Castlevania

aka: Akumajō Dracula, Arcade Archives: Vs. Castlevania, Castle Vania, Vs. Castlevania
Moby ID: 2062
NES Specs
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Description official descriptions

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.

Spellings

  • アーケードアーカイブス VS. キャッスルヴァニア - Japanese Nintendo Switch / PS4 spelling
  • 悪魔城ドラキュラ - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (NES version)

17 People

Produced By
  • Konami
Directed By
Screenplay by
Music by
Dracula
  • Christopher Bee
Death
  • Belo Lugosi
Frankenstein
  • Boris Karloffice
Mummy Man
  • Love Chaney Jr.
Medusa
  • Barber Sherry
Vampire Bat
  • Mix Schrecks
Hunch Back
  • Love Chaney
Fish Man
  • Green Stranger
Armor
  • Cafebar Read
Skeleton
  • Andre Moral
Zombie
  • Jone Candies
The Hero
  • Simon Belmondo

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 45 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 233 ratings with 9 reviews)

Whip it, baby!

The Good
The NES came out in the Eighties, the same era that game companies began to shine with classics that spawned many sequels. One of these classics was Castlevania, Konami’s popular series that survived for eighteen years before being reduced to pachinko machines. I am reviewing the first game, which was released in 1986, first for the Famicom Disk System and then the NES a year later. It introduces the world to Simon Belmont, who I believe was the main protagonist for the first two games.

Armed with “Vampire Killer”, a whip given to him by his ancestor Christopher Belmont who defeated the Dark One many centuries ago, Simon must venture inside Dracula’s Castle and search every floor, killing a lot of creatures and defeating Dracula’s henchmen that will try to stop him every step of the way. Candles are scattered along the way, and whipping these will allow Simon to collect power hearts that may be used in dangerous situations.

Castlevania was unique to the other platform games that were in the same era, where you only have a single weapon to destroy enemies. More than one weapon can be used, such as dagger, axe, and holy water; and these weapons can be collected by whipping candles. Also, the game draws inspiration from classic horror movies from the early twentieth century. The creatures that attack you and the guardians you face are taken from horror movies. At the end of each stage, you will fight movies icons louche as Medusa, Frankenstein, a couple of Mummies, the Grim Reaper, and Dracula himself.

As I just said, Castlevania was first released on the FDS. It has a name entry screen reminiscent to The Legend of Zelda. I have no idea why there is one, maybe it is to used for a high school table; but it makes a return in Dracula’s Curse. There is also a version for the PlayChoice-10, Nintendo’s Arcade system. It is much harder than the normal version, and continues can be obtained by inserting coins.

The game's soundtrack is brilliantly composed by Kinuyo Yamashita, and some of the tunes are easy to remember, especially the ones in the first two states. Each piece is unique to each stage, but there is always the one piece reserved for boss fights. Stage six features three different pieces: one for Simon climbing up the stairs, another that plays while you are doing battle with Dracula in his crypt, and another one that plays after Dracula turns into a hideous monster. I really like what you'll hear during the end credits.

The castle consists of indoor and outdoor sections, with the majority indoors. some of these sections look quite nice. The animations are great, especially Simon walking up and down stairs and using his whip. I like the opening cutscene where Simon overlooks the castle, with the dark sky and crescent moon blending in with the game’s theme.

The Bad
There are two annoying aspects of the game. First, when you get hit by an enemy, Simon will jerk back -- to his doom in most cases. I actually lost count on how many times where I tried to jump on a series of short platforms, only to have some creature knock me down into the water or chasm. Also, some situations require strict timing, with an example of this dealing with the damn hunchbacks you meet in stage three. In most situations, these things take away part of my health just before I hit them with my whip, since they are so damn fast. And don't get me started on the final boss.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Castlevania has everything that fans of platform games would want - a simple plot, nice graphics, and excellent sound. The game is unique for its time as it contains elements that other platform games at the time didn't have - the ability to use more than one weapon, movie references, etc. Sure, there are certain situations in the game where one hit by an enemy will lead to your doom. But once you overcome this problem, the game will be much easier to complete. Anyone who decides to play a game in the Castlevania series should at least play this one.

NES · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2017

An okay, if a somewhat shoddy conversion

The Good
Once you survive the not so pleasant first impressions, you have to realize there is nothing majorly wrong with it, and it's actually quite playable.

Technical wise, it works well. It has smooth scrolling and movements, good sprite action, manageable joystick controls, and simultaneous musics and sound effects. Also included a savegame feature which allows to record your progress onto the floppy at checkpoints - this comes very handy!

The Bad
The graphics and sound quality is the biggest let down of this conversion. The contrast is aching if you come to here straight after looking at the NES version. The graphics is very blocky. The music sounds raw. It could be so much better. They tried too hard to copy the Nintendo-ness instead of adapt it to the quirks of the system.

Other things to complain about like sprite flickering when the screen is crowded, 1 button joystick controls, respawning enemies, disk read/write is slow, no possibility to load the saved game unless you are at the title screen and such.

The difficulty can get sadistic! And falling back when getting hurt feature is a pain the every organ.

The Bottom Line
The original Castlevania still shines thru. The backgrounds are not dull, they make the place "alive" as much as they can. There is a good sense of progress. Beside bashing monsters, there is a looting system, upgrades to your whip, and different secondary weapons, which also may appear randomly from some slain enemies. The foes are memorable and each require different tactics. Extremely tight level design with some random hazards too. Secrets. Thrilling music. The intro and outro animation also stayed intact.

Commodore 64 · by 1xWertzui (1135) · 2017

The whip-wielding franchise-starter

The Good
Ah, the game that kicked off the whole Castlevania franchise. This true classic remains as fun today and it was when it was first released.

I really liked the unlimited continues, and the fact that when you got to the final showdown with the Count, and failed, the game would start you just down the stairs from the Count's chamber. This is particularly advantageous since the first time I ever met the Count, it took me the better part of an entire day of trial and error to beat him.

I enjoy the fact that Castlevania plays like an encyclopedia of classic monsters and horror movie adversaries: You have your basic ghosts, ghouls, zombies, and bats. There are the fish monsters, Medusa heads, hunchbacks, Frankenstein monsters, and unkillable skeleton warriors. Even the Grim Reaper makes an appearance pulling sentry duty for the big Drac-man.

It's amazing to play this game and appreciate how well all of the best gameplay elements came together. Not only were the graphics top-tier, they were incredibly well-designed and consistent. At the start of the game, you scan Dracula's castle, including the tower that you must eventually hike up to. During level 3, you hike across a long bridge and you see the tower again in the background. I just think touches like that are genius in graphical design.

The tunes are all classic, which explains why they seem to be re-used in every subsequent Castlevania game. Hey, don't mess with success!

The Bad
Hunchbacks and floating Medusa heads. I did not like the hunchbacks or floating Medusa heads in this game. They had an alarming tendency to knock you around at the least opportune times.

Simon has also been rather difficult to control during his NES adventures. He's very slow and clunky, has no jump control, and his whip only goes in one direction (forward). At the very least, the designers took this into account and programmed the game's enemies and challenges accordingly.

And I was always frustrated that using the boomerang weapon depleted hard-earned heart points. The thing comes back to you, right? So you should receive some kind of reimbursement on your heart points. It only seems fair.

The Bottom Line
Experience the creepy glory of the original Castlevania.

NES · by Multimedia Mike (20664) · 2005

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Also released May 2019, part of Anniversary Collection, including a Windows version Andrew Fisher (697) Jun 23, 2023

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.

Translations

Akumajo Dracula means "Demon Castle of Dracula".

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(?!).

Version differences

The Famicom version has an optional easy mode which is neither present in the original Disk System release nor the international releases. It features several differences in game balance, for example no knockback and less received damage.

Awards

  • Game Informer
    • August 20012 (Issue #100) – #48 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll

Information also contributed by CaptainCanuck, Foxhack and MAT

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  • MobyGames ID: 2062
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Luiz Pacheco.

NES added by PCGamer77. Arcade added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo 3DS added by CrankyStorming. PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. J2ME added by chirinea. Wii U added by is_that_rain_or_tears. Game Boy Advance, Wii added by gamewarrior. Amiga, Commodore 64 added by Katakis | カタキス.

Additional contributors: Terok Nor, PCGamer77, Satoshi Kunsai, Jeanne, Guy Chapman, chirinea, monkeyislandgirl, LepricahnsGold, Zaibatsu, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, Rik Hideto.

Game added July 23, 2001. Last modified March 3, 2024.