The Haunted Hoard: Castlevania (NES)

Count Dracula is perhaps the most recognizable horror character of all time, but as time went by, the legendary vampire stopped inspiring fear in the hearts of people, pop culture turning away from the movie monsters of early cinema and relegating them to the Halloween stable of fun and often silly creatures. While some modern works try to treat the count with some degree of respect, the Castlevania series has perhaps put in the most work, positioning him not only as a credible threat in his role as the main antagonist across most of the series, but making him even more powerful along the way, to the point an entire lineage of vampire killers consider his defeat absolutely necessary to avoid total disaster.

 

The first Castlevania game in 1986 wasn’t quite as serious about the threat he posed as later titles would be, but Simon Belmont still knows Dracula must be stopped before he can become too powerful, infiltrating the vampire’s castle with the goal of killing the count. Dracula’s castle is filled with dangerous pitfalls and actually looks almost menacing due to the colors chosen for the environments. The game world is dark and gloomy but doesn’t actually evoke such negative emotions with it, as the peppy music instead inspires you to go forward with your righteous hero into this dreary domain. Dracula’s forces contain many of the other staples of what are now diluted horror movie creatures, with skeletons hurling bones about, fishmen leaping from the water to ambush you, and plenty of generic zombies and bats who try to slam into Simon. They’re not trying to be terrifying by any means, but they are dangers Simon must overcome, with Castlevania even tossing in some flying Medusa heads and dragon skulls as part of their own set of new monsters. The bosses include many of the big name monsters you might expect, like mummies and Frankenstein’s monster, helping to create that aesthetic of old Hollywood horrors that is further helped by an odd end credits sequence where each monster is supposedly played by a knock-off version of famous monster movie actors. Despite being limited somewhat by the early hardware, Castlevania truly tries to establish a mood of credible monster threats that are, at the same time, not taken all too seriously, giving the game a strong identity to latch onto.

As a sidescrolling action platformer, Castlevania will mostly be about jumping well and timing your attacks to stay safe during them. Simon comes equipped with a whip that, for some reason, starts off short and weak and can be upgraded into a beefier version with better reach. The reason this is strange is that very rarely would you be stuck with the weaker versions of this weapon, the game setting you back to it after a death but almost always making sure that no matter where you are in the game, there will be the pick-ups needed to upgrade it nearby. Even at its strongest the whip is limited, only able to be used in a forward strike that takes a fraction of second to activate. It is an attack method you must learn to use well, and being able to anticipate how much in advance you must press the attack button is key, but it’s not hard to pick up in the early simple stages where things aren’t too threatening. Most of the battles in the game will be about effective whip usage, whether that be keeping weak enemies at bay or dealing damage to quick and deadly boss monsters, and most of your foes outside the acclimating starting areas have some trick to try and make you have to time your strike right or avoid getting in the path of their dangerous attacks.

 

There is another way to deal damage to enemies though, and one that seems a little strange on first blush. By breaking candles around Dracula’s castle, you can collect hearts that then fuel your special weapons. These special weapons are also often found in the candles and consist of attacks that have different ranges and properties than your standard whip. These subweapons allow you to throw axes up in an arc, throw cross-shaped boomerangs forward for greater damage, stop time, and more, all of them burning a single heart or more with each use. Most generic enemies are easily dispatched with just your whip, but the subweapons prove to be incredibly useful during boss battles where the extra oomph is needed to deal damage to foes with much larger health bars and more dangerous attacks. Even the first boss, something that amounts to a very large bat, is made a better fight by having the axe, but it’s the later battles that really begin to test your subweapon management. You can only carry one at a time and unless you pick up special items with the roman numerals II and III on them, you can only use that subweapon so quickly, but the limitations encourage smart use rather than overuse, as does the fact you can’t use them if you drain all your heart reserves. Heart reserves are entirely distinct from your health, as that is instead refilled by finding hidden roast chicken in the walls. Despite that being an odd sentence out of context, Castlevania’s influence has almost whittled that down into an expected video game feature that doesn’t shock long time gamers. Those chickens are placed sparingly to make damage a real danger in Castlevania, especially in the boss battles that cap off the later stages. Dying does lead to you losing your subweapon, but so long as you don’t get a game over, you can start somewhat close to the fight and have an opportunity to at least get something to help you in the battle thanks to the candles along the path to the fight. A game over doesn’t even set you back too far, just putting you back at the start of the current level, many proving to be pretty short and quick to navigate your way back to the boss. In a surprising bit of mercy, the game doesn’t require you to replay the final level if you die in the battle with Dracula, and his fight even has one of the most generous lead-in areas with what you can find in the candles to help with the fight.

The way Castlevania balances out some of its generosity is with its toughness. Sadly, some of that toughness is born not from the devious placement of enemies, the strength of the bosses, and pacing the item distribution well. Castlevania, despite being a platformer, has some pretty archaic jump controls, which can spell doom for a player who isn’t prepared for them. Every jump Simon makes is a commitment, the momentum you had built up before taking it being the only way to guide the path of your jump after you press the button. While this is technically rooted in how jumps work in reality, platformers require incredible jumping feats, ones made possible by the player having good control over how the character moves once they spring into the air. Many games let you move your character slightly while in the air to course correct or perform delicate maneuvers, something Simon just isn’t capable of. This doesn’t completely doom the title, and incredible jumping precision is not required anywhere in the game, but it does complicate a few areas that shouldn’t be as difficult as they are. The movement has other weird flaws as well, like how if Simon is standing on a staircase, he is unable to jump entirely, making it easy for flying enemies or long range attacks to hit him as he slowly shuffles up. A less common issue with the stairs comes in that he also can’t jump onto the stairs, and since sometimes the game wants you to go down a staircase, you might accidentally pass through the top and fall to your doom if you are off in your attempt to descend it. The last real woe of movement comes with the unfortunate knockback Simon takes from any move that hits him. Simon is launched back any time he makes contact with something damaging, and Castlevania has a few moments where you are meant to jump over pits while enemies buzz around in the air in dangerous patterns.

 

These issues with this early platforming game design will crop up for any player looking to play Castlevania, so the question becomes how much do they truly hurt the experience. Castlevania is not overly punishing for player death, with even its instant death traps robbed of some of their danger by how quick you can get back into things and press onward. Outside of boss battles, Simon also is able to weather damage pretty well thanks to a large health bar, and there are often tricks to the more challenging areas that will kill a player who is just trying to charge through without thinking. Better control would definitely benefit Castlevania, but the controls are not incompatible with what’s asked of you. You have to give open drops to your death the proper level of respect, and even if you don’t, you can be back at that pit to try again before you know it. Even in the second run of the game after beating it where the difficulty is cranked up some, Castlevania tries to keep its difficulty manageable, although Dracula’s teleporting and Death’s scythes strain that a touch. Still, even those can be overcome, delivering on the kind of difficulty that tests a player for sure but can be learned and overcome with patience, a level of patience that still doesn’t detract from the game’s quick action.

THE VERDICT: Castlevania may be guilty of the cardinal platforming game sin of rigid jumping, but that stiffness is mostly accommodated for by smart level design that requires the player to respect dangerous leaps over pits as true hazards. Castlevania is a tough action game where monsters constantly come at you and you must keep them at bay with an effective whip weapon and secondary items that add an extra layer to consider during the deadlier battles with resilient horror movie bosses. It would be better if you had greater control in the air, but Dracula’s castle is just as much a threat as its inhabitants, making for a quick and action-packed journey with no lulls. Your relationship with the controls will be what cinches your enjoyment, but if you do acclimate to it, Castlevania will deliver on an easily replayable and enjoyably challenging adventure.

 

And so, I give Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System…

A GREAT rating. While Super Castlevania IV is certainly superior thanks to the greater level of control it adds to the series formula, that pseudo-remake of the NES original is ultimately a different beast, one that doesn’t invalidate the original and allows it to stand beside its fourth installment as another example of an enjoyable action game. The original Castlevania does have a hurdle to overcome in regards to its jumping mechanics, but it is incongruity with the game’s design that makes controls feel a bad fit for the title. Castlevania does challenge your jumping skill, but the jumps are posed as challenges rather than being the givens they sometimes are in other platforming titles. Repelling foes with your whip and items is also designed with your limitations in mind, with the threat a foe poses often drawn from the accommodations you must make to overcome them. You are not weak at all, but success will come from learning the limitations of your foes and using your set of skills to exploit them.

 

There are many deal breakers in the world of video games, some more reasonable than others. Some people can’t even stand to look at older games with primitive graphics, others might require an in-depth story to be invested, but controls are often pointed at as something that must be nailed for a game to succeed. Castlevania didn’t get everything right, but the jumping follows a set of rules the player does have control over, it just looks strange when juxtaposed with the mechanics the likes of Mario standardized. It’s not hard to understand the jumping in Castlevania, so while there is a small barrier of entry for genre fans, the game waiting on the other side is still designed to put up a good fight with its legitimately dangerous Dracula and his castle full of chances for the player to refine their monster killing art.