Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Critic Reviews

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is a superb sequel. It has everything that made the first game a surprise hit, but expands and adds to it with a level of care that shines through the whole thing.

Inti Creates could've done "more of the same" and called it a day, but the new characters lend Curse of the Moon 2 a ton of flexibility, the co-op support is commendable, and the subtle refinements can be found far and wide if you go back to play the original game after spending a weekend with the sequel. Curse of the Moon isn't just some quaint offshoot of Bloodstained. It's leading the charge.

If you’re familiar with Curse of the Moon, you’ll feel right at home with its sequel. It’s more or less the same great experience you’ve come to expect, with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. We may not have needed Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2, but now that it’s here, it’s sure to become a staple of my library.

In many aspects, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 reiterates all the good things of the first instalment, and goes beyond just enough to justify its existence. All qualities of its predecessor are in place, with an extra dose of wackiness and originality on top. The classic Castlevania 3-inspired recipe works just as well now, and the retro-stiff but tight and satisfying controls are a joy to experience for any fans of the genre. Inti Creates did it again!

Curse of the Moon 2 is a textbook sequel that provides more of what fans loved from before.

A great sequel to the prequel of Ritual of the Night. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is just what you are expecting.

This is a great sequel that improves and expands every aspect of the original. A true gift for classic Castlevania fans that miss the old-school 2D games.

Curse of the Moon 2 didn’t need to innovate on much. The whole point of the series is to give Castlevania fans an experience similar to those classic 8-bit adventures. And Curse of the Moon 2 does that well, offering a fun and challenging sidescroller with beautiful pixel art and tons of replayability. But it also lacks the nostalgic punch of its predecessor. Instead of feeling like the first new classic Castlevania game in decades, Curse of the Moon 2 is the first one in a couple of years. That’s really through no fault of its own, but just as Mega Man 10 doesn’t have the same reverence as Mega Man 9, I expect a similar fate for Curse of the Moon 2.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 builds upon the foundation that the first entry laid out and made the entire experience more accessible without taking away the challenge for genre lovers. There’s room for balance when switching between single and cooperative modes, but there is nothing more fun than taking down demons with a friend in this adventure. Do yourself a favor and pick this game up.

Curse of the Moon 2 is an excellent result that we hope will bring the Bloodstained series and the memory of the Castlevania classics to touch new qualitative peaks.

If you liked Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, then you will like Curse of the Moon 2. It's more of the same, but in the best way: more levels, more characters, a cleaner interface, and lots of balance tweaks to make everyone play a bit better. You should check out Curse of the Moon first, since it's an excellent game on its own, but if you have a hankering for '80s Castlevania action, then Curse of the Moon 2 will give you everything you need.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 could've easily fallen into the Mega Man 10 trap – that is, another retro-styled follow-up that fails to make much of an impression since the gimmick has lost its lustre. Indeed, it does feel like the game could've been a little more ambitious, either in changing-up its design or upgrading its aesthetics to 16-bit level. But thanks to its somewhat higher difficulty level and a wider cast of characters, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is an extremely solid game that very slightly edges out its already excellent predecessor, and old-school Castlevania fans will absolutely love it.

Regardless of which difficulty you play on, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 serves as one of the best entry points into classic Castlevania. Its gameplay, while not as challenging as the classics, introduces interesting mechanics that build not only on the original Castlevania games but the first Curse of the Moon as well. It certainly falls short in a few of the places it tries to innovate, but despite its flaws, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 offers a strong dose of nostalgia with a few modern twists and a fantastic presentation that makes it more accessible and sometimes even a bit more enjoyable.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is a great game that pays loving homage to the classic old-school Castlevania games. Here’s hoping this does well enough so Inti Creates can go even bigger with a third entry.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is a worthy successor to the original and I'm very happy that Inti Creates and Koji Igarashi decided to make this sequel. With a cool co-op mode and a wonderful new cast of playable characters, it's one fun retro-inspired game.

It's still a classic Castlevania homage at heart, but it has an eccentricity that feels right at home alongside the giant kitty-cats of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. When a game seems to be having this much fun at its own expense, it's hard not to join in.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 might annoy those who find this continuous use of 8-bit style graphics redundant. If it may appear pimply and technically "comfortable" in development, in reality the pillars that decree a good video game are always the same. Inti Create has created an intriguing action platformer with excellent gameplay potential. With an unexpected endgame for such a "small" title, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 brings with it the legacy of a gameplay of yesteryear, endowed with a rhythm and difficulty not for everyone, but with an internal consistency and a playful force worthy of a triple A.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 does what is expected of a sequel, it improves on the original while keeping the best of the original game. In this case, Curse of the Moon 2 brings new characters and a multiplayer component, which is more than welcome and adds a lot of appeal to the game. Fans of sidescrolling action with a gothic/horror theme will have plenty to enjoy here.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is a great mix of old and new, and one of the best 2D action games you can get on any platform right now, especially with how replayable it is and how varied your options as a player are, now if only the jump mechanic was more flexible.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is a somewhat uneven sequel. On one hand, its new playable characters create some of the most ingenious stretches of retro platforming in recent memory. The myriad abilities at your disposal create an open-ended experience, and dismantling tricky challenges with your broad toolset is one of the game's greatest pleasures. But difficulty spikes and a few sequences that clash with the game's fixed trajectory jumps can make some stretches feel a little tedious. At its best, the game synthesizes the appeal of NES platformers with great boss fights and simple but nuanced systems. At its worst, it emulates the frustrating elements of games from this era with a little too much accuracy.