Portable Pedigree: The history of Castlevania

When a game series reaches its third decade of existence it’s a fair indication that it must be doing something right. Konami’s Castlevania franchise – which made its debut in the mid ‘80s – is certainly getting a bit long in the tooth (ha!) but we’re suckers (chortle!) for it’s fang-tasticly (boom boom!) blood-curdling gameplay.

Now we’re got the painfully predictable puns out of the way, please feel free to join us as we brush away the cobwebs and open the dusty tome marked ‘Castlevania: A Portable History’. You might want to make sure you have a few cloves of garlic and a sharp stick close at hand before continuing…

Considering the sterling efforts that would come to be, Castlevania’s first portable outing wasn’t exactly the most auspicious of beginnings. Konami was one of the first developers to sign up to create games for Nintendo’s fledgling Game Boy system and The Castlevania Adventure hit the shelves not long after the launch of the console. To be brutally fair, this much is obvious when looking at the game today; the action is slow, the visuals crude and the gameplay is pitifully malnourished. Above-average music is the game’s sole saving grace, making this release one for vampire-hunting Castlevania completists only. Next!

While the franchise might have experienced a somewhat troublesome genesis in the realm of portable entertainment, the second Game Boy release successfully banished all the negative thoughts generated by its lacklustre prequel. Everything was improved almost immeasurably over the disappointing The Castlevania Adventure; the visuals are detailed and varied, the gameplay is fast-paced and frenetic and the lead character controls like a dream. To round it all off, the music is some of the best you’re ever likely to hear emanating from the Game Boy’s normally weedy speaker. This is the first truly essentially portable Castlevania, without a shadow of a doubt.

Following the excellence of Belmont’s Revenge and the brilliance of the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (which had been published on the Sony PlayStation prior to the launch of Legends), fans were justifiably excited about the prospect of this third portable outing on the monochrome Game Boy, but sadly such high expectations were dashed when the game finally touched down in stores. The advancements of Belmont’s Revenge were seemingly forgotten, with basic visuals and uninspiring level design testing the resolve of even the most dedicated Castlevania fanatic. Even the music was poor, with Legends’ only notable aspects being the female lead character in the form of feisty anime-chick Sonia Belmont (a first for the franchise) and the inclusion of Dracula’s half-vampire son Alucard, who had just become a fan-favourite thanks to his starring role in Symphony of the Night. Worryingly, the plotline of the game suggests that the Belmont line of vampire hunters came to be thanks to the sexual union of Sonia and Alucard – which means that subsequent members of the Belmont family are technically part-vampire. Unsurprisingly, this somewhat ludicrous storyline has since been declared as non-canonical by series producer Koji ‘IGA’ Igarashi.

Just as had been the case with the original Game Boy, Konami was a staunch supporter of its successor, the Game Boy Advance; this was evidenced by the release of Circle of the Moon to coincide with the launch of the hardware. Taking its cue from the astonishingly well-received Symphony of the Night, this title jettisoned the traditional ‘level by level’ gameplay for a more non-linear approached, similar to that seen in Nintendo’s popular Super Metroid (giving rise to the quirky term ‘Metroidvania’). Instead of opting for successive stages which must be completed in strict order, Dracula’s sinister fortress is represented as one massive gameworld, with some sections only accessible when certain items have been acquired. Players complained that the dark visuals were often hard to see on the GBA’s non-backlit display, but on the whole this was an encouraging start to what would eventually become a trilogy of similarly-structured titles.

Taking on board what gamers had said about the dark graphics in Circle of the Moon, Konami made sure that the same issue didn’t plague its sequel. Harmony of Dissonance followed hot on the heels of its predecessor and showcased some rather garish, ‘day-glo’ visuals, with the main character sporting a bright red coat to ensure he remained the focus of attention at all times. The speed of the gameplay was also given a boost thanks to a new ‘dash’ move, executed via the L and R shoulder buttons, and the sprites were larger and more detailed. While these revisions resulted in an entertaining romp, the core quest was still rather anaemic and lacked the depth of Symphony of the Night, with huge sections of the castle feeling very empty.

After two decent GBA entries, Konami really saved the best for last. Aria of Sorrow finally gave Castlevania fans what they’d been hungering for ever since Circle of the Moon was announced – a portable game that was worthy of being compared with the legendary Symphony of the Night. Prior to release there was some concern amongst fans when it was revealed that the game’s central protagonist would be a teenage exchange student from 2035; thankfully such fears were allayed when it became clear that the gameplay, visuals and music were untainted by such futuristic tomfoolery. Visions of vampires brandishing laser guns thankfully never came to pass, and instead fans were given one of the most compelling and playable GBA releases, ever. Konami would later bundle Aria with Harmony of Dissonance on a single cartridge, creating one of the best value GBA purchases you’re ever likely to come across.

Read our Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow review.

Released as part of Nintendo’s cheap-and-cheerful NES Classics range, this port of the game that effectively started it all is well worth investigating if you’re keen to see how this much-loved series has progressed over the years. In all honesty it still plays astonishingly well – much better than other so called 8-bit ‘classics’ from the same era – but there are few niggles that sully the experience ever so slightly (niggles that have since been ironed out in successive Castlevania games, of course).

In 2005 the series once again up sticks in order to relocate to new hardware – the shiny new Nintendo DS. Surprisingly, Konami decided to buck the trend of creating largely unrelated instalments by making this a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow, once again pitting high school exchange student Soma Cruz against the festering legions of the restless dead. The unique ‘soul’ collection system first seen in Aria made a comeback, but aside from some (rather unnecessary) stylus-driven spell casting, this wasn’t exactly a massive divergence from what we’d already seen in the previous GBA game. This wasn’t a massive problem in itself as the gameplay was still incredibly appealing, but some sections of the Castlevania fandom voiced their concern that the tried-and-tested ‘Metroidvania’ blueprint was starting to look a little stale.

Read our Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow review.

Having witnessed the (admittedly mild) murmurings of discontent that followed the release of Dawn of Sorrow, Konami promised sweeping changes for the next instalment. The most obvious was the introduction of a second playable character. Sadly, the execution of this idea (which had many people expecting exhilarating co-op Castlevania action) was rather less revolutionary, with the player merely switching between the two leads rather than having them both involved at the same time. The concept of traversing Dracula’s dank castle was given something of an overhaul, too; instead of being confined within the walls of his crumbling citadel, the player can access wildly different environments by jumping into bewitched paintings – including an Egyptian pyramid and a place that looks suspiciously like the London Underground.

Read our Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin review.

Developed by Upstart Games, this US-only mobile phone interpretation of the Castlevania series is pretty disappointing, featuring dodgy visuals, below-average music and awkward control. The developers clearly intended to ape the style of the ‘Metroidvania’ entries in the franchise, but what we have here is a confusing mess that would have worked better as a simple ‘level-by-level’ action title, like the games that were created prior to Symphony of the Night. Hardcore fans might want to track this down, but everyone else should be thankful this was only inflicted on our US cousins.

Dracula X: Rondo of Blood was released on the PC Engine Super CD-ROM in 1993 to almost universal praise, but because of a petty dispute between Konami and TTI (the company responsible for marketing the PC Engine in the US, where it was called the TurboGrafx/Turbo Duo) it never made it out of Japan. The cult status of this game grew over the years, and it soon became known as the ‘lost Castlevania’; a near-mythical title that was seemingly unobtainable thanks to his high value and the prohibitive cost of purchasing the imported hardware in order to play it. Thankfully, in 2007 Konami finally gave western Castlevania fans what they’d optimistically been putting on their Christmas lists for the previous 14 years. Bundled with an enhanced 3D remake of the original (as well as the superlative Symphony of the Night), Rondo of Blood is one of the true gems of the long-running franchise and simply deserves to be experienced. Sadly the 3D update is slightly less compelling, but when it’s in such esteemed company, you can forgive such shortcomings.

Read our Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles review.

The most recent Castlevania outing (at the time of writing) has only recently been released in the UK, but having our fingers firmly on the pulse, we reviewed the US version last year. While it subscribes to the same non-linear format as recent adventures, Order of Ecclesia thankfully shows a little more variety in its locations and gameplay. Marking only the second time that a female has taken the lead role in a Castlevania title (Castlevania Legends being the first), Order of Ecclesia has the player traipsing all over the Transylvanian countryside in an effort to prevent the Dark Lord from being resurrected. Like the previous DS titles, it’s a jolly fun romp, but we hope that Konami will look at injecting a bit more innovation into the next episode, which, if it follows the ‘one trilogy per Nintendo format’ pattern that has emerged so far, will debut on the successor to the DS.