The Best Castlevania Games, Ranked – Switch and Nintendo Consoles

August 31, 2024Last Updated: August 31, 2024

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The Best Castlevania Games, Ranked - Switch and Nintendo Consoles

The Castle The series has a rich history on Nintendo consoles, ever since the original game first appeared on Japan’s Famicom Disk System in 1986, and then on the NES a year later. There may be one or two important releases from Konami’s vampire-slaying catalog that are still missing from Nintendo platforms (we’re looking at you, Symphony of the Night), but most of the games in the series can be found on Nintendo consoles.

But where should you start if you’re new to the Castlevania series? Which Castlevania games are the best? Those are tough questions, but we’ve come up with a ranked list of the best Castlevania games (on Nintendo consoles) below, Reviewed by Nintendo Life readers.

The series has many high points, plus a few very low points, and comes in two distinct flavors: the more direct right-to-left style of the original games, or the more expansive brand of games produced by Koji Igarashi—sometimes referred to as ‘IGavanias’—which are spiritually associated with Nintendo. Metroid series to spawn an entire genre’Metroidvania‘ video game.

For Switch owners, Castlevania Anniversary Collection should obviously be the first place you go, with the following Castlevania Advance Collection contains one of the best games in the series and the most recent is Castlevania Dominus Collection brings the DS trilogy to modern consoles. Those collections themselves aren’t included in this chart—just the games they contain—but rest assured they’re all winners.

And there’s always the unaffiliated Koji Igarashi Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night once you’ve exhausted all the Belmonts below, the Switch version is far from perfect, but it’s been improved a bit since launch and is arguably the closest fans can get to Symphony of the Night on Switch (until Konami decides to Symphony of the Night on Switch).

We’ve thrown in a few extras and weirdness, but that’s enough. Wipe those bloody tears away, and let’s go kill some vampires.

Available on Switch as part of Konami Arcade Classics Anniversary CollectionEQUAL a standalone arcade release from Hamster, or as part of the Castlevania Dominus Collection, Haunted Castle is an odd duck. Created specifically for the arcades, it occupies a strange middle ground somewhere between homage, parody and port, and sees Simon Belmont (with a sprite a quarter of the way up the screen) rescuing his new bride from the evil clutches of the Count. The music is the best thing about it, but despite looking superficially ‘better’ than the original, this is an unfairly punishing arcade experience designed to empty your shiny coin pockets. As such, there’s very little joy to be had. If you’re interested, you can check out the differences between the original NES game, Compared to Castlevania Arcade Gate and Haunted Castle in this video.

An important note here is: Haunted Castle ReenactedThe reimagined version of the M2 in the Dominus Collection is definitely worth a look. In fact, our friends at Extension of time wrote a full review, check it out if you want to know more:

If you didn’t know this was the third Castlevania for the Game Boy, you could be forgiven for thinking this was the second game before Konami perfected things with Belmont’s Revenge. But no, Castlevania Legends was a late release for the old console (1997 in Japan, 1998 in the West)—the third and final entry and a rather unceremonious farewell to Nintendo’s 8-bit handhelds. Releasing the massive Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation would certainly be a daunting task, but even given the platform’s inherent limitations, it was still a highness Disappointing. With poor animation, lackluster visuals, and underwhelming level design, it’s hard to believe this game came out seven years after its fantastic predecessor.

Simply put, it wasn’t good enough at the time, and while it’s a sought-after collectible now, it’s only gotten worse over time. It’s currently available on the Switch as part of a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, but we wouldn’t. Stay away.