Master of Darkness (Sega Master System)
Sega’s answer to Castlevania for the Master System
Welcome to Halloween month for 2013! Every week in October, I’ll be taking a look at another horror-themed game and to kick it all off, I nearly took a closer look at the original Castlevania, a definitive Halloween classic and one game I was really keen to check out. As I started writing the script, I realised my heart just wasn’t in it. Castlevania is a great game that struck a great balance
Halloween month should be about unearthing some great games, we’ve already scheduled a review of a Zombies ate my Neighbors! so why not dig a little deeper and try to resurrect something that hasn’t been unearthed so many times?
I love the Master System, it paved the way for the Mega Drive, but we’re talking about a time when Nintendo had a firm grasp on the third party developers. It didn’t feel like a fun time to be a fan of the Master System, missing out on a slice of some of those awesome franchises like Mega Man and Castlevania and all those incredibly exciting movie adaptions by LJN.
The Master System did get its own Castlevania… Master of Darkness. Developed by a group who are more famous for creating fishing games on the Dreamcast and Wii; SIMS. Master of Darkness took on the role of Sega’s Castlevania very seriously, and it’s incredibly hard not to compare them directly. We wanted to highlight that fact instead of ignore it. Castlevania is a great game and in a lot of ways, Master of Darkness copied what made it great and added its own unique spin.
It might be too late to add it to the Halloween playlist; Master of Darkness will probably always be relegated to relative obscurity but it’s a real fitting display of what the Master System is capable of and a great way to start a month of thrills, chills and video games.