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!

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 of those early NES games that really set the NES apart from the old gaming systems such as the Atari. A game with multiple levels and stage bosses, a password system and an ending. It is a fun side scrolling game that is not quite as fast paced as Ninja Gaiden, but has a charm all its own. I especially like the horror theme of the game as the protagonist must fight many old monsters from stories and movies of old. The game is extremely difficult, but once again it is not as difficult as Ninja Gaiden and the three games that make up the Castlevania trilogy is a difficult one, but not as hard as the Ninja Gaiden one. Hard to say which of the two series I like more, this one though would go on to have life after the NES and on the SNES, the Genesis and all the way up to now without really missing a console.

The story is simple enough. Dracula terrorizes the countryside of Transylvania and it is up to Simon Belmont to brave Dracula's castle and destroy the prince of darkness! It will not be easy as he has many monsters roaming the halls of his castle including zombies, bats and Medusa heads! You will also have to take on other classic monsters such as Frankenstein and you will even have to challenge Death itself in a life or dead duel! The game play is standard side scrolling fashion, a fashion that this series pretty much helped shape. Other games would mimic this style of having a character going through a stage fighting monsters and overcoming obstacles before facing a boss at the end of each stage.

So a good game, not as good though after you play part IV which is a remake of this game. That one is longer, has better graphics and controlling Simon Belmont is much easier to do than here. However, the harder controllers here add to the challenge and thus extend the game play a bit. If you were able to use the 16-bit Simon from IV, the game would not last long or have any real challenge to it. So while it is not as good as the remake or the Castlevanias of the later systems, this one has a special charm all its own.

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!

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.