Haunted Castle (video game)
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| Haunted Castle (video game) | ||||||||||||||||||
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 "Give me all your coins, you b****!"
— Konami | ||||||||||||||||||
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Haunted Castle is a platformer game developed in 1988 by Konami for arcades as a remake of the original Castlevania. In 2019, Haunted Castle was re-released as part of Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.
Plot
Dracula has kidnapped Simon Belmont's bride on his wedding day, so Simon goes to Dracula's castle to defeat him and rescue his bride.
Bad Qualities
- Sprites are large and clunky, giving little room for the player to manoeuvre and dodge incoming attacks, it doesn't help the fact that Simon moves very slowly.
- One of the international versions, Version M, the enemies are too overpowered that even a bone tossed by a skeleton can kill you in only two hits even with full health. The other versions, the other international version (E and K) and the Japanese version (N and P), do not have this issue.
- Enemies are often positioned to knock you down into the many bottomless pits. True it's a common frustration in the other Castlevania games, but in this version it's even worse.
- The game is a shameless attempt to milk the player for more money because you're only allowed to use a limited number of credits per game, and only a single life per credit. Credits can either be used as lives, extra health or to play the game with full health, in which case you must beat the whole game on one life.
- Awful bosses, most of whom can be stun-locked and quickly defeated with the right weapon.
- In particular, Dracula's final form is just a large head that sits in the bottom-left corner of the screen and can be defeated in just a few seconds by repeatedly whipping him.
- Some animations are laughable like Simon's walking animation, looking like he's having either a stomachache or a hip cramp.
- Strangely, Death doesn't even appear in this game since he is one of the main antagonists in the franchise who has appeared in almost every game in the series.
Good Qualities
- Good soundtrack. The musical scores "Cross Your Heart" and "Don't Wait Until Night" would also reappear in future Castlevania games.
- Nice graphics for its time.
- The Japanese and and the other international versions of the game are much easier and less frustrating because in those versions, enemy hits offer less damage. Unlike the Version M where after two hits of massive damage each from a single hit, you die instantly.
- The difficulty and enemy strength is changeable in the game's Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection release, and it gives you unlimited continues.
- Some decent level ideas, which would be executed a lot better in Castlevania III and Super Castlevania IV. But the first stage adds a Yellow Devil style pattern of blocks coming at you from the entrance gate!
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