LED Matrix Cube Display Playing Castlevania on Nintendo Entertainment System

Anyone seen an LED Matrix Cube before? Me neither. They look cool though. Anyhow, the LED’s across four sides display the game screen. The one in the video below is set on an auto rotating base. This keeps the necessary parts of the screen in your view as you play. Unfortunately, this is extraordinarily little beyond a novelty for showing at parties.

Castlevania is a classic

Most everyone reading this knows about Castlevania by Konami already. It is a 2D side scrolling action adventure. You control Simon Belmont on his quest to end Dracula and his minions. This feat is attempted every 100 years as Dracula’s castle only appears once every century.

A game like Castlevania requires being able to see as much of the screen as possible. Enemies come onto the screen from all directions at various points. Limited view is not only a hindrance, but also detrimental to your success in Konami’s vampire killing adventure.

LED Matrix Cube is an interesting display

Considering the size of the LED’s in use here it is hard to call this more than a novelty. Castlevania was probably chosen due to just how many people know it at sight.

I am not sure what game, if any, would be enjoyable on an LED Matrix Cube. I am sure that if someone wanted to it would be trivial to create a game specifically for a display such as this.

The fact that the cube in the video is on an automatic rotating base helps, a lot. Well, if you can keep up with the spinning that is. Plus, forget backtracking, the rotating would leave you vulnerable to damage.

Can you think of any games that were released that would work well with an LED Matrix Cube? Are you a developer and interested in this display medium? Let me know in the comments.

This article was originally published on Retro Gaming Magazine.