The worst Castlevania game just got a whole lot better
The appeal of Konami’s recently released Castlevania Collection is, in theory, that it’s a new way to play three solid Castlevania adventures from the Nintendo DS era (Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of RuinAnd Order of Ecclesia). But the highlight for me, an open and long-time hater of the 1987 game Haunted Castleis something new: Haunted castle revisiteda remake of Konami’s dreadful attempt to bring Simon Belmont’s battle against Dracula to the arcades.
Konami released the original Haunted Castle about a year after the original Castlevania was released in 1986 for Nintendo’s Famicom Disk System. A retelling of Simon’s original adventure, Haunted Castle sends our hero on a mission to rescue his new bride Selena from her kidnapper Dracula. Armed with a whip and other collectible weapons, Simon must face familiar threats including Medusa, Frankenstein’s monster, and a giant rock golem.
The original Haunted Castle did have a few things going for it — namely big sprites and catchy music. But Haunted Castle was punishingly difficult, hard to control, and poorly animated. The original Castlevania was also a challenge, but Haunted CastleThe difficulty settings were brutal and often unfair, seemingly designed to fleece innocent young players who loved the NES original and were lured in by its beautiful graphics. (That innocent young player is me.)
Haunted castle revisited takes over the basic framework of the original Haunted Castle and transforms it into a classic Castlevania action side-scroller. Developer M2 and Keisuke Koga, who Castlevania: The Rebirth of Adventurea slick remake of the first Game Boy Castlevania game, are responsible for turning Haunted Castle around 2024. The developer has streamlined the difficulty, redesigned levels and enemy encounters, and Haunted Castle a major graphic overhaul with ReviseSimon is now nicely animated and much easier to control.
On the normal difficulty of the game, Haunted castle revisited is fairly easy to complete, thanks in part to generous checkpoints, continues, and an option to select levels from the main menu. There’s also a hard difficulty setting, which remixes enemy layouts and introduces new enemy variants not found in the normal setting. The hard version is incredibly fun — challenging, but not punishingly difficult.
The biggest upgrade in Haunted castle revisited are the game’s bosses. They’ve all been redesigned in some way, but two of the (six) boss fights stand out: the Stained Glass Knight and the final battle against Dracula himself. I won’t spoil them, because they’re worth experiencing for yourself, but they’re now inventive and exciting spectacles.
M2 even upgraded Simon’s whip. Like other classic Castlevania games, Simon can upgrade his iconic weapon from the standard leather bull whip to the morning star by collecting orbs. Haunted castle revisited adds an extra layer to this; once Simon’s whip is upgraded, any orbs he collects grant him a temporary power-up, giving him a longer range and a wider hurtbox. It’s a small detail, but it adds a sense of urgency to the game – you’ll want to squeeze the most out of your supercharged whip while you can.
Haunted castle revisited may not be the biggest draw in Konami’s new Castlevania Dominus Collectionbut for fellow Castlevania lovers who played and despised the original Haunted Castlethe remake is worth playing, it has transformed a blemish on the franchise into a fresh feeling, classic Castlevania game, the likes of which we haven’t seen in years.
Castlevania Dominus Collection was released on August 27 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You may additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.