It's a good action game but kind of feels like a Castlevania made for people who don't like classic Castlevania or understand what made it good.

Simon's awkward jumps and slow whipping from the original bothered some but the game was designed around his limitations. This one isn't; Simon is more maneuverable but the game doesn't scale up for this - yet at the same time a lot of clunkiness from the old Castlevania controls is actually still here, if more subtle. Plus tacked-on awkward whip swinging at a few parts! And the one aspect of old school Castlevania controls that actually is really dumb (FRIGGIN STAIRS!) is probably worse here than anywhere else.

The levels often drag on too long, the enemy AI is generally dumb, most of the bosses can be trivialized by relentless offense while halfway bothering to dodge their attacks, and the game's difficulty is over-reliant on instant death spikes. And the special SNES graphical effects have for the most part not aged well.