The King Of Demons (Majyūō) | B-Movie Belmonts - Blast Processing
48When you think of excellent 16-bit action platformers, you often will come around to Konami and that era of brilliant Castlevania games. When you've exhausted those, though, what else is left? Sometimes you have to take a chance on another game that may not be as polished or well-known, just to scratch that itch. The King of Demons (or Majyūō, to use it's Japanese name) was an interesting attempt to marry Castlevania aesthetics with more of a run-and-gun template. But did it work?
The King of Demons (Majyūō) - Super Nintendo (1995)
★ TABLE OF CONTENTS ★
• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:45 Title
• 1:00 Japan-only release
• 1:54 Horror aesthetic
• 2:47 Castlevania comparison
• 3:11 Gameplay
• 3:34 Demon transformations
• 4:09 Conclusion
The 16-bit consoles had a huge variety of platformers. Some of the best in the business were Konami's, including games like Contra 3, Rocket Knight Adventures and, of course, Castlevania. There were several 16-bit Castlevania games released, such as Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania: Bloodlines. These games in particular were both excellent, but at some point you will have beaten them and be looking for something else to fill the gap.
And so enters Nihon Soft System and KSS with their not-so-subtle homage to Konami's classic franchise. The King of Demons (Majyūō) was a Japan-only release in 1995 for the Super Nintendo that took obvious inspiration for its aesthetics from Castlevania.
However, though the presentation is derivative of Konami's games, the actual gameplay is quite different. It has more in common with games like Mega Man than Castlevania when it comes to the control scheme and general game flow.
The run-and-gun gameplay is simple, but you have the ability to morph into different demon forms at the end of each stage. It's a small, but welcome tweak to the standard formula and gives the game a bit more character. It's not enough to get it to the standard of the best games on the console, though. This also would have felt extremely dated upon its release in 1995, with the next generation of consoles just starting to take off. It's a shame - if this game had been released 2 years earlier and worldwide rather than just in Japan, it might have been more well-recognised!
🔴 *** RECOMMENDED VIDEOS ***
🎥 King of Demons / Majyuuou (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete: https://youtu.be/rFZRkS2_wHA
🔴 *** WEBSITE REFERENCES ***
🌐 The King of Grabs, 'King of Demons, Super Nintendo': https://thekingofgrabs.com/2017/12/22/king-of-demons-super-nintendo/
🌐 Hardcoregaming101, 'Majuuou': http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/majuuou/
🔴 *** CHANNEL LINKS ***
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🔴 *** ABOUT ME ***
My name is Nick Barkl. I’m an actor and video editor from Sydney, Australia. As well as video games, I love jazz music, bad movies and basketball.
🔴 *** ABOUT THE CHANNEL ***
Blast Processing is a Youtube channel about retro video games. It covers a range of topics, from reviews to prototypes to retrospectives and more. Blast Processing is generally a solo project – I write the scripts, record the voiceovers and edit the videos myself. Occasionally, I’ll rope a talented friend or two into helping me out too!
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