Castlevania Gone Multiplayer

I really should work for Konami. Not that I know anything about programing, or am good at either 2D Sprite art or 3D polygon art, but simply because I come up with some good ideas for CV games. I mean, any fan boy can come up with games but (attribute it to ego) I think mine are pretty damn good by comparison.

Today's game idea stems from the recent tide of multiplayer games out for the various systems. Multiplayer (aka party) games are quiet the genre now, and everyone is trying to find that next great game to sell, make tons of money off of, and sell a bunch of sequels. Well, I thought up a good way to make Castlevania multiplayer. Think of it as a melding of old school CV, new school RPG CV, and Vampire Killer (that old game for the MSX).

Let's take four Belmonts. Could be brothers, cousins, or hell, go the CotM route and not even have them be Belmonts, just disciples of Belmonts (there could be more than four characters to choose from, but four the standard number of players for current party games). These four are all on a quest to rid the land of Dracula. And they all are looking for the fame and renown of doing it first. Thus, all four have to travel from section to section of the castle, finding keys to unlock doors. The key finding would be a lot like Vampire Killer. You have a large section of a castle (like a overly huge, very explorable Alchemy Lab, for example). Hidden among the bricks, blocks, candles, monsters and so forth are the keys. The goal is to get... say... five keys. Who ever gets five keys first and makes it to the Boss Room at the end of the section first with those five keys gets to fight the boss. Then, after the boss fight, everyone moves onto the next area.

The goal would be to get as many points as possible. Every enemy defeated would count for a little, as would special weapons and items found. Every key found would count for more. The boss, obviously would count for the most. By the end of however many stages were chosen to play through, the person with the most points would be able to chance fighting Dracula.

Special restrictions would be able to be turned on and off. For example, player vs player fighting, which could lead to keys being stolen or points or what have you. Death could lead to you losing all your keys. And with bosses, if the person fighting the boss loses, then everyone could just move to the next level with the boss undefeated, or the next closest person to successfully unlocking the boss room would be able to try. Same could go for Dracula.

One thing I like about this idea is that you can set as many or as little areas to play though. There could be a slew of areas, either pre-made, or maybe even choose from random maps being created for that extra added thrill.

Of course, a single player game either in the vein of one of the three CV game genres, or closer to the style of the multiplayer game could be played as well, which could help unlock more features. It's a pretty open game design which allows for a lot of cool ideas to be brought to the table.