I am definitely guilty of not showing support back to others like I should here. That is something I am working on.

I agree, many great games go unnoticed because of lack of marketing. In this case, I figure it is because of the use of copyrighted materials and being, obviously, directly based on a popular game. Could be fear of Konami coming down on them, to which I say, why not make a whole original title instead?

Game companies do not own the rights to whips being used as weapons, nor the era this is set in. They do own the level design, boss layouts, etc.