Retro Gaming Australia

Castlevania: Vampire’s Kiss is a retelling of the PC Engine CD game Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo, where Richter Belmont ventures into the castle to rescue his girlfriend Annette, who has been kidnapped by the Dark Priest Shaft, a servant of the castle’s master, Dracula. Despite being considered to be inferior in every way to the original, Vampire’s Kiss now commands a ridiculous price on the secondary market.

Castlevania: The New Generation (Bloodlines for our North American friends, and Vampire Killer in its Japanese incarnation) was the first game in the franchise to be released on a Sega format. It saw the legendary Vampire Killer whip passed to a new, non-Belmont character, John Morris. Morris is joined by Eric Lecarde, whose girlfriend was transformed into a vampire when Dracula’s niece, Elizabeth Bartley, attempted to revive her uncle. The two join forces to destroy Dracula (yet again).

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow was the third of the Game Boy Advance Castlevanias, and a pretty damn good game all around. You play as Soma Cruz, who discovers he wields the power of dominance, which grants him the ability to use the souls of enemies he defeats. Of course, those of you who have played the sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, know exactly why that is.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night marks the start of a dramatic shift in the series, moving away from pure action toward a more exploration based gameplay with light RPG elements – the so-called “Metroidvania”. Finding a PAL copy of the game is an expensive endeavour due to high demand.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a turning point for the series. It was the first of what the fans dubbed “Metroidvanias”, called such because the game adopted a non-linear approach to gameplay that teased you with places you couldn’t access without the necessary ability. It also introduced English voice acting to the series with hilarious results.

A fan translation of the 1993 PC Engine classic Castlevania: Dracula X Rondo of Blood is now complete. Titled Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, the patch translates the in-game text to English and replaces the games audio with the PSP remake’s English dub.

Castlevania: Dracula X Rondo of Blood was first seen outside of Japan in 2007 in the form of a 2.5D remake featured in Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP which also included an unlockable port of its sequel Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

The patch can be downloaded here.

Source: Retro Collect

Castlevania: Bloodlines (The New Generation for PAL, or Vampire Killer for Japan) is the only Castlevania game to have been released on a Sega system. That has led to it gaining a bit of a “red-headed stepchild” treatment at the hands of series fans due to the game’s weird attempt to tie the series into Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, which has mostly been retconned now.

Master of Darkness (titled Vampire: Master of Darkness in the US), a Castlevania-style vampire hunting platformer released for the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear in the early 90s, will be re-released on the 3DS Virtual Console.

In Master of Darkness players take up the role of Dr. Social, a psychologist armed with a wide range of weapons – including knives, rapiers, axes, pistols and bombs, and fight their way through a variety of locations to defeat many enemies and eventually Dracula himself.

A date for the 3DS release is yet to be announced.

Source: Siliconera

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance was the second of three original Castlevania games developed for the Game Boy Advance, and arguably the most divisive. Many fans label the game’s soundtrack as the worst in the franchise’s history. Others feel the game is too easy. Despite these complaints, it is still considered one of the better games on the Game Boy Advance.

The best game in the GBA launch line up.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (or just Castlevania in Europe, again) was the first Castlevania game for the Game Boy Advance, and the second to use the free roaming structure set by Symphony of the Night. Unfortunately, due to its release with the original non-backlit GBA, a lot of players had a hard time actually seeing what the heck was going on when attempting to play.