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On paper this sounds great. Fixes one of the biggest problems that plagued the NES Castlevanias.

Being able to control your character direction as he jumps is excellent. Ability to jump off stairs is much appreciated. Too bad you can't jump onto stairs like in Rondo of Blood.

How long you press, hold the jump button affecting your jump height not so great. There's a major bug on the Sunken City where you can't make the jump as the Water Dragon boss flees. If you play this hack avoid this level. Also a lot of times if you hold the jump button it gives me a small jump anyway. Generally this results in you falling to your death. Also hitting candles at certain heights doesn't always work so great. It also makes the game almost too easy in my view like Cyclops, and Dracula 1st form. If the controls worked like Rondo of Blood or Super Castlevania this would be almost perfect.

Though these gameplay changes may be minor, that doesn't stop this hack from transforming Castlevania III into a near-perfect experience. It's a fantastic game on its own, but this hack modernizes the control scheme enough to take Castlevania III from a fun romp to a fluid adventure. I used the x-velocity and stair fixes the most, as those saved my life quite a few times during my 3 back-to-back playthroughs. This hack is a must-play for anybody looking to revisit this timeless NES classic.

When I (and no doubt other, more purist players) first saw this hack, I opted not to use it, because I thought it would break the difficulty balance of the game in a bad way. Castlevania 1 and 3 require careful planning, caution and timing, rather than speed and reflexes like most platformers. The combat and enemy design is there to stop you ploughing through the levels, no matter your skill level. You have to manoeuvre through complex attack and movement patterns, and the restricted attack options challenge you to find the narrow hole in the enemies' defences. This process is like a puzzle and is fun to figure out and execute. This is why many classic fans don't like 4; having complete control over your character fundamentally changes the flow of the game.

On paper, I thought that this should apply to the game's movement and platforming too. With a fixed jump arc, you had to plan out platforming sequences just like you would with a combat encounter. It seemed like a natural part of the game. Yet after playing with this hack, I don't think that this line of thinking is really valid. Restricting player control can indeed lead to better game design. It's harder to design interesting enemies when the player could attack them at any angle with an omni-directional whip. With classic Castlevania's restricted moveset, each player will always tackle each level the same way. Because of this, the devs could fine-tune each encounter knowing there would only be one "solution" to each enemy's "puzzle". The enemies and levels are all interesting and engaging, and is what makes the games fun.

The strategy and observation you need to face enemies don't apply to platforming. Platforming intrinsically only has one "solution", and finding the path across doesn't really need much observation, it's obvious from just looking at the platforms. Nerfing a player's ability to platform without promoting any other skill isn't a fun challenge, it's just frustrating. The danger of being knocked back into a pit doesn't change how you play or think, it just punishes mistakes more, which isn't fun design. In fact, nothing about fixed jump arcs and excessive knockback actually affects combat. Since combat is the meat of the gameplay (with platforming only serving the purpose of complicating encounters), I can safely say that none of the game's fun is diminished by this hack; it merely removes the frustration.

In conclusion, if you were like me and worried that this hack might make the game 'too easy', I would ask you to reconsider and try this out. As for new players, this is an essential way of making the game playable. I've seen a few hacks that try to lessen the difficulty by removing bottomless pits and increasing player health. Yet this hack transcends these other efforts by giving players appropriate means to avoid pits and damage on their own. It truly is the definitive way to play.

Please be aware, the changes in this hack are indeed a definite improvement, don't get me wrong. However, it unknowingly leaves a serious problem as a side effect.

In the Sunken City of Poltergeists (the lower path in the Alucard Route), after fighting the Bone Dragon King, the level begins to flood, and your character moves himself to the right side of the screen. However, this requires jumping, and due to how this hack changed how high you can jump, Trevor and Alucard are no longer able to make the necessary jumps, leaving you with an instant death. Grant, thankfully, can still make it, but if you skipped him, or swapped him with Alucard, your only option is to reset the game.

Aside from this, the hack is overall a must for playing CV3. Just be sure to bring Grant along.

For years I've been denied seeing the ending of this game. Now I don't have to submit to those frustration. The improved controls are absolutely necessary. This makes it an unfair challenge to a game that is really fun to play. The blasted stairs have been my worse enemy in this game. But now with these improved controls they can taste my vengeance!

Man, this is so nice! Having a better control over your jumps makes this game even more enjoyable.

This improvement made the game so much more pleasurable! It is so awesome replaying the classic with more modern controls! AMAZING WORK!!

I did really enjoy playing through with this one. I did feel more in control of situations. I was also new to the Japanese version that added up to the pleasure playing the game. Specials gaining control after getting hit is a life saver.

It did not take away to much of the difficulty and the Castlevania experience remains how it should be.

I did encounter some bugs but they been not game breaking:

• There been the issue with spawns of zombies or bats in the middle of the screen. Noticed in stage one, beginning of Death stage..

• The ending screen with Grant was messed up just at the last screen before the Konami logo

• It is possible to jump out of the mud with Trevor switch to Grant and get a boost over the whole screen.. Very hard to pull of.. please leave that one in ^^

• Grant can also jump of stairs in a way so he will get stuck in a block. But you can free yourself

A godsend for CV3. Makes this frustrating game tons more bearable and I recommend it if CV3's clunky controls pissed you off, which of course, they did. Everything feels smooth and retains a professional level of hacking skill. It feels as if this was how the game was meant to be made rather than most clunky hacks.