The Castlevania series an iconic gaming series. No doubt about it. Castlevania games, in general, will be well remembered for years to come. Konami has not taken many chances with this franchise. They played it fairly safe in many ways while pushing the envelope in others. When the Super Nintendo was released fans immediately started wondering about a Castlevania game on it. Konami was quick to answer those fans. Super Castlevania IV was a partial remake of the original Castlevania. That fact put some serious pressure on it to be good.

Continuity matters

You take control of a vampire hunter. Usually a member of the Belmont family. You are armed with a whip most of the time though some entries deviate there too. In Super Castlevania IV, you are controlling Simon Belmont in the year 1691. The confusing part of this series falls at the feet of the numbering system Konami is using. This is the “fourth” game but it is retelling the tale of the FIRST game.

In issue #1 of Retro Gaming Magazine we compared 16-bit ports of this Konami classic. Super Castlevania IV on Super Nintendo to the Sega Genesis game Castlevania: Bloodlines.

Good games like Castlevania IV take time to develop

Development of Super Castlevania IV was actually started in 1991. Some liberties were taken to make the game easier to play (i.e., less frustrating). There are even some cool Mode 7 pieces mixed into the gameplay. Super Castlevania IV was made easier by lowering the challenge on early bosses. Some parts of the levels were edited to make them slightly easier too.

Enter the fans

Fans keep the Castlevania flame alive, such as Matthew Kiehl. He is currently working on a port of the original game to the Mattel Intellivision console. Another group of fans created an all new adventure for the ZX Spectrum as well. The Colecovision and Atari 2600 consoles are getting in on the fun too. There are future ports of Castlevania in some form coming. Maybe you fancy a new adventure with old friends? We collected five great hacks that accomplish just that.

Super Castlevania IV has seen release on newer hardware over the years. From the Super Nintendo, the Wii, and Wii U, Virtual Console and more. This level of availability ensures fans, new and old, can crack that whip on newer hardware. Grab physical copies off of eBay or Amazon. HDMI aficionados can check out the Super Nintendo Classic Mini which has Super Castlevania IV and many other titles.

This article is backed up in the Hive Gaming section of the Hive.blog blockchain. Check it out for more great entertainment.

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