The 10-Best Video-Game Franchises
- July 10, 2006 12:43 PM PST
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Symphony of the Night (PlayStation) is considered one of the finest-if not the finest-games in the Castlevania series.
9. Castlevania
Developed by Konami
The Castlevania series personified the platform/action genre during its heyday in the late 1980s. Castlevania has a simple good-versus-bad plot-in this case, whip-toting warrior Simon Belmont versus the prince of darkness, Count Dracula. The linear objective was to venture through the castle, destroy the count's henchmen (werewolf, Frankenstein, etc.), and then take on the Count himself. Behind the rote play mechanics was an intriguing story line in which each successive Belmont family member would battle the Count (or one of his henchmen) in another game. Even with 8-bit graphics, the first Castlevania game on the NES created a horrific atmosphere, which was only enhanced by the next-gen systems' processing powers. The last NES 'vania, Dracula's Curse, was a massive adventure, where you could recruit one of three characters that could be switched to at will.
Castlevania had two strong 16-bit entries-Super Castlevania IV and Bloodlines. A third 16-bit title, Dracula X suffered a horrible fate, as it was butchered when it was ported to the SNES from the PC Engine Super CD-ROM. For its Japan-only release, the original version, Dracula X: The Rondo of Blood, featured two playable characters (Richter and Maria), several branching paths to take (so one couldn't play every stage in a single game), and a knockout music score courtesy of the CD audio. Unfortunately, the original game never made it to the U.S., and fans were stuck with the truncated SNES edition. Rondo is a rare find, and on online auction sites (such as eBay.com), it fetches bids that easily exceed $100.
One of the series' most enduring traits is the continuing story line that follows the cursed Belmont clan and their eternal struggle with Count Dracula.
The first PlayStation Castlevania, Symphony of the Night, changed everything. You played as Alucard, Dracula's disgruntled son, and the game used the same approach as that in Super Metroid: You were left to explore a vast castle with inaccessible areas that could only be reached after obtaining particular powers and abilities.
However, Castlevania (and its sequel, Legacy of Darkness) on the Nintendo 64 was a huge stumbling block. It was the series' first foray into 3D, but the gigantic stages made no architectural sense, and the Tomb Raider-esque platform-hopping mechanics coupled with uncooperative camera angles only made things worse. The series returned to form with Circle of the Moon for the Game Boy Advance (which used the same nonlinear design as that in Symphony), and the franchise was finally done 3D justice with Lament of Innocence for the PlayStation 2. The series has also found success on the DS. Unfortunately, the last 3D release, Curse of Darkness, was considered a step backward--due in part to a repetitious play scheme, where you fought the same enemies repeatedly.--Major Mike
One of the most recent games, Lament of Innocence (PS2), took Castlevania to the realm of 3D and did it right.
Key Games in the Castlevania Series
- Castlevania (NES/1987)
- Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES/1988)
- Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES/1990)
- Super Castlevania IV (SNES/1991)
- Dracula X: The Rondo of Blood (PC Engine/1993)
- Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis/1994)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation/1997)
- Castlevania (Nintendo 64/1999)
- Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (GBA/2001)
- Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2/2005)
- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS/2005)
- Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (PS2, Xbox/2005)
