Castlevania

I remembered somewhat enjoying this game at times and completely hating it at other times. Castlevania I and III are both extremely difficult. The first few levels are relatively easy, but really get hard later on. Typical of many original NES games, you get three opportunities and after that you start all over from the beginning. That's one of the things that made it so difficult. Another thing I remembered were the controls - they weren't very intuitive, unlike those on Zelda or the Supermario series. I had a particularly difficult time timing my jumps, as I would all-too-often jump into a pit and die. I've used a game genie with little success on Castlevania. On the bright side, Castlevania had among the coolest video game background music.

In the country of Transylvania sits Count Dracula in his gothic castle fortress, Castlevania. He has kidnapped the girlfriend of Simon Belmont to goad him into a fight. To get to the Count, Simon must fight through level after level of zombies, bats and skeletons to name a few, armed with a whip and an assortment of strange secondary weapons including a cross-shaped boomerang, bottles of acid, throwing daggers, a stopwatch and the enigmatic 'multiplier.' Along the way Simon encounters increasingly difficult 'level bosses,' including Frankenstein's Monster and Igor, Medusa, the Mummies, and the Grim Reaper. Why all of these guys are working for a mere vampire I'll never know ... but in the world of Castlevania it's sure that Count Dracula is the King of all Monsters.

This is one fun game and i still play it today. Holds it's replay value very well. This was the first game that i bought when i just got my drivers license and i was able to drive myself to the store to buy it lol. When i got home with it i stayed up all night playing it.

Everything about this game hooked me. The music is what stood out at first, i still find myself huming it today. The game play was fun and the first level is easy once you get used to it. Then they get progressively harder, the last level took me forever to beat. But wow what a game. I found myself at times screaming and throwing the controller down to the ground but then would come back with a vengeance to beat the level.

This is in my top ten games of all time. My kids, who were not born until 15 years after this game came out, love to play it as well. I really enjoy this style of play compared to the new CGI overload games and movies of today.

When I was growing up, Pizza Hut had the arcade version of this and it was actually pretty fun to be able to sit down at the table and play a version of this with slightly better graphics as you waited for your parents to order.

But... nostalgia aside, it was a Gothic and moody side scroller that did a good job of playing to the horror vibe, right down to the music (which was impressive for 80s NES fair).

It almost felt like you were in a horror film.

Castlevania was one of the first, and best, games released on the old NES system.

The story is pretty simple: You're Simon Belmont, vampire hunter. That jerk the Count has kidnaped your girlfriend, Sophia, and it's up to you to save her before the Count makes her into a snack. Armed with a variety of whips and other magic items (stakes, garlic, holy water, diamonds...) you must fight your way though the armies of zombies, ghouls, bats, hunchbacks, werewolves, Frankinstiens and other monsters that serve the Count.

Once you've made in though that you get to go man-to-monster with the main man himself. Can you put the Count down for the count?

Okay, enough. The fact is that Castlevania was one of the best video games of the 80s. It was challenging, fun and for the time had great graphics. But best off all was the music. I still remember the awesome Castlevania theme. It just rocked! The perfect music to go along with kicking some vampire butt!