Dracula never truly dies. Fiction invariably finds a way to revive Bram Stoker’s iconic vampire, whether it’s for comedy, horror, or a certain long-running video game staple. Konami’s Castlevania is the most elaborate treatment of Dracula that this industry has to offer, and the series has revisited the count and his monstrous forces many times over the years. Just as Dracula is resurrected time and time again, Castlevania has reinvented itself in ways engrossing, surprising, and occasionally downright embarrassing. This is the history of Konami’s Castlevania franchise.
Castlevania had that. It bore the title of Akumajo Dracula, or Demon Castle Dracula, when it first appeared in Japan on the Famicom Disk System, but a name change took place when it came to North America and the cartridge-based NES. The new moniker perhaps better reflected the broad scope of the game. Dracula was indeed the gloating overlord of the castle, but there were many more dangers to face as the whip-wielding hero Simon Belmont stalked the manor. He would take on gorgons, the grim reaper, mummies, a giant bat, and a twosome of Frankenstein’s monster and Igor. Castlevania offered a cinematic buffet of monsters and action scenes, from the title screen’s film-strip borders to a clockwork tower and crumbling castle possibly inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s The Castle of Cagliostro. Even the credits jokingly list “Christopher Bee” and “Belo Lugosi.” Such aw-shucks imitation was the usual fare for the game industry, where Metroid and Contra openly mined the Aliens legacy and Nintendo fended off a lawsuit over Donkey Kong’s resemblance to a certain movie ape.
Most importantly, Castlevania brought all of its 17th-century gothic trappings to life with an impact that NES owners found nowhere else. Gloomy backdrops and some imposing creatures (particularly Dracula’s final form) stood out among competing NES games, little secrets hid in castle walls, and the soundtrack crept along with stirring anthems and eerie introductions. This wasn’t the first case of a video game drawing in familiar monsters - Capcom’s Ghosts ‘N Goblins did the same a year before - but Castlevania packaged that allure in an action title right when the NES needed just such a game. It was a horror flick to balance out the science fiction and fantasy of the console’s other hits.
Castlevania faltered a bit in its controls. Compared to the acrobatics of Metroid and Rygar’s protagonists, Simon Belmont is a sluggard. Yet his slow pace and fixed-arc jumps may have helped in a strange way. Castlevania’s side-scrolling levels were precise, risky challenges, and Simon’s limited mobility forced even more caution on the player, constantly reminding them how outmatched a mere human was against sine wave Medusa Heads and regenerating skeletons. It was just enough to convince young players that dying was their fault, and not the game’s. Less than a decade later, Resident Evil would pull much the same trick with its own limited controls.
Konami’s subsequent Castlevanias would overshadow the original, leaving it dated even by the end of the NES life cycle. Yet every ingredient for the success of future games was found here.
For one thing, there was a far greater world for Simon to discover. He wandered through towns full of merchants and advice-spouting citizens. He trekked through interconnected plains, graveyards, rivers, forests, and castles in whatever order the player chose. New items opened new paths in a Metroid-like fashion, and a day-and-night cycle changed the enemies he fought and the villagers he met. Exploration and experimentation drove the game far more than the timing and memorization of the first Castlevania.
The origins of Simon’s Quest lay not so much with the Castlevania known to NES owners, but with a lesser-seen version of the game. In 1986, Konami brought Castlevania to the MSX personal computer as Vampire Killer, keeping the general atmosphere while transforming the levels into branching mazes. On top of dodging devil-femurs and whipping bats, players had to hunt down keys, deal with merchants, and explore everything thoroughly. The first Castlevania limited its secrets to breakable blocks and hidden treasures, but both Vampire Killer and Simon’s Quest pushed the idea in new directions.
Simon’s Quest earned a favorable reception in the limited video-game press of its days. It had a Nintendo Power cover (and some controversy due to the heart and severed head on display there), and the magazine’s readers even awarded it “Best Graphics and Sound” in a poll. However, the game would become something of a black sheep in later years, with less-than-nostalgic players citing the empty stages and anti-climactic clash with Dracula. The NES version also suffered a baffling translation. While the Japanese original features only a few villagers who deliberately lie to Simon, the garbled dialogue of the English version reduces far more of the townsfolk’s lines to indecipherable nonsense. Many a players spent a good chunk of Simon’s Quest in fruitless searches for “the graveyard duck” and other mistranslated idioms.
Poorly localized as it was, Simon’s Quest put Castlevania at the vanguard of Nintendo’s rapidly expanding army. It became a standout that even non-gamers and watchful parents might notice, and it established Simon Belmont as a familiar NES icon, worthy of a spot in Nintendo’s Captain N: The Game Master (which proceeded to turn him into a tanned, egotistical dunce). Castlevania was now a series, and a notable one at that.
Just as Castlevania II perplexed many NES owners, the series took a brief detour. Haunted Castle brought Castlevania to arcades as a straightforward, brutally difficult side-scroller that found Simon rescuing his theretofore unmentioned wife Selena from Dracula. Though reminiscent of the original Castlevania, the arcade game proved a creative dead end. Simon gets only one life to last the entire journey, and his lumbering sprite is a bit too easy for enemies to hit. Haunted Castle’s limited appeal served as a caution to Konami: Castlevania was better off at home.
The Adventure marked the first Castlevania without Simon in the lead, as it followed the nondescript Christopher Belmont in his quest to destroy Dracula. The Game Boy outing did its best to look and sound like a Castlevania, but deeper problems lay in the play mechanics. Christopher carried no weapons other than a fireball-shooting whip, and he trudged around at a pace that was frustratingly slow even by Castlevania standards.
The limited gameplay perked up with Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge in 1991. This time focused on Christopher’s efforts to rescue his son from Dracula’s thrall, the second Game Boy Castlevania offered more memorable bosses, a selection of traditional Castlevania secondary weapons and, in a first for the series, the chance to tackle the game’s first four stages in any order. Still, Belmont’s Revenge didn’t amass much of a following, and it would be many years before Konami bothered with another Castlevania for the Game Boy.
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse didn’t try to beat rivals at their own game. Instead, it strengthened everything that made the older Castlevanias a success: compellingly grim atmosphere, monstrous challenges, and carefully applied secrets. Konami also followed Castlevania: The Adventure’s lead and turned to a different hero: Trevor Belmont, Simon’s ancestor, set out to dethrone Dracula in the 15th century. He wasn’t alone, however, as Dracula’s Curse introduced playable allies to the series. On his travels, Trevor encounters three companions: Grant Danasty’s climbing abilities rival those of Ninja Gaiden’s Ryu, the mage Sypha Belnades wields powerful spells, and Dracula’s rebel son Alucard transforms into a bat. To preserve the mandatory Castlevania challenge, however, Trevor can take only one of these sidekicks at a time.
While the platformer gameplay of Dracula’s Curse hearkens back to the original Castlevania, traces of Simon’s Quest can be seen. The players can chose a path through the game’s fifteen levels, often weighing risks and rewards. Grant can be found only by a visit to a clock tower, and it’s possible to miss Alucard on the way to Dracula’s castle.
Dracula’s Curse retains the same comparatively slow pace of its predecessors, and North American players were denied several advantages of the original version. The Japanese release lets Grant hurl daggers as his default weapon instead of the stubby dagger the U.S. version gives him, and the music benefits from a sound chip compatible only with Japanese consoles. Yet Dracula’s Curse did well for the series. It gave fans more of what they liked best about the first game while plucking careful inspiration from Simon’s Quest, and it all primed Castlevania for a journey to new places.
Up next: Castlevania makes the leap to 16-bits, with mixed results.
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