Dracula IV is quite the time+energy investment, even just the one loop - interesting game for a first clear!
If you're looking for more, I'd suggest Metal Storm (1 loop) for a distinctly arcade-concise sidescroller. And it's a goddamn fine game besides.
I don't have the discipline for speedrunning, and tbh I don't like running past stuff or taking damage purely to save time. All about the speedkills and agile maneuverings, though. Huge respect for the community - they're an invaluable source of detailed mechanical insights, and stuff like
Funkdoc's CV4 one-life run at Awesome Games Done Quick 2013 is the sidescroller equivalent of Yagawa seat of the pants suicide flying. I find console sidescrollers most satisfying if played for one life clears, which tends to put their difficulty in the coinop equivalents' 1CC ballpark. The occasional arcade-tough clears like Holy Diver, Metal Storm 2-ALL and Alien Soldier SUPERHARD aside.
I've recently been replaying Akumajou Densetsu and CVIII back to back. The latter's loop is probably
the oldschool Dracula trial with its brutal universal damage scale and an exclusive sine wave pest that anyone who hates medusa heads would run screaming from. OTOH AD's loop is no picnic either, with the same sadistic enemy placements, and I find the way its monsters do varying damage a more satisfying design choice (in CVIII all creatures great and small cleave off the max amount of health per character). TLDR I love AD just fine but am still incomplete without CVIII. ;-; A much, much less extreme variant of Ninja Gaiden III deprivation syndrome.
Also, got initial clears on a few more of my FC library recently.
YAMI NO SHIGOTONIN KAGE, not
that other Kage (FC ver) comfy middle ground between Dragon Fighter's instantly accessible flatland hack n' slash and Solbrain's vastly more complex scenarios. As noted previously the damage->powerdown mechanic leans more towards methodically plotting out areas until you can sweep through without hesitation, and it packs the dense stage design and arcade game duration to ensure a playable ninja flick payoff at the end of the curve. Liked the attract mode, being a big Ninja Warriors Again fan. <333 Shunichi Taniguchi and company!
GUN-DEC ultra high quality Ninja Gaiden-alike. I do think the damage scale could've been a bit harsher - you can really get smacked around to little ill effect, especially with the generous health drops between most areas. And bosses aren't very strong, but neither are the NGs' LOLOLOLOL. Otherwise, it absolutely nails the hurtling, reckless action/platforming style of Tecmo's games. A joy to handle with impeccable controls and airtight collision. Thoroughly entertaining sidescroller to tear through, and as with NGII the low damage scale is moot when you want to slice birdies like a badass.
Tokkyu Shirei Solbrain aka
Shatterhand aka
Punchman 3: PUNCHIN' ALL OVER THE WORLD apex of Natsume's informal sidescrolling action FC trilogy.
the level design 
Huge, varied, perilous, a blast to run, jump and grapple through. Batman is an obvious comparison - like Sunsoft's masterpiece, SB's fixation on dangerous industrial locales is built around the character's perfectly judged hint of inertia, just enough to impart a riveting sense of weight and momentum to its athletics. The staple punch attack is another, with an interesting and important Final Fight combo riff, but the Options introduce another layer of technique entirely. Keeping them alive can be awkard at first, but there's a marvelous sense of synergy and mastery in skillfully deploying these little guys in tandem with the player character, even moreso with the immensely satisfying powerup mode hingeing on good play.
I'm not so sure Shatterhand was actually the game's original version, though I've seen more than one reliable source suggest this. Objectively, SH is the more polished game. Solbrain's exclusive fairground stage is distinguished from the rest by its brevity and simplicity - where the others feature regular direction changes and plenty of environmental dangers, there's little more than flatland here. Shatterhand replaces it with a far more developed bioweapons lab, still simplistic in comparison to the other stages but with unique steamjet and sludge hazards, exclusive enemy types and plenty of the game's sadly otherwise rare barrier smashing. Bosses follow a similar pattern - Solbrain's rather uninteresting fairground Amazon duo gain a more elaborate second form in Shatterhand, and this fight trades places with the wall-jumping boss who gains a trickier sludge-floored arena. There's also the slightly enhanced animation of the main character, whose jacket flutters during jumps, while hovering and during the stage select screen, while metal-encased Solbrain dude remains stoically unfluttered.
So yeah, SH seems like it'd have been the more polished later game. Would be interested to know more! As to which is best, SH's exclusive level and boss are better hands-down, but otherwise the games are pretty much the same cosmetics aside.
Super interesting FC/NES region diff tidbits (dat I seen)
-gravity inversion boss is a sexy nekkid wimmenz in FC, is some angry ghost thing in NES. This is the third Natsume game I'm aware of (after Kiki Kaikai Black Mantle + Ninja Warriors Again) where sweet pixel honeys get banhammered in NTSCU! Booo! No seriously I prefer the genetically engineered uberchick over Casper With Herpes.
-rocket decals in final stage read "SRS" in FC, "US ARMY" in NES. Provocations!
-"Zangief if he was in 2010SF" grenade chuckers seem to take more damage in NES versus FC, though it might be the booze talking.
)
I find the rematch in the last stage a bit of a pain in the ass, since it's the same process with less space, less slowdown and more pressure.
