Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse Review – A challenging action classic
There have been several interesting titles in the famous Castlevania franchise, one of the first ones to become iconic during the early 90s was the third installment released on the Nintendo NES, it succeeded thanks to the fun action, the various playable characters and the awesome music.
The first thing that stands out about Dracula’s Curse is the action the saga takes back from the first game, if you’ve followed this franchise for a long time, like I do, you’d know that with Simon’s Quest, Konami tried to experiment a little by adding RPG elements to the adventure, but not many players liked those new aspects of that sequel and some found themselves missing the original game’s style.
Moving on, in this occasion we are start a new adventure in somber roads inhabited by all kinds of monsters. It’s worth mentioning that now we have the chance to choose alternative routes that change the way the game develops, making it more attractive and giving it more replay value.
To complement these new interesting novelties, now our hero is not alone, he has three playable allies and they are: a young woman who has an advantage with her magic spells but whose physical attacks are rather weak. A pirate who can climb walls and jump from one side to another in the middle of a leap, and this can be quite helpful at times. And finally, the last one but not the less important, the son of Dracula, he can turn into a bat and fly to any area seemingly unreachable, and he can also throw fire balls to destroy his foes.
During this adventure we can only take one ally along the ride, but we get the chance to choose who at certain times and the ending will reflect that choice depending on whom we have as a partner for the final battle. It’s also worth mentioning that this adventure takes place in huge locations, and this represents a genuine trial since a vast number of enemies will try to stop us from our crusade against Dracula. And if that’s not enough, the soundtrack truly fits the ambience, the intense battles against the bosses and even every action we take.
In conclusion, despite this game being released in an 8-bits console, it is still surprisingly good, especially the graphics and soundtrack. It can even rival games from the Super Nintendo. The down side is that the game is really difficult; I only recommend it to those who want to experience an authentic challenge.
Anyway, that’s all people, now I would like to know: what do you guys think? 😎
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Old but gold.
Yeah, this game is an ancient relic xD
💯
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This game was too good at this time, I still remember the first Castlevania I played
Yeah, it was a great game for its time.
I never was, still am not, a fan of the original Castlevania. It just rubbed me the wrong way on so many levels. I could not get into it. I did get Simon's Quest and thoroughly enjoyed it, I stumbled somehow through the two major sticking points with it's progression, and it is an awesome game in my eyes. Same for Zelda II, I prefer that over the original.
Then came Castlevania III and I tried it at a friends house and liked it a lot, saved up and bought a copy myself. I understand why people love the original but for me, three is much better.
Hindsight being what it is, Konami should have released Simon's Quest as Castlevania Adventures or something. That way fans of the original would know this is a departure of sorts from that one.
Weird how on the NES how the second game often was quite different than the original with the third returning to the franchise successful roots.
Nintendo did it with Zelda 2, Mario 2, Konami did it with Castlevania 2, Super C as well (though the third Contra game on NES was obviously a cash run by Konami).
I agree, for me being able to play as four different characters was a really nice addition to the third Castlevania that makes it much better than the original game.
Yeah, I also find curious how sequels released for NES where not as appreciated as the original games. The truth is that video game history is really fascinating.
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