I’m deep in the Halloween mood and every year I try to watch or re-watch as many spooky movies as I can. I also wanted to dip into some old school games I’ve never played before. This weekend I played a bit of the Castlevania Anniversay Collection and watched a couple of VHS monster movies.

My experience with the Castlevania series is only through Symphony of the Night and the first Lords of Shadow, both on Xbox 360 years ago. I loved them both, and Symphony is as good as you’ve heard; if you haven’t played it you should definitely check it out. Growing up my dad had the NES and SNES, but none of the Castlevania games so checking them out in the Anniversary Collection on my Xbox Series X is my first time playing these classics.

I played through a decent chunk of the first NES game until the platforming and Medusa head enemies got the best of me. I won’t lie, I tapped out at the Frankenstein & Igor boss fight. I love the charm of the Castlevania sprites and soundtrack, but I probably won’t try to finish the original game anytime soon. Super Castlevania IV, on the other hand has the platforming just updated enough to keep me from getting too frustrated. This game’s awesome 16 bit locations, enemies and bosses have me wanting to finish it this week. The level design really shines around stage 4 and 5, incorporated Mode 7 backgrounds as the castle itself shifts and rolls as you move from boss to boss. Definitely scratches the Halloween itch.

I’ve been building a decent VHS collection for a couple years now and I recently upgraded from a small RCA CRT TV to a big-ass Sanyo 36 inch CRT. (Keep an eye out on FB Marketplace and Craigslist! Not everyone is trying to sell their old TV for $100+.) Watching VHS movies is strictly vibes-based, so I limit my collection to horror and science fiction. Two movies I hadn’t seen before were ’97’s The Relic and ’99’s Bats, a couple of gruesome creature features. I watched them both Saturday night with a pizza. I’d give Bats 2 stars, Lou Diamond Phillips kicks ass but this movie doesn’t quite reach the classic status of Tremors. The Relic like a long, expensive episode of the X-Files (complimentary) and I’d toss it 3 stars. Your mileage may vary, but I love even “bad” horror movies.