Haunted Castle

From Castlevania Wiki - Forbidden Library

Haunted Castle
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami
Designer(s)	Kenichi Matsubara (Composer)
Released	(JP) February, 1988 (NA) September 22, 1988 (EU) November, 1988
Genre	Action Platformer
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)
Platform(s)	Arcade, Playstation 2
Media

Haunted Castle (known as Akumajō Dracula in Japan) is the first Castlevania arcade game. It was released in Japan on February, 1988 and in North America on September 22, 1988. The game's placement in the Castlevania chronology is somewhat disputed as many fans consider it to be a revision of the first game though the game has never been listed on any offical timeline. A VHS tape released by Konami that provided tips also gave the game a story and refers to the protagonist as Simon but it's unknown if this is offical information.

Contents 1 Story 2 Gameplay 3 Criticism 4 Legacy 5 Image Gallery 6 See also

Story

Count Dracula sleeps for a long hundred of years. During this time, peace exists at the village and Dracula is nothing but a mere legend.

However, one day a young couple named Simon and Serena were celebrating their wedding at the village's church. The couple were enveloped with happiness, as the wedding bells rang, their future seemed blessed.

Suddenly, the empty sky was covered with dark clouds and with a rolling thunder that shook the earth, Dracula has once again awakened. Asking for the beautiful girl's blood, he flew down during the middle of the wedding and suddenly took the bride with him.

Simon proved himself a mighty vampire hunter by withstanding the monsters and traps of Dracula's Castle, and in the end, destroying Count Dracula himself.

Gameplay

Haunted Castle consists of six timed stages, each ending in boss battles. Simon controls much like his NES counterpart whose primary weapon is naturally the Vampire Killer whip, but can also be upgraded (or rather replaced) by a mace and a holy sword. Aside from main weapons, Simon also has a vast arrary of sub-weapons but are mostly different from the traditional secondary weapons found throughout the series: Bombs, Boomerangs, Stopwatches, Crosses, and Torches. Hearts are collected to use each of these weapons and can only carry one of them at the time.

Players are rewarded with points for defeating enemies clearing a stage. Rather then earning them, extra lives can be earned by buying credits which can be used to replenish Simon's health.

After beating the game, player returns to the first stage while retaining all of his weapons and score, this time though, he will face stronger enemies. Players often refer to it as a "second quest" or "hard mode".

Criticism

Many gamers have criticized Haunted Castle for certain gameplay problems:

The main character, whose sprite is rather large when compared to other Castlevania characters from the series, is an easy target for enemy and obstacle hits. This is made worse with poor hit-detection.

Another big gripe among gamers is the game's difficulty. The game must be completed in one life; If the main character loses all of his life or falls into a pit, the game is over. While it was possible to continue, the game would start the player off back in Stage 1 after 3 continues. However, the player is given the option of adding additional energy to the health meter in replace of continuing, although it too is limited.

Many assume these factors are what contributed to Haunted Castle's poor sales when it was released to arcades.

Legacy

A small Japanese game publisher called Hamster ported the Japanese version of Haunted Castle to the PlayStation 2 as part of the Oretachi Game Center Zoku series. This game port is not slated to be released outside of Japan.

There are a several music tracks from Haunted Castle that would be reused in later Castlevania titles. The theme of the first stage, Cross Your Heart, was reused in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, under the title Crucifix Held Close. It is also part of the Akumajo Dracula Medley that appeared in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3 and the Keyboardmania series, along with Bloody Tears.

Underground Melody which plays during Stage 5, was remixed in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.

Finally, Don't Wait Until Night, played during Stage 6, was remixed in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and used as a theme for Julius Belmont, known as Heart of Fire.

Image Gallery

See also