The original Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon was created a bonus game for the Bloodstained kickstarter, a reward tier to encourage backers to up their pledge a bit. An 8-bit side dish compared to the main course of Bloodstained. But it turned out to be a brilliant little retro platformer, very clearly inspired by the early Castlevania games, with some clever twists on the formula, and some crafty level design. Now it’s back for a sequel, as veteran 2D platformer developer Inti-Creates return with a second entry in the Curse of the Moon sub-series. This time it’s standing alone, rather than serving as a warm-up for another bigger game, they’re just going to be releasing Curse of the Moon 2, with any potential sequel to Bloodstained still a mystery.
The trailer starts strong, with an ESRB notice that simply reads “Violence Blood”, which seems rather appropriate to me. Then we get a word from the overseer of the Bloodstained series, Koji Igarashi. He explains that due to the overwhelmingly positive fan response to the first game, they have decided to create a follow-up. Once again, this looks like a game that could have been right at home on the original Nintendo Entertainment System and could have been released at some point 80s. Something that particularly stands out with the sequel is the huge screen-filling bosses that we get a glimpse of in the trailer, including what looks like some kind of insect ghost train? Count me in for that.
This sequel features an entirely new cast of playable characters, all with unique movesets. There’s a breakdown of the different characters on the game’s official page, plus a ton of other information. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be on #TeamHachi.
There’s no release date yet, but they say it’s “coming soon”, and based on the footage in the trailer it’s looking like it’s in a fairly complete state. We’ll keep an eye out for a release date announcement, and keep you updated as we hear more.