The appeal of Konami’s recently released Castlevania Collection is, in theory, that it is a new way to play three substantial Castlevania adventures from the Nintendo DS era (Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of the RuinAnd Order of the Ecclesia). But the highlight for me, a declared and long-time hater of the 1987 game haunted castleis something new: The haunted castle revisiteda remake of Konami’s terrible attempt to bring Simon Belmont’s battle against Dracula to arcades.
Konami released the original haunted castle about a year after the original Castlevania came to Nintendo’s Famicom Disk System in 1986. A reinterpretation of Simon’s original adventure, haunted castle sends our hero on a mission to save his new bride Selena from her kidnapper Dracula. Armed with a whip and other collectible weapons, Simon faces familiar threats such as Medusa, Frankenstein’s monster and a giant stone golem.
The original haunted castle had a few things going for it – namely big sprites and catchy music. But haunted castle was incredibly difficult, hard to control and poorly animated. The original Castlevania was also a challenge, but haunted castleThe difficulty spikes were brutal and often unfair, seemingly designed to extract quarters from innocent young gamers who loved the NES original and were lured in by the snazzy graphics. (That innocent young gamer is me.)
The haunted castle revisited takes over the basic structure of the original haunted castle and turns it into a classic Castlevania action side-scroller. Developer M2 and Keisuke Koga, who designed the game, Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirtha slick remake of the first Game Boy Castlevania game, are responsible for haunted castle in 2024. The developer has optimized the difficulty level, redesigned levels and enemy encounters and haunted castle a major graphic upgrade with Reconsidered. Simon is now more beautifully animated and much easier to control.
On the normal difficulty level of the game, The haunted castle revisited is relatively easy to complete, thanks in part to generous checkpoints, resumes, and a level select option in the main menu. There’s also a hard difficulty setting that reshuffles the enemy layouts and introduces new enemy variants not present in the normal level. The hard version is incredibly fun – it’s challenging, but not overly difficult.
The biggest upgrade in The haunted castle revisited are the game’s bosses. They’ve all been reimagined in one way or another, but two of the (six) boss fights stand out among the rest: the Stained Glass Knight and the final battle against Dracula himself. I won’t give them away, because they’re worth experiencing for yourself, but they’re now imaginative and exciting spectacles.
M2 even upgraded Simon’s whip. Like in other classic Castlevania games, Simon can upgrade his iconic weapon from the standard leather bullwhip to the morning star by collecting bullets. The haunted castle revisited
The haunted castle revisited is perhaps not the biggest attraction in Konami’s new Castlevania Dominus Collectionbut for Castlevania fans who played and despised the original haunted castlethe remake is worth playing. It has turned a flaw in the franchise into a fresh-feeling, classic Castlevania game the likes of which we haven’t seen in many years.
Castlevania Dominus Collection was released on August 27th for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X. The game was tested with a download code provided by Nintendo before release. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These have no influence on editorial content, but Vox Media may receive commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Further information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.
