Worlds of Power #4: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Two Hundred blogs. It feels like only yesterday I covered our one hundredth, the bizarre and uncomfortable Little Pet Shop of Horrors from Bone Chillers. Well, we're not going back to Bone Chillers just yet, but I've had a book in my collection for a while that I've been trying to find a way to use properly. And with this being #200, why not here? Let's talk about Worlds of Power.

Released in 1990, Worlds of Power was a series of books based on various games from the Nintendo Entertainment System. Not Mario, or Zelda, or Metroid but instead other games from other licensees. Konami, Capcom, Tecmo, Jaleco, Sunsoft. Some of the more well known companies that helped Nintendo flourish throughout the NES's life span. So, why not have books loosely based around the events of the game, given what's known about the story itself, since, you know, the NES era wasn't exactly known for games with deep stories. Thus these books were created. Penned by multiple authors under the pen name F.X. Nine, which makes me think Stine, of course. Some chapters even end with tips for the game, but they too feel vague and hard to understand at times.

And the one we're covering today is a rather notorious title from Konami. Castlevania II. My feelings on it aren't as rabid as say, The Angry Video Game Nerd. I get how different the game was trying to be from the original. But perhaps too different, suffering from feeling too vague and hard to understand. A game seemingly made more annoying to sell copies of Nintendo Power to get all the tips. But, I also thought its general story was interesting too. How Simon Belmont defeated Dracula, but the battle left him with not long to live. So he has to recover the remaining pieces of Dracula's body and destroy them before he's done in my Dracula's curse. I'd say that's enough of a premise to work as a kids book. Does it? Let's find out with Worlds of Power #4: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.

I won't go too deep into covers, since they're pretty much just the cover art from the video games. Though I am disappointed with the cover for Simon's Quest as it loses a lot of the artwork from the original NES cover art. No castle with Dracula looking behind Simon. Although given the PAL release of the game doesn't feature the art, maybe that's where they were going? Still feels like a lot of free space that could be filled.

STORY

Fourteen year old Tim Bradley really loves video games. His favorite being Castlevania. He's beaten it about twenty times. He's played it so much he's made up his own dialogue for the Dracula fight in which Dracula wishes to drink Simon Belmont's blood like "cherry pop". After being snapped out of his gaming trance by his mother, Tim heads out for school. He's also very attracted to Carol Jance, like to the part that he's in full fantasy of playing video games with her. Because we learn three things about Tim quickly. 1. He loves video games. 2. He loves chocolate. 3. He's kind of a creep.

After Carol asks for where to get good video games for her brother, Tim tells her about a place called Blockbuster Discount, which has tons of great games he can show her. It seems to go well. Too bad Carol's got a boyfriend named Burt Alvin, who saw the whole interaction and is now threatening to beat Tim up for it. Tim manages to get to the bathroom to prevent a few minutes of a butt whooping, only for Simon Belmont to suddenly appear. Tim is confused as to why his favorite video game character popped up out of the blue, but Simon says that Tim is the best Castlevania player in the universe, so he needs his help. He then tells Tim to grab his whip and, well, that could go a lot darker than it is, because it causes Tim and Simon to travel to Tim's bedroom, for Tim needs to prepare by grabbing every piece of chocolate candy that can be mentioned without litigation.

Tim and Simon then travel to Castlevania itself. Simon relays the plot, that he defeated Dracula, but now he's cursed. He has 48 hours to break the spell, as well as save his girlfriend Linda Entwhistle. So for those who have played Castlevania, you're probably wondering "who the hell is Linda Entwhistle?" Well, she was created specifically for the book. Because I guess the whole dying thing wasn't enough, we needed a damsel? There is a mysterious woman mentioned in the Simon's Quest story itself, but never given a name or really any connection to Simon. Also, Simon's not doing so well already as he ends up turning into Dracula. Yeah, that's a new thing too I believe. Where the game just has Simon die if he doesn't make it in time, in this if the spell isn't broken, Dracula takes over Simon's body.

So, Simon turns into Dracula briefly and mocks Tim, but Tim's bad puns wound the vampire enough to make him disappear for now. Ah yes that famous weapon against vampires, bad comedy. Simon is back to himself and the pair continue their journey. They have to go to the several castles holding the remains of Dracula's body and must destroy them. The heart, the rib, the nail, the eye and the... ring? But they also have to wait until night because they have to defeat the monsters at night for more energy. So they fight monsters for a bit. Well, Simon mostly. Best Tim can do is eat M&Ms and fail at sword swinging. After that, it's off to get the rib.

They stop at a signpost with clouds drawn on it. Simon then takes the ring from around his neck and uses it to summon the spirit of Linda Entwhistle, who tells the two that to survive they must be able to solve puzzles and riddles. The duo head to the nearby church and buy a box from a monk that contains holy water and a thorn whip. He also tells them that Dracula's rib is in the nearby Berkeley Mansion. They also find a white crystal of some sort, but have no idea what to do with it. They arrive at the mansion and search around for an underground entrance. They find a grate to take them lower, and use the crystal to light their way. Well it's more exciting than throwing holy water at the floor to find the fake floor tiles.

But don't worry, the holy water does take effect as Simon throws it at a wall, revealing a strange little shop. An old woman named Ezeradada Perkins is behind the wall as well. She's the caretaker of the mansion, making sure that everything is old and musty. She directs them to Dracula's rib before giving them an oak stake to use, which, like the game, is the only way to possess (or prossess as the game wrote it) any of the body parts. The two head further and run into a monster, but this one isn't as evil. His name is Freddie, which gives Tim a chance to make a Freddy Krueger reference because this book loves its references. Turns out Freddie is a good monster, not possessed by Dracula, and he's more than fine with Simon's quest to destroy the remains of the count. He does warn that Dracula may be a big bad, but there's a far more deadly foe in Thanatos, the master of death.

Simon and Tim find the room with the rib, but it's guarded by a ghostly eyeball with fangs. A ghostly eyeball with fangs that is easily bested by throwing a cloth over its body and hitting it with the arrow they found earlier. Well that was easy. Suddenly, the skeletons in the room form the face of Dracula who taunts them before, yet again, being silenced by Tim's puns. But the positive thing is that they have one of the parts. The duo venture further, though Tim had eaten all of his chocolate early, so he's panicking, though not due to the massive stomach ache he'll be getting later. Simon's whip gets upgraded to a chain whip, and they get a dagger which will be useful later. 

They stop at the shop of a large man named Edward Farquar who can get them garlic and laurels, which they need to progress. As Farquar looks for laurels, the visage of Linda Entwhistle shows up to tell them to upgrade their crystal by finding a man in gray. As Simon barters with the man, Tim runs into a girl named Melanie who reminds him of Carol Jance. Melanie also has Godiva chocolates, which given that Tim can't shut the hell up about chocolate, entices him. But he's smart enough to realize this is a Dracula trick and sure enough Dracula reforms and tries to tell Tim to just go back to his dimension already. 

The duo end up in the marsh where they deal with a giant monster named Slimey BarSinister (wait, is that an Underdog reference?). Simon whips its eye out and Tim tricks the monster into thinking that humans aren't tasty to begin with, which sends it running off. Since this is a 130+ page book and we're at page 96, we fast forward quite a lot in this story as they have four body parts and are on to the fifth. That's when they run into Thanatos, who is described as a giant looking like a hooded reaper mixed with a biker, mixed with a gangster from the 40s. Definitely not what he looks like in the game at least. 

Thanatos goes to eat Simon when Tim stops him by using Simon's whip. Turns out that Tim actually got better at wielding it and manages to damage the monster long enough for Simon to recover and blind the monster with a blue crystal and some garlic in the eyes. They manage to finally beat Thanatos, so now their focus is on Dracula. They stop for a while, but that turns out to be a bad idea as once again Dracula takes over Simon's body. But no mere puns stop the vampire this time, nor does garlic, which doesn't work because Dracula's not in a vampire body, which okay, that does make sense. Dracula is about to finish off Tim when Simon begins to fight back, telling Tim to use the holy water. Sure enough, that wards off Dracula for now, but it's a sign that they need to hurry up quick.

They stop at a cemetery where the graves speak to them, mostly just wanting to tell their stories, which Tim and Simon have no time for. But they get told that they can get to Dracula's castle by riding a tornado. Yep, we're at that infamous part of Castlevania II, the vague tornado. They arrive on Deborah Cliff. Simon holds the red crystal, and sure enough, a tornado arrives and picks up the two heroes to Dracula's castle. Simon takes the five body parts and destroys them in their place. This causes Dracula to appear, holding Linda. Simon tells Dracula to leave, but the vampire has no intentions of doing that. Tim tries to stake Dracula, but he gets grabbed. Suddenly, Tim then pulls out, well I'm guessing a Game Boy, but it's just called a "Portable Game Player" so for all I know it's a frigging Tiger handheld, and turns it on. The noises startle Dracula long enough for Simon to stake him and set Dracula on fire.

Simon, Linda and Tim celebrate back at their home town. Linda rewards Tim with some chocolate, but given Tim's suddenly learned perseverance or something like that, he decides to turn down the offer. Simon then takes Tim back to his home dimension. Despite Tim asking Simon for some help with, you know, the bully issue, Simon and Linda think that after this experience, he should be able to survive on his own. So, Tim's still getting his butt kicked is what I'm gathering. Well, an ending is an ending I guess.

CONCLUSION

This book is okay. I commend it for having to do a lot with what the author was given. The basic lore of  the Castlevania II game itself is admittedly not strong enough for a 130+ page book, so we get a whole bunch of stuff not from the actual game and the very basic stuff from the game itself being briefly mentioned. So if you were going into this for a deeper representation of the game, you might be underwhelmed, but the story itself isn't too bad, so it's still won't be too much of a wasted read. 

Tim is an okay protagonist. A bit of a weird creep early on, and his chocolate obsession feels like it becomes his only trait aside from making pop culture jokes and bad puns. The story does give his character enough time to grow and mature a bit. So following him doesn't feel like a chore. Simon works as the big tough who doesn't get the modern references but aides Tim in the journey. And that journey is pretty fun filled with enough weird characters who, aside from Dracula, aren't based in the game themselves, yet still work to keep the narrative moving along. 

In the end, I think I enjoyed this one, even if it did feel like a slog in some places. Not a perfect book by any stretch, and the Castlevania lore has been extended so much more through the games and the anime that this feels obsolete, but it also serves as a silly little side item in an era where the series was still young enough that sure, ideas like the ones in this book could work just fine, even if you took out Tim. It's a light recommend, but still enough to make me curious just how the other Worlds of Power books ended up. Maybe someday. Worlds of Power: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest gets a B-.

And with that, we have 200 blogs finished. And with so many new things coming, it'll be interesting to see where we are when we get to 300. As always, thanks for reading.