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Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to G.E.R.'s Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS) maps.

The Castlevania series celebrates its 40th anniversary this year! The Famicom Disk System release of Akumajou Dracula (which the West would later get as "Castlevania" on the NES) was near the end of September 1986, and a new game, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, will be released this month! Quite a treat for a series that has been dormant, at least in the sense of new games, as Castlevania has mostly been about crossovers and collections lately...

And close to halfway between 1986's Castlevania and 2026's Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is 2006's Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin!

During World War II, the agony and hatred of countless lost souls allow the vampire, Brauner, to recreate Dracula's castle. Jonathan Morris, wielder of the legendary "Vampire Killer" whip and the son of John Morris (from Castlevania: Bloodlines), and his friend and skilled sorceress, Charlotte Aulin, take on the duty to take on Dracula. This time, painting-like portals throughout the castle add some variety to the settings of this Castlevania adventure.

These worlds range from a London city street to an Egyptian pyramid to a bizarre circus-themed area with rotated and upside-down portions where gravity is pointed inwards for most creatures, but not for Jonathan and Charlotte.  And G.E.R. has mapped all of these for our viewing pleasure!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping one of the "Metroidvania" Castlevania games, G.E.R.'s Castlevania: Portrait Of Ruin (DS) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for October 2026.

Dang, my YouTube channel's a decade old?

Ten years ago today, I posted this video:

Slightly awkward and not as polished. But feeling cringe at past videos proves that I've gotten better since then!

[zagato blackfist]

Last night, zagato blackfist got through THREE of my four NES requests, Bomberman, Crash 'N The Boys: Street Challenge, and Stanley: The Search For Dr. Livingston...!

Bomberman I requested because I think it was the remaining NES game whose protagonist is still a (somewhat) known character today, so it's just nice to get the history of legacy characters.  Not that the remaining NES games all have nobodies... I'll have to check again, but I doubt there are many games (certainly in the North American library) with characters still currently having games so that younger games would recognize them.  The first Bomberman game has random stages that look rather "samey", but I'm glad zagato still thought it was worth doing (aside from wanting all the NES games mapped anyway, that is).

Crash 'N The Boys is always enjoyable.  I always like the River City/Kunio-Kun games.  Almost every time that my brother and I play, the three events we play are the 400 Meter Hurdles, Hammer Throw, and Swimming.  The Hammer Throw music often gets stuck in my head, randomly!  As a short game, I was kinda surprised this wasn't mapped yet... now that's not an issue.

Stanley: The Search For Dr. Livingston I have more memories of reading about it in Nintendo Power and being impressed with how epic it looks, than actually playing the game.  Still, I like to see games that present an actual adventure get mapped.

Thanks again and as always, zagato blackfist!

The current remaining NES game map request is for Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure, which again is like Stanley... though I had attempted to play it back in the day and didn't get far, so maps would be great for if I ever try again!

I wonder if I should add more NES games to my requests list... surely there must be something else I want to see nearly as much or even more than Bill & Ted.  But I think we've only got a little more than 100 official North American games remaining, so it's not surprising if there's not much that I personally really want to see other than that every one mapped gets us closer to the goal of having every NES game here on VGMaps.com!

EDIT: Though I would like to see the North American NES library prioritized, I had to add the PAL exclusive, Parasol Stars: The Story Of Bubble Bobble III (also known as "Parasol Stars: Rainbow Islands II/2", as if the series isn't confusing enough already).  After all, there are still new Bubble Bobble games, I think?  So Bomberman wasn't the last character still recognizeable by younger gamers today from unmapped NES games if including European NES games...

Quest 64

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to VGCartography's Quest 64 (N64) maps.

The Nintendo 64's release in North America was 30 years ago from the end of this month! This would be a great time to honour the map set for Super Mario 64... but we did that already. The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time? Mario Kart 64? Super Smash Bros.? Paper Mario? Already recognized. What else is iconic on the Nintendo 64 that we could praise on this milestone anniversary?

Why, Quest 64, of course!

That's a bit of a joke, of course, but though derided for being short and simplistic, Quest 64 is also acknowledged as being one of very few RPGs on the Nintendo 64. Perhaps because of, and despite, its infamy, it has its fans, and not all for irony.

One such fan is VGCartography, who has mapped out all of the polygons of the island of Celtland.  The apprentice Spirit Tamer, Brian, sets off to find his father, who disappeared while searching for Eletale's Book, a powerful tome of magic that has been stolen and misused.  With these maps covering Kennishire all the way to Brannoch Castle, all marked with elemental gem locations and monster stats, you may be able to help Brian save Celtland!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this infamous Nintendo 64 RPG, VGCartography's Quest 64 (N64) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for September 2026.

LTIan, I know it's super-frustrating that you've been asking for maps of Looney Tunes games for over a decade, and your requests never get fulfilled.

But ask yourself... how does it help your case to demand that ALL map requests stop?

It's not a personal attack on you if other people don't love the Looney Tunes games as much as you do, and others' requests being granted (which is still rare) is not meant to be a snub towards you.

[Spanettone]

Spanettone has mapped the GBA game, Gunstar Super Heroes!

The original on the Genesis is much-loved, I feel like the GBA game should be remembered too, and now that Spanettone has mapped it, it is better preserved.

Thanks for your continued work in the GBA atlas, qwert_vs_qwerty!

Checking it off from the list that I made on VGMaps.com's 24th anniversary, this is where we are at now:

Are you interested?

You're asking if a website that collects video game maps would be interested in video game maps?

The answer is a "yes", of course.

The real meat and potatoes of my channel seem to be my book reviews (or at least they're the ones that I feel I should be known for), and, though a bit overdue, I finally got around to finishing this video of Rey Estaban's NES Endings Compendium - Vol. 2: 1990.  Check it out, and pick up the book if you're interested... it would be nice if he would be able to complete the NES Endings Compendium series!

I published these on my YouTube channel, forgot to mention them here.

The first three "If Mega Man Robot Masters Were Human" videos, well, the Shorts versions, are really popular, so I figured I'd keep going.  Here are the Robot Masters (or Human Masters) of Mega Man 4.

Spider-Man: The Videogame

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to George s's Spider-Man: The Videogame (Arcade) maps.

Spider-Man, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Hawkeye and Black Cat are the heroes you can play as in Spider-Man: The Videogame, where you take on a bunch of classic Marvel Comics villains.  Venom, Green Goblin, Kingpin, and others stand in your way, until you confront Doctor Doom in the final chapter, "Doom's Day".

What's neat about this game is that it has both beat-'em-up and platforming sequences, with zooming-out and zooming-in transitions between them at least a couple of times each chapter.  How many multi-genre arcade games do you know of, especially with such quick and seamless genre switches?

George s is a major contributor to VGMaps.com, and has been awarded the Maps Of The Month honour multiple times before, but until now, not for an arcade game.  This is an oversight, since arcade games are clearly George s's specialty, with over 1,700 maps of arcade games to his name!  The arcade atlas would be one-quarter its size if not for George s!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this arcade beat-'em-up/platformer hybrid, George s's Spider-Man: The Videogame (Arcade) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for August 2026.

[qwert_vs_qwerty]

qwert_vs_qwerty tackles a DS request, for Monster Tale!

I remember enjoying this game, and wondering why not many people talked about it.
A 3DS remake, "Monster Tale Ultimate" was cancelled.  Supposedly a version is or was supposed to come out for the Switch, Xbox One, and PS4, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I enjoyed this as I saw it as a sleeper hit of a Metroidvania.  I played it when it was new, so that was probably 2011, when maybe 2D Metroidvanias like the ones that crowd the indie scene today might not have been common yet.

Well, we have maps of it now, for anyone that gives it a chance.
Thanks again, qwert_vs_qwerty!

Occasionally, there are coincidences here on VGMaps.com, like when different mappers indepently submit maps on the same day that can be thematically connected.  I probably should have made note of some of the previous ones...

But today, there's a really neat one.

George s submitted a map from the classic arcade game, Lady Bug.

qwert_vs_qwerty submitted maps of Record Of Lodoss War: Deedlit In Wonder Labyrinth, which was developed by... "Team Ladybug".
They even use a pixelated ladybug as their logo!



Two different games... with ladybugs!  Submitted on the same day!  Wow!

[zagato blackfist]

zagato blackfist plows through another NES request, this time for G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero - The Atlantis Factor!

It's the day after The Fourth Of July, but I'm sure my American friends still wouldn't mind the appearance of some kind of American hero any day of the year.

(Though this one is published by Capcom, the first was published by Taxan.  The developer for both is KID, who also made the very similar-styled NES platformers, Low G Man and Kick Master.)

G.I. Joe's the team that defends the world from the evil Cobra... so zagato included maps for three other "Cobra"-titled NES games.  And Cobra Triangle was mapped by zagato earlier as my most recent NES request.  That's a lot of "CobraNESs"!

Plok!

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Jackster's Plok! (Super NES) maps.

On the island of Akrillic, our hero, Plok, finds that his flag on top of his house has gone missing! It's a ploy by the evil Bobbin Bros. to lure Plok away to Cotton Island, allowing the Fleas to run amok.  Will Plok be able to find Grandpappy Plok's amulet and make his way to the Fleapit to defeat The Flea Queen, and restore peace to Akrillic?

In this 16-bit platformer, Plok, with his detached limbs (a couple of years before Rayman debuted), hops and bops his way across the mulitchromatic lands of Cotton Island and Akrillic, the monochromatic Legacy Island (in a flashback featuring Grandpappy Plok), and the gloomy Fleapit.  Many stages, especially the early ones, have secret Warp Levels that, if Plok finds and can complete the challenge within, can skip ahead in his adventure.  The stages and their various secrets are all mapped here, thanks to Jackster!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this cute and colourful cult classic, Jackster's Plok! (Super NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for July 2026.

[George s]

George s has mapped the thirteenth arcade game that I've requested - and it's Battletoads!

It's quite different from any of the console/handheld versions. Probably not as remembered, though it is bundled with some other Battletoads and Killer Instinct games in the Killer Instinct Arcade1Up, since they're all by Rare.

Great for this game to be preserved in these maps, too.  Thanks again, as always, George s!