Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) – Great Original Video Games

The first Castlevania basically blew your brains all over the wall with
awesomeness. If a friend brought this game over, as a kid you were like,
“Huh? We’re gonna kill Dracula and I get to whip the crap out of stuff?
Pop that sucker in!” Oh yes, and boy did it own.

This was one of those earlier NES games that really showed what the
console could do. It came out in 1986, the year after the Nintendo hit
American markets. People were still farting around with Excitebike and
Super Mario when this slammed into their console. Castlevania made
Nintendo gaming a lot more badass, basically. Instead of a kiddie
oriented game like Mario, you could whip ass through Dracula’s castle –
and kill monsters like Frankenstein, Death, and Methuselah in the
process. Your mission was dire, and the game had beautifully grim and
gothic detail. The whole concept just rocked.

The opening scene where Simon Belmont arrives at Dracula’s castle in
order to whip some ass just says it all. No complicated story is needed
for this game, although one is out there.

Battling your way through the game wasn’t easy in the original Castlevania. They made Super Castlevania IV (which was a remake of the original) slightly easier. This game was quick to frustrate any player. Flying bats, zig zagging heads, and suits of armor throwing axes at you would cause you to hit a wall with a hammer in frustration pretty fast.

I never got too far in the original Castlevania game because of its difficulty. Recently I made it to Dracula, and holy crap is he hard. He basically takes a dump all over you as you try to beat him. Yeah, this game is hard. Oh yes. Don't let the first few levels fool you.

Despite the obvious difficulty, this game is still a real gem. It’s easier for adults. The gameplay is a little clunky, but this was one of the first epic platformers after the release of Mario. For its time, the graphics were really good. What can you expect? The transitions between rooms were a little slow, and that happened when you opened a door. There were a lot of secrets hidden in the walls in this game, too. That was neat.

One thing that’s always irked me is the fact that you are basically glued to the stairs whenever you use them. They didn’t even change this in the third Castlevania game – what the heck, Konami? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a great platforming engine in comparison, and that was a Konami game.The music is amazingly good in the first NES Castlevania, but all three classic NES games had great music.

The stairs thing just really stands out to me. It's so unrealistic. Uh oh - can't dodge projectiles. I'm walking on stairs. Seriously?

Fond memories, great times – and – heck I think I’ll pop this game into
my Nintendo right now!