Castlevania: The Retrospective

Exploring Konami's horrifying legacy from the NES's Castlevania to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse!

Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (released in 1988 for the NES, 2007 for the Wii)

The Story
In 1698, Simon Belmont discovers that in their last battle, the Count had cursed him: a curse that is slowly eating Belmont alive.  To break the curse, Simon must travel throughout Transylvania, collect Dracula’s scattered body parts, and burn them in the ruins of Castlevania.

The Game
While Simon’s Quest retained the basic action-platforming elements of its predecessor, it implemented several adventure aspects into the gameplay.  For example, hearts could now be used both as currency and ammo.  New or upgraded items included multiple types of daggers, holy water (primarily used to break certain walls that blocked your way), garlic, and laurels that rendered you invincible for a limited time.  Your basic leather whip could be upgraded to various new forms (flame whip being the ultimate) by talking to mysterious merchants.  You were no longer confined to a single castle, but tasked to explore forests, caves, swamps, and mansions to find Dracula’s body parts.  Equipping certain items at certain times became necessary to reach every portion of the game world; luckily you could visit towns and get occasionally-useful information from villagers.  Another interesting addition to Simon’s Quest was a day and night cycle, which affected the strength of your enemies.  There were even multiple endings (mostly bad) depending on your overall playing time.

In My Opinion
While not as action-heavy as its predecessor, Castlevania II’s adventure aspects are very cool.  They invite lots of exploration and item collecting and motivate you to find every secret the gothic world holds.  The boss fights are infrequent and frankly disappointing, and some of the puzzles are incredibly difficult.  But elements such as invisible staircases, fake walls and floors, and new powers granted by equipping Dracula’s body parts add layers of spine-tingling fun to the experience.  As usual, the soundtrack is incredible, with the tune “Bloody Tears” making its mainstream debut.


Castlevania: The Adventure (released in 1989 for the Game Boy)

The Story
Dracula is reborn in 1576, nearly a century before Simon Belmont’s original quest.  Christopher Belmont takes up his clan’s mystic whip and sets out to defeat the Lord of the Vampires once again. 

The Game
The first handheld title in the series, The Adventure took the classic 2D platforming formula and pushed it to new levels of intensity.  While the whip remained the standard weapon, it could be upgraded to shoot long-range fireballs.  This was important because there were no in-game sub-weapons, though items could still be collected to increase your score and gain extra lives.  Other interesting features were the ropes, which had to be used to reach new areas (rather than stairs), and your whip, which was downgraded every time you took a hit.  This, combined with challenging (some would say ridiculously demanding) platforming and brutal enemies, made The Adventure possibly the hardest game in the series.

In My Opinion
The Adventure is often regarded as the low point of the franchise due to the aforementioned features and somewhat sluggish controls.  While I agree that it is extremely difficult (I admit I’ve still never beaten it), it is quite a cool game.  Some great creativity is implemented: in one level you are relentlessly pursued by floors and walls of spikes (in the series’ first use of vertical scrolling), in another you must use jutting spears as moving platforms, and in another giant rolling eyeballs must be jumped or whipped.  In addition, the soundtrack is amazing for the Game Boy’s meager audio capabilities.  There is a lot of innovative and intense gameplay to be enjoyed, but the difficulty will turn many players off.