Castlevania Anniversary Collection
Konami’s Castlevania Anniversary Collection traces the origins of the historic vampire franchise. Included is a unique eBook with details provided by developers, artists and others inspired by the Castlevania legacy which sheds a fresh light into the world of Castlevania.
Released as part of the Konami 50th Anniversary celebration, relive these timeless classics that helped define the platformer genre. From the Belmont clan to their extended bloodlines and allies, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection is the best first step for anyone to take into the world of Castlevania and the fight against Dracula!
Castlevania
Castlevania II Simon’s Quest
Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse
Super Castlevania IV
Castlevania The Adventure
Castlevania II Belmont’s Revenge
Castlevania Bloodlines
Kid Dracula (never released in English before)
History of Castlevania – Book of the Crescent Moon
Castlevania Anniversary Collection Review
Castlevania Anniversary Collection is compiles eight different 8-bit and 16-bit entries in the Castlevania series into a single package. Emulation is quite good, as can be expected of M2. Save states, filters, and replay watching are available for all games, and control binding is available for most. Japanese versions are included as bonus features, but they do not have the achievements their international counterparts get. There’s also a bizarre lack of an in-game option to close the program; You have to either use the Steam overlay or Alt+F4 to exit.
The original Castlevania is a fun if very difficult NES-era platformer that largely stood out back in the day for its classic horror movie vibe. It provided the template for the rest of the series, particular the games in this collection, but at the same time, it’s arguably the most vanilla game in this compilation, with little else to stand out from its sequels.
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest eschews the linear structure of the original game for a much more open world that foretells the direction the series would take starting with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Simon’s Quest is cryptic, but it’s much easier in terms of gameplay, introduces RPG elements, and boasts one of the earliest day-night cycles in the medium.
Castlevania: The Adventure was the series’ first excursion on a handheld, but it very clearly needed more time in the oven. It draws from the original game’s mold, but it plays much more slowly and clunky than its NES predecessor, and the level design by and large fails to account for that.
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, compared to Simon’s Quest, is a return to the original game’s linear form. However, it introduces branches between levels that can lead to different environments and even different party members to play with, who effectively work as the series’ first alternate playable characters. This lends the game a nice variety.
Kid Dracula borrows much more from the Mega Man mold than Castlevania’s, although it plays much more slowly. It does have a few of its own fun tricks up its, sleeve, however, and there were a few times were it genuinely surprised me.
Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge is a massive improvement over The Adventure, with the level design and difficulty taking the hardware limitations into account this time. It also stands out with a Mega Man-style structure of several levels that can be tackled in any order, followed by a final linear gauntlet.
Super Castlevania IV was the series’ 16-bit debut, and it takes advantage of the more powerful hardware and more buttons to play with. With the special item now given a separate button, the d-pad can be used to aim the whip in four directions, which makes it a much more versatile tool in both combat and platforming this time. As a result, however, it’s another relatively easy installment.
Castlevania: Bloodlines rounds out the collection as the series’ Sega debut. It takes some ideas from IV, but it’s more traditional, although it borrows the multiple playable characters from Dracula’s Curse.
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