Castlevania
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 |
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Directed By |
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Screenplay by |
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Music by |
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Dracula |
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Death |
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Frankenstein |
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Mummy Man |
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Medusa |
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Vampire Bat |
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Hunch Back |
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Fish Man |
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Armor |
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Skeleton |
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Zombie |
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The Hero |
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 78% (based on 45 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 235 ratings with 10 reviews)
Overrated, but started a classic video game franchise.
The Good
Soundtrack is catchy. Nice tribute to classic horror icons in pop culture.
The Bad
Stiff controls which are a problem when you jump and walk up or down stairs. Very difficult which punishes players for dying which results in losing your upgraded whip, sub weapons, and hearts. Every time an enemy hits you, you fall back which can lead to deaths. Graphics have not aged well with some rooms even having stairs midair above Simon not connected to the floor or ceiling. No save feature on the NES version unless you play on an emulator which you can use save states.
The Bottom Line
I can see why people like the first Castlevania, but the high difficulty affected my enjoyment on this game.
Wii U · by 45th&47th (5) · 2024
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
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
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
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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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Related Sites +
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Castlevania Dungeon
Fansite dedicated to everything and anything Castlevania -
Classic NES Series for the Game Boy Advance
Covers the line-up of the new Game Boy Advance series of NES Classics. -
History of Castlevania
Comprehensive info on all the Castlevania series from its beginnings -
OC ReMix Game Profile
Fan remixes of music from Castlevania, including the album "Sonata of the Damned". -
Video review of the Castlevania series (WARNING: Language)
The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews games in the Castlevania series. Part 1 is entirely devoted to the first Castlevania on NES.
Identifiers +
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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. Wii, Game Boy Advance added by gamewarrior. Commodore 64, Amiga 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.