Akumajô Dorakyura

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!

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.

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.

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.

Castelvania is one of the most different adventure video games! The characters, the action, and the sure thrill of adventure makes this game a fun non-stop playing time! Below is a brief look how I think the game is!

Game Play: The game play is very good. There is really basic controls here and is easy to perform. Novice gamers should have a good time here!

Graphics: The graphics are wonderful especially for the first Nintendo. The backgrounds are really beautiful!

Difficulty: The game is easy but as it goes on you find out that it will become more difficult!

Music: The music is great! Just fantastic catchy tunes through out the game! In My opinion its some of the best music ever in a video game!

Sound: The sound is great. Nuff said!

Overall: I have always loved Castelvania! If you like excellent adventure games that has Dracula, Werewolves, Ghosts, and more then I strongly recommend you play this game!

To purchase this video game check out Amazon.com!