Castlevania

North American box art.

Castlevania, known in Japan as 悪魔城ドラキュラ [Akumajo Dorakyura], "Devil's Castle Dracula", is an action platformer by Konami released on the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and later ported to many other platforms. It is the first game in the Castlevania series.

I don't remember when I first played this game, but I'm pretty sure I played Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse first, and then this game after, and found it a bit lacking in comparison.

Status

I own this game on the NES, but I have never even come close to beating it.

Review

Overall: 3/10
Best Version: NES

Good

The designers made good use of all the common horror tropes.
The game has a decent soundtrack.
I like that Simon's weapon is a whip; kind of a unique choice.
The game has great box art.
For such an early game, it has a pretty good amount of variation between enemies, stages, and bosses.

Bad

My worst complaint is the bad control scheme. Attacking is sluggish, jumping is difficult to control, and getting hit knocks you back and often kills you.
Simon is extremely vulnerable on stairs, and there are a lot to have to walk up.
The background graphics lack definition and are a bit off. They look as though they were drawn for a different resolution and then resized without being fixed.
The medusa heads are a bit obnoxious to deal with.
The game uses points, which have no bearing on the game.

Ugly

The game is annoyingly difficult to the point where I don't feel like ever trying to get good at it.

Box Art

The original Japanese FDS box art. The painting is fantastic and sets the mood for the game. I also like the sharp edges on the text.
The North American and European art uses the same painting, but is partially obscured with the Konami gray frame. I love the Gothic Castlevania logo.
The Japanese re-release in cartridge form uses the full painting, which looks the best.