Enter Castlevania, the home of Dracula. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) has many iconic titles available for it. Most notaably,  the Mario series as well as the Mega Man games. One series that is just as iconic and also started on the NES is Konami’s Castlevania series. Today, in 1987, gamers were introduced to destroying vampires with a whip and a classic was born. Castlevania is one of those hard as nails games that set the feel for NES games. In the 80’s gamers ate it up.

Inspiration comes from many sources

Much like the movies that featured Dracula in some prominent position, he is not alone in Castlevania. Enemies range from Frankenstein’s Monster, Mummy Man, a giant bat, Queen Medusa. Don’t think you have it easy because even the Grim Reaper is here. The first son of the night has hit his Rolodex hard.. There is only one place big enough to house this “monster mash” and that is Dracula’s castle. The castle only appears once every 100 years. This just happens to be Simon Belmont’s unlucky night as the castle has appeared. There are a lot of baddies that need returning to the grave so get ready.

Castlevania was home for many

Playing Castlevania way back in the late 80’s will remember the frustrating challenge that this game represented. For everyone else, please note this was before the Internet and Google. Guides and YouTube vids were not a click away. This was the hardcore of the hardcore gaming right here and it was on NES. Atari 2600/7800, computer or Sega Master System owners were left out. If you wanted to play Castlevania in the home it was going to be on the Nintendo Entertainment System. At least for a little while. Sure, later on we would start seeing compilations and such. For the time though, Nintendo held gaming with an iron grip. A lot of gamers were asking for NES’s for birthdays and Christmas presents. Castlevania was almost a guarantee to be the first game bought too.

That first time is special

I remember the first time I played Castlevania. Having it ingrained in my brain to jump on enemies was not conducive to survival. I had trouble learning the time needed to actually break out the whip and have it hit the enemy. There is a slight animation delay. There was a lot of stuff going on in Castlevania that was different and game changing. Especially for us that came up from the Atari 2600 days. Breaking the light fixtures may seem like second nature but back in the day, it was a new and original. This simple addition added a little bit of depth to the proceedings. It felt cool to vandalize Drac’s castle causing property damage. Add in whipping his party guests in an unholy attack on his party for even more fun.

The other side of Castlevania

If you think about it, Castlevania is one big party pooper romp. You in control the guy that was not invited. Once every 100 years, Dracula is able to throw a party. But some guy from the nearby village takes it upon himself to break in and crash the party.

Betcha never thought of it that way did you?

Castlevania has seen a ton of re-releases but for physical copies, hit eBay or check Amazon.

Digital Re-releases include:
3DS
Wii
Wii U
Castlevania Anniversary Collection – Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Computers Castlevania has been released on include Commodore 64, IBM PC, Commodore Amiga and quite a few others.
We covered a Castlevania port for the ZX Spectrum, porting being handled by fans, in our second issue of RGM, available here.

Want more Castlevania?  Check out our other articles on this classic series.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams