-japanese developed NES game that made it to the Famicom. And this version has its difficult seriously watered down compared to the US or EU versions, in fact Battletoads (J) is actually a piece of cake, especially if you're used to the US or EU game.

Well, the point remains that it isn't that the game is going out of it's way to just keep you from winning. There's methodology involved, strategy. There is a solution to the battle; you just have to experiment and find it. Battletoads, on the other hand, reminds me of those games that have the mountain of quarters that a long bar in the back keeps pushing forwards, and if you just put in enough quarters, MAYBE it'll pay out. Maybe.

Kind of like the American Political system WHOOPS DID I JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD

See that's my problem, I never took that kind of survivalist kind of approach, I always took more of a brute force approach to gaming.

Taking it slow in Ninja Gaiden 3 most likely never would have occurred to most, because of the way you play the first 2 games. It'd be like if Sega finally released a Streets of Rage 4, and you couldn't land from enemy throws, but were so used to it from the previous 3 games.

Castlevania 3 - Syhpa is a boss wrecker, especially with the right spell at the right time. There are very few bosses where the orb spell(what would have been Trevor's cross) become useless. Death's 2nd form is not one of those few