Triple Creature Feature 8: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Castlevania, Doom(2016)

Arguably one of the strangest, darkest entries in the franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was an ambitious attempt to marry the wildly successful control/gameplay design of Ocarina of Time with a bizarre time travel system that forced players to play through the same three days of events over and over again to save the day. While generally acknowledged by critics and fans as a less than worthy successor to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask was Nintendo's first real attempt to change the classic Zelda formula.

When focusing on the main objectives, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is about 20½ Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 31 Hours to obtain 100% completion.



You are Simon Belmont of the Belmont clan. Count Dracula has appeared and it's your job to rid the world of him. You are armed with your trusty whip and have the ability to pick up an item that you find in the game as a secondary weapon.

When focusing on the main objectives, Castlevania is about 3 Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 5½ Hours to obtain 100% completion.



You've come here for a reason. The Union Aerospace Corporation's massive research facility on Mars is overwhelmed by fierce and powerful demons, and only one person stands between their world and ours. As the lone DOOM Marine, you've been activated to do one thing: kill them all.

When focusing on the main objectives, Doom is about 11½ Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 26½ Hours to obtain 100% completion.

Only go Doom (2016) so thats the only I'll be playing this Triple feature

Sadly I don't have any of these games. (Closest I have is the Castlevania Advance Collection and Ocarina of Time 3D.) Maybe I'll be able to participate next month.

I might do Castlevania as it's one I never got round to - I've finished the other two in the past. Perhaps I'm due a Doom replay though!

I’ll definitely be giving Castlevania a try this month! And I absolutely love Majoras Mask, great game! If I can fit it in I might try and do a replay of it this month too, but no guarantees there since some of my other playthroughs come first.

Sadly I don't have any of these games. (Closest I have is the Castlevania Advance Collection and Ocarina of Time 3D.) Maybe I'll be able to participate next month.

I know Majora’s Mask is one of the N64 games on Switch Online, but understandable if you don’t have that!! And if you haven’t played Ocarina of Time before I’d definitely recommend that one first

After cheating a bit and starting Castlevania last night, I finished it this morning. It's definitely an NES game, that's for sure. Almost all of the difficulty in this game comes from either the fact that Simon is ridiculously hard to control, or that without savestates there's no saving. I get that by using savestates I didn't get the true Castlevania experience, but I can tell that it wouldn't be my cup of tea. Still, there's definitely some stuff to appreciate about the game, especially when you take into account that this game just turned 36, such as the atmosphere and the boss fights being pretty solid for the time.

Overall, I somewhat enjoyed my time with Castlevania, although that's likely mostly a function of using savestates. I've definitely gotta try out one of the more modern games in the series though, as I can tell that a tighter version of this experience could be truly fantastic.

Anyway, onto either Majora's Mask or Doom next!

I finished Majora's Mask on the N64 ages and ages ago. I've been meaning to actually finish the 3DS version, so I'm hoping this might finally be the push to do so. If I pick up where my last file was I finished all the initial stuff in town and am headed off to the swamp. next

I'm surprised neither Silent Hill 2 nor one of the Resident Evils got in, I thought they were a given.

I don't like Majora's Mask and already played Doom 2016, so I'll be playing some Castlevania this month. A few days ago I ordered my first retro emulation handheld, the Miyoo Mini, so I'll play it on that, and I'll try without savestates 😀.

Since I already played the other two, I can give my two cents to MM and Doom.

Majora's Mask was imo hampered by being limited to three in-game days and having to time travel back frequently to do quests that you can only do at certain times. That's just annoying and repetitive. Doesn't help that for some quests you had to redo some bosses (iirc you can at least take a shortcut back to the boss from the beginning of the dungeon, at least on 3DS) or redo previous steps in the questline. Less annoyingly all your consumables reset. I'm sure lots of people don't mind, but I'm particularly repetition averse, and it's a big reason why I can't stand roguelikes, so might just be me. At least it's interesting in that NPCs have schedules that you can observe and they all do some stuff at the same time each day. Sadly the game is completely convoluted and it's very difficult to figure out how on earth to progress in this game if you don't have a guide, worse than any of the other 3D Zelda's in that regard. At least it has some cool characters and you can change forms and do some interesting things with masks. One of the weakest 3D Zelda entries alongside Skyward Sword imo.

Doom on the other hand is great fun. The game looks awesome graphically, is well optimized on PC, and has a killer soundtrack. The guns feel great and have a lot of punch to them, level design is very solid and has lots of secrets to explore if you're into that. There's decent enemy variety iirc and it's fun to blast your way through. The only thing I didn't like was slight overemphasis on melee finishers to regain resources. Very cool at first, but it grew old for me quickly and I would've preferred just blasting my way through. Small criticism though, the game rocks.

EDIT: I think the story wasn't particularly great or memorable in Doom, so there's that too. Gameplay is awesome though.

Just wanted to say that Majora's Mask was an inspired choice by FrozenRoy as part of the Triple Creature Feature this year. It might not be the scariest game you play this month but I guarantee it will be on of the most haunting.

What GemminiDrodson said is quite true though, the game can be feel quite convoluted and somewhat unintuitive compared to other Zelda titles but I implore whoever plays it this month not to give up on it too quickly because you will be richly rewarded with potentially one of the best games you're ever likely to play, there's certainly very little else like it. I definitely bounced off it too my first few attempts, it just felt so weird, but it was definitely worth giving it another shot.

I will leave this here as a precursor. There are no spoilers, it's just a short animation that explores what happens just before the game itself starts, and it sets the stage better than anything else. If you recognise the style, it's by the same studio that recently released / re-released Kena: Bridge of Spirits, they did a fantastic job with this.



Anyway, best enjoyment to those that play it this month :)

I’ve heard certain… things about Majora’s Mask that make me wonder if I’ll be finishing this one. This’ll make Zelda game #3 for me and that moon is still disturbing. I’ve seen time lapses of that thing moving.

I’ve heard certain… things about Majora’s Mask that make me wonder if I’ll be finishing this one. This’ll make Zelda game #3 for me and that moon is still disturbing. I’ve seen time lapses of that thing moving.

Oh yeah that moon terrified me as a kid. The game has a great atmosphere.

I don't have Doom 2016. So that's the one I'm for sure missing out on during this Triple Creature Feature.

I love Majora's Mask, my favorite game of all time. I might get to the 3DS version this month if I have time, but that all depends.

I have the Castlevania Collection for Switch so that one I'll for sure be playing. I've never played a Castlevania game so the first one is a good place to start I guess.

Okay so had my first play session of Doom:

Basically got to the third level. Got all secrets so far. Playing on hurt me plenty

So Doom (2016) really feels like a Doom but upgraded for the era it came out. It fast does not care about realism and expects to stay on the move. It rewards aggressive play and has some great in your face action. There are many secrets I've found so far in the game and it's story is written rather like a dark souls game. It does not expect the player to care about the backstory and expresses this with how Doom guy interacts with the world with his fuck off let me kill demons attitude which expressed all through actions then words. If the player does want to read the backstory it does offer a codex to give backstory but it can be easily ignored. So far really enjoying this game

My really only current criticism is more due to hindsight then anything else as I've played a demo of Doom eternal and in Doom eternal it has more movement skills available to player such as a dash. These feel missing in this game and probably shows an improvement adding in the sequel more then anything else

Had my first play session… the “prologue” felt like: “How much time can we make you use up as it’s counting down?” while I was trying to find those bomber kids. I made it to the clock tower in literally the last minute. Setting the tone early on, I see.

Oh, and I have lost my rupees. Should have listened to the adult warning of early financial investment.

GemminiDrodson: Oh yeah that moon terrified me as a kid. The game has a great atmosphere.

Even without the moon hovering over you, that timer is enough to do it. I don’t care for these kinds of time limits. 🥲

Had my first play session… the “prologue” felt like: “How much time can we make you use up as it’s counting down?” while I was trying to find those bomber kids. I made it to the clock tower in literally the last minute. Setting the tone early on, I see.

Oh, and I have lost my rupees. Should have listened to the adult warning of early financial investment.

GemminiDrodson: Oh yeah that moon terrified me as a kid. The game has a great atmosphere.

Even without the moon hovering over you, that timer is enough to do it. I don’t care for these kinds of time limits. 🥲

Make use of the bank! But honestly losing your expendables isn't actually too big of a big deal. It's easy to get stuff back.

I remember failing the 'prologue' the first time I played. Had a heck of a time finding all the kids

Had my first play session… the “prologue” felt like: “How much time can we make you use up as it’s counting down?” while I was trying to find those bomber kids. I made it to the clock tower in literally the last minute. Setting the tone early on, I see.

Oh, and I have lost my rupees. Should have listened to the adult warning of early financial investment.

GemminiDrodson: Oh yeah that moon terrified me as a kid. The game has a great atmosphere.

Even without the moon hovering over you, that timer is enough to do it. I don’t care for these kinds of time limits. 🥲

As Siver said, I wouldn't worry too much about money as you can easily gain it back. You're not really at a point in the game where you need a lot of money anyway unless you're trying to play the two mini games that you have access to at the moment. So I wouldn't be concerned about that.

And honestly the timer is only really a problem when it comes to that early section in the game. Once you're able to go back in time successfully the first time there's a scarecrow in the town that will teach you a song that slows the timer.

I might not be participating in the playing portion of this month's games, since I recently beat Castlevania in August, and I platinumed Doom a few years back, but I'm interested in jumping in to talk about these games. I really enjoy both of them, so that's pretty cool. I haven't played Majora's Mask yet, nor do I have a way to currently, but I'm interested none the less in this game.

So quick EoW update for Doom(2016):

Reached the fourth level and finished the first rune trial.

Nothing much to add now. I'm getting alot of weapons fast though so thats good and it offers varity. I find the rocket launcher is the best for those melee grunts as it takes them down with ease

Okay so had my first play session of Doom:

Basically got to the third level. Got all secrets so far. Playing on hurt me plenty

So Doom (2016) really feels like a Doom but upgraded for the era it came out. It fast does not care about realism and expects to stay on the move. It rewards aggressive play and has some great in your face action. There are many secrets I've found so far in the game and it's story is written rather like a dark souls game. It does not expect the player to care about the backstory and expresses this with how Doom guy interacts with the world with his fuck off let me kill demons attitude which expressed all through actions then words. If the player does want to read the backstory it does offer a codex to give backstory but it can be easily ignored. So far really enjoying this game

My really only current criticism is more due to hindsight then anything else as I've played a demo of Doom eternal and in Doom eternal it has more movement skills available to player such as a dash. These feel missing in this game and probably shows an improvement adding in the sequel more then anything else

I just completed Doom 2016 a couple days ago.

Totally agree re: missing mobility features that I have become so accustomed to in modern action games. I kept trying to 'run' only to end up walking instead, also missed having a dash feature.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, though towards the end it started to get repetitive - but perhaps that was mainly due to it being my second playthrough.

9/10.

As luck would have it the Castlevania: Anniversary Collection was 75% off yesterday, so I picked it up and I've started Castlevania.

I've just finished Stage 2 (is that the clocktower?) so these are my thoughts so far!

I had to go looking for a manual to figure out what some of the pickups did (mostly the ones that appear in the top right). Double/Triple shot is insanely helpful on a few bosses.

The first stage is a good intro, and the boss has a good cycle - took me a couple of attempts but I got the pattern down. Not being able to move mid jump is a bit of a pain but understandable, as is the tech limitation that comes with some controls.

The noise of counting the score up at the end of a stage...reminds me of the same noise in the Master System Sonics. It's not a pleasant noise!

Not sure why the time limit is needed other than to push you on ahead? But then again I never understood it in the Sonic series either. I'm really liking the music, it's nice to see where some of my favourite tracks from later in the series began.

The second stage was a bit of a pain. More than once I was knocked down by a Medusa Head - and of course if you've gone up a floor it counts anything below you as a bottomless pit. It made one or two screens generally really annoying.

The second boss was equally a pain, but I ended up spamming the Holy Cross with double shot. Made it much easier!

On to Stage 3 (EDIT - Stage 7. I hadn't noticed each 'level' was made up of three stages).

A few annoying sections in Stage 7-9 made a bit easier when I realised that the whip can take out Bone Tower projectiles. The boss was a lot easier - I found there was a step the Mummys(?) couldn't reach. Made dealing with them a piece of cake.

I luckily have access to all three of these games so will be getting stuck into them over the next few days. Particularly looking forward to trying Majora's Mask. I've been meaning to play it for years now so this will be a good incentive.

I beat Castlevania, my first time playing one in the series. I think the game's first half is great, and then the last half is not as good.

I found the final 2 bosses particularly annoying as they would spawn themselves or hazards right on top of you. It always felt cheap, especially considering the NES movement. I played on the official Collection, and for some reason the ROM for the game crashed on me for no reason in the middle of the ||grim reaper|| fight. I was so pissed. I hate the classic NES knockback as well. I've always hated it, Castlevania is no different.

Despite all that, I still had enough fun to give it a 7/10.

I beat Castlevania, my first time playing one in the series. I think the game's first half is great, and then the last half is not as good.

I found the final 2 bosses particularly annoying as they would spawn themselves or hazards right on top of you. It always felt cheap, especially considering the NES movement. I played on the official Collection, and for some reason the ROM for the game crashed on me for no reason in the middle of the ||grim reaper|| fight. I was so pissed. I hate the classic NES knockback as well. I've always hated it, Castlevania is no different.

Despite all that, I still had enough fun to give it a 7/10.

The Death boss fight is the one I'm currently stuck on. I made it to him with half my health after a lot of attempts (the stage with the Axemen and the Medusa Heads can do one) but I'm really having a hard time putting him down. Any tips?

The Death boss fight is the one I'm currently stuck on. I made it to him with half my health after a lot of attempts (the stage with the Axemen and the Medusa Heads can do one) but I'm really having a hard time putting him down. Any tips?

Best I can tell you is to have the cross weapon since it goes through the scythes and to destroy the scythes at any chance you get. Going with that strategy and a lot of attempts, I was able to make it by with the skin of my teeth.