Every hundred years, the dark vampire known as Dracula resurrects and terrorizes the land. A vampire hunter named Simon Belmont bravely ventures into the Count's mansion in order to defeat him. Along the way he'll have to defeat skeletons, bats, fishmen, medusa heads and other evil creatures.

Castlevania is a side-scrolling platform action game. The player takes the role of Simon Belmont, who is able to jump and crack his whip directly in front of him. Power-ups can be obtained by defeating enemies or by whipping candles that appear in the castle. One such power-up increases the power and length of Simon's whip. Different weapons can be gathered which consume hearts when used, these hearts can also be collected from monsters and candles. Additionally, some walls will hide secrets such as the health-restorative turkey or the Double and Triple shot abilities for the weapons Simon has collected. At the end of each section of the castle is a boss, which must be defeated. Progression through the castle eventually leads to a confrontation with Count Dracula himself.

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Alternate Titles

"悪魔城ドラキュラ" -- Japanese spelling
"Castle Vania" -- Brazilian CCE's Top Game title
"Akumajo Dracula" -- Japanese title

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Part of the Following Groups

Merchant	Title	Platform
	Castlevania	NES
	Castlevania
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User Reviews

Just leave it to Simon Belmont, vampire hunter!	Adzuken (339)
Hurts So Good	TheoryOfChaos (55)
The whip-wielding franchise-starter	Multimedia Mike (17237)
its you versus the count in a thrilling duel to the death!	benjamin grimes (10)
Whip it good, this is an excellent action/adventure(?) game for the NES!	OlSkool_Gamer (99)

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The Press Says

Game Freaks 365	Nov 01, 2007	9 out of 10	90
1UP!	Apr 07, 2006	88 out of 100	88
Just Games Retro	Oct 22, 2006	86 out of 100	86
GameCola.net	Feb 04, 2006	8.6 out of 10	86
Power Play	Mar, 1989	82 out of 100	82
NES Times	Aug 05, 2010	8 out of 10	80
Gaming since 198x	Nov 17, 2010	4 out of 5	80
NES Fanz	Jan 03, 2005	4 out of 5	80
HonestGamers	Dec 31, 2003	8 out of 10	80
The Video Game Critic	Dec 06, 2004	B	75

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Trivia

Game Boy Advance version

The Game Boy Advance version of the game has some different names for certain items and characters. For instance:

Count Dracula is now simply called "The Count".
The Holy Water item called "Fire Bomb" in the manual.
The Vampire Killer (Simon's whip) is now called a "Magic Whip".
Even though the game takes place in Transylvania, there is no mention of this anywhere in the game or the manual.
There is also no mention of the hero's name, Simon Belmont.

Remake

This game was remade a decade after, but this time for PSX, known as Castlevania Chronicles.

References

Beat the game once and head to the second part of level two. Climb the stairs, get to the top of the screen and jump on the first moving platform. A blinking treasure will come out of the ground. If you examine it closely, it's a Moai head! Devoted Konami fans will recognize this Easter Island statue from the Gradius series, which seems to be obsessed with them for some odd reason.

Unused sprites

There are a number of unused sprites found in the NES Castlevania ROM, most notably a cross, a cupcake, and a love letter, and a basket with kittens inside(?!).