Castlevania (NES) review "Ah, the game that started it all. A simple kid named Simon Belmont sent on a mission that is a curse or gift for his family for games to come. The very first Castlevania game made, almost as old as the Nintendo System itself, and yet it still stands up as an excellent game, and the leader of one of the greatest series' ever to grace this blue and green earth. "

Ah, the game that started it all. A simple kid named Simon Belmont sent on a mission that is a curse or gift for his family for games to come. The very first Castlevania game made, almost as old as the Nintendo System itself, and yet it still stands up as an excellent game, and the leader of one of the greatest series' ever to grace this blue and green earth.

STORY (7/10): This is not a great story at all, however if it can stand up throughout decades and produce almost 10 sequels and prequels the story cannot be that bad. Basically you are Simon Belmont, and your mission is to kill Dracula. Not too complex is it?

GRAPHICS (16/20): Castlevania was made in the middle 80's around the time I was born. That would lead to the graphics being mediocre, and definitely poor by modern day standards. However they aren't that bad that you cannot pick yourself up to play the game, for actually they are pretty good. It was definitely one of the above par graphical game for its time. The only problem is if there are many enemies on the field of play at once there is slowdown, which always hurts an action/adventure game.

SOUND (10/10): Am I the only person in the world that almost prefers the beep music to the modernday music they have in videogames. I love the vintage music extremely much so, and this is one of the games that shows it the best. The sound effects are pretty good for it's period of production, and fits the game perfectly.

GAMEPLAY (41/45): A simple idea of slash and hack with a whip produced a sterling type game. How can you not like the huge Bat boss in which you hit away with your typical whip, or even better one of your three powerups to your whip. But that is not all, you also get a choss of cross/Holy Water/Dagger/or Axe. Ah, the vintage in this game is too much to handle. There is not too much jumping involved like the later Castlevania gameboy games, which is definitely a major plus. The gameplay does get a little repititive and tricky later on, for the game is basically whip and run, however it is not so repitive you would put it away.

REPLAYABILITY (7/10): I am honest to admit I have yet to beat the first Castlevania yet, and I have definitely put good time in it. However really the major point of replay value in Castlevania is it's vintage value. I cannot resist playing a classic game once in a while, for the memories of an entire series come through a simple pack.

DIFFICULTY (3/5): Like Castlevania III for Nintendo it is extremely difficult. With no save feature you have to beat it all in one sitting, however it is not so long that you cannot do it. But the game is not near easy to beat. One day I will beat it hopefully, but the difficulty makes it far off.

VINTAGE VALUE (+5): Started an excellent series, and therfore it deserves five bonus points to its overall. It started a great series, so there must be something above and beyond about the original Castlevania.

OVERALL (89/100): This is definitely one of the best games for one of the best systems ever made. Castlevania was a simple idea created by Konami, never supposed to be as huge as it became, but it did. From this little whip game came other classics like Castlevania III, Circle of the Moon, and Legacy of Darkness. How can you pass up a classic adventure of such grand proportions???

Community review by ratking (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.