Castlevania (NES) Review

Compared to other platformer and side-scroller protagonists of the era, Simon Belmont is surprisingly non-agile. Lacking in speed and utterly vertically challenged, Simon can't quite compare to the acrobatics of Mario, Samus, and Kirby—but Konami makes sure he never has to.

An acrobatic main character for a platformer makes some sense considering all the running and jumping that's needed to traverse the average stage, but Castlevania is designed with a slower pace in mind.

Patience is a big aspect in the level design featured in Count Dracula's castle. Simon is locked to a slow walk, meaning he can't just run away from enemies. In fact, jumping over an enemy and trying to get away usually means they'll just turn around and run after him.

Castlevania challenges reflexes far more than perhaps any platformer in the NES' library. Simon has to react by jumping or crouching to whip enemies all without ever stopping, ideally. A lull in movement can mean sure death in certain rooms, but just charging on ahead can be just as dangerous.

It's at times frustrating getting caught off guard by new enemy patterns or getting hit at the end of a particularly lengthy jumping section only to fall off the flooring and plummet into the abyss, but analysing a situation and understanding when to move and when to stop is a legitimate and expected strategy to getting through Dracula's castle alive.

Simon isn't totally without any extra help, as his arsenal of weapons including a throwing axe, a knife, and a boomerang-like cross that flies across the screen. Every enemy can be reliably killed with the whip, but the extra ammunition definitely helps in a pinch.

As fun as the early game is, the brilliance of the level design doesn't come out until the second half, where the difficulty is ramped up to an extreme degree. Simon never gets any new abilities, which effectively means that the first half of the castle is used to learn the controls and how to fight, and find out which sub-weapons work best against which enemies, so that the second half isn't just an onslaught of horror movie baddies slaughtering Simon to shreds.

A nice blend of reflex-based platforming and heavy whip-based action in the second half leads to some of the more intense moments in Castlevania, as Simon fights his way through room after room of gothic carnage. By the end point, Simon's slow, deliberate controls don't feel any different than Mario's natural speed and high jump, or Kirby's limited flight. His abilities become natural and the level design makes sure that they never feel anything but.

It says a lot when the boss fights, as fun as they are, simply aren't as enjoyable as the levels leading up to them. In a generation where games were hard in order to make the game feel longer, Castlevania stands out as a particularly great example of challenge for fun's sake.