The best Castlevania game on Nintendo console
Today is Castlevania: Aria of sadnessits 20th anniversary, so in honor of its two great decades, we’re reposting this article to round up and rate every game in the series on Nintendo consoles. (the break — Aria rated quite highly on the list below.) Enjoy!
The Castlevania The series has a rich history on the Nintendo console since the original game first appeared on the Japanese Famicom Disc System in 1986, and then on the NES a year later. There may be one or two major releases from Konami’s vampire slaying catalog that are still missing on Nintendo platforms (we’re looking at you, Symphony of the Night), but the majority of the series can be found on Nintendo consoles.
But where should you start if you are new to the Castlevania series? Which Castlevania game is the best? Those are tough questions, but we’ve done our best to put together a ranked list of the best Castlevania games (on Nintendo consoles) below. The series has many highs, plus a few very lows, and features two distinct styles: the simpler right-to-left style of the original games or the more expansive style of the games created by Koji Igarashi. produced – sometimes referred to as ‘IGAvanias’ – in spirit with Nintendo’s Metroid series to give birth to an entire genre’Metroidvania‘ video games.
For Switch owners, Castlevania Commemorative Collection will obviously be your first port of call, with a more recent version Castlevania Pre-Collection also contains one of the best games in the series. And there’s always the unaffiliated Koji Igarashi Bloodstained: Rite of the Night once you have used up all the Belmonts below. The Switch version isn’t perfect, but it’s improved a lot since launch and is arguably the closest thing fans get to Symphony of the Night on Switch until Konami decides. Turn on Symphony of the Night on Switch.
We’ve included a few side stories and oddities, but that’s enough. Wipe those bloody tears away, and let’s go kill some vampires.
Publishing company: Konami / Developers: Konami
We start with a spin-off. Set in the Castlevania universe, this 2008 Wii game brings together all your favorite characters and monsters to create a trashy one-on-one 3D battle with controls. Terrible and questionable character design. Castlevania’s verdict was criticized by critics and fans alike upon its release and time has done nothing to heal the wounds this film has caused. A bunch of misery, really.
Publishing company: Konami / Developers: Konami
The first entry for the series on the Game Boy and one of the best forgotten, Castlevania: Adventure is a slow, slow approximation of the series’ classic gameplay with a bland, repetitive level design. Given the limitations of the server control panel, you might want to give it the benefit of the doubt, but the next section will show what the platform is really capable of and expose this to your horror. It. Do yourself a favor, skip this part and start your mobile Castlevania adventure with Belmont’s Revenge.
Publishing company: Konami / Developers: Konami
Available on Switch as part of Konami Arcade Classics Commemorative Collection, Haunted castle is a strange duck. Created specifically for video games, it occupies a strange middle ground somewhere between homage, parody and bohemianness and witness the scene of Simon Belmont (with a ghostly character in quarter of the screen) rescues his new bride from the evil clutches of the Count. The music is by far the best thing about it, but while it looks ‘better’ on the surface than the original, it’s an unfairly punished video game experience designed to Design to get all the glittering coins in your pocket. As such, there’s not much fun to be had and in the end it’s not a patch on the original.
If you are interested, you can check the difference between the original NES game, its game VS Castlevania arcade gate and Haunted Castle in This video.
Publishing company: Konami / Developers: Konami Nagoya Computer Entertainment
If you didn’t know that this was the third Castlevania for the Game Boy, you could be forgiven for thinking it was the second game before Konami perfected things with Belmont’s Revenge. But not, The Legend of Castlevania is a late release for aging consoles (1997 in Japan, 1998 in the West) – the third and final entry and a bad farewell to 8-bit handhelds by Nintendo. It is certain that following the release of the towering Symphony of the Night on PlayStation will be an impossible task, but even taking into account the inherent limitations of the platform, it is a daunting task. intense disappointed. With poor animations, lackluster sprite work, and unimpressive level design, it’s hard to believe this has achieved a massive seven years after its great predecessor.
Simply put, it wasn’t good enough at the time, and although it’s a sought-after item for collectors today, it has only gotten worse over time. Away.
Publishing company: Konami / Developers: Konami
A flawed stab at the polygonal Castlevania 3D, which isn’t as ‘bad’ as the ‘heavy average’. Released a few years after the N64’s cycle in 1999, players expected better from a 3D game at the dawn of the new millennium. Camera issues were a perennial problem for games of the era, but the best Castlevania titles have always been characterized by tight control and Castlevania (yes it avoided the colloquial ’64’ added to its title) it simply wasn’t catchy enough. We respect it – from a distance – but this one is probably best left in the crypt.
Publishing company: Konami / Developers: Konami
This second N64 entry was released less than a year after the first and actually includes the entire first game as an unlockable bonus after you complete the prequel adventure. Castlevania: Dark Legacy basically the game its predecessor was supposed to be and will certainly be a DLC release with loads of patches nowadays. It has a lot of gameplay tweaks and also uses Expansion Pak to improve the visuals, but paying full price for this after spending big bucks on its predecessor at the start of the year is a pain. , even for fans of the series. Back in the day, those N64 strollers were expensive, and even in its sleek form, the Legacy of Darkness is far from ‘vintage’ status, despite our lingering affection for it.
Publishing company: Konami / Developers: Konami
Another game that we have fond memories of, in spite of itself. Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest sometimes annoying, angry and downright cheap… but it has a killer soundtrack and admirably changes things up by building upon the original game with new ideas, including day/night cycle and attractive non-linear (if ultimately annoying). approach. Back in the day it was a real nightmare and we totally understand people getting impatient with it, but if you don’t mind sitting down with the tutorial and using save states, we recommend give Simon’s Quest another chance. The soundtrack alone makes it worth playing through.
This version of Castlevania MSX2 was developed in tandem with the NES game and has many similarities and some intriguing differences from the game you’re probably already familiar with. For example, scrolling could not be implemented in the MSX2 instance, so each level is divided into single screens for you to move between. If you’re interested in side-by-side comparisons, check out This overview video from Splash Wave.
So what is this doing on the list of Castlevania games for Nintendo dashboard, you ask. Good, Vampire Slayer was released on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan, so while we might not be pleased in the West, it’s technically coming to the Nintendo platform. Ergo, it’s included here.
Publishing company: Konami / Developers: Konami
Known as Vampire’s Kiss in the EU, Castlevania: Dracula X is a Super NES remake of the original PC Engine Blood Rondo, and it’s not comparable to the game it’s based on, although it’s certainly not bad on its own. It offers classic Castlevania fare, which is solid, and worth researching if you’ve been mulling over the better games in the series (most notably the original Rondo of Blood). However, if you’re new to the series, we won’t start here.
Assassin art boxmind.