Kid Dracula

released on Oct 19, 1990
by Konami

Kid Dracula is a platformer video game made by Konami. It was released only in Japan for the Famicom on 19 October 1990. It is considered a parody of the Castlevania series. A version for mobile phones was also released on 30 June 2006 in Japan only. The game saw ports for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows as part of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection which was released digitally on May 16, 2019 in all regions.


Released on

Genres


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

Perfectly fine game with a cute artstyle and solid gameplay.

The 8th game on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and also one which had its debut in the West via that collection, Kid Dracula is a bit of an odd title. Very much in the vein of games like Famicom Splatterhouse game or Konami's Parodius titles (in which Kid Dracula himself would later appear), Kid Dracula is a silly take on an existing property in a familiar but different genre. Getting away from the melee-action platforming the series is so familiar with and going for a Mega Man-style shooting platformer, Kid Dracula is a very oddball but still fun entry in the wider Castlevania series.

Kid Dracula is chilling in his castle one day when it's suddenly attacked by monsters under the control of the galactic conqueror Galamoth. Not one to take such things lying down, Dracula sets off to kick some invader butt. The only catch is that Dracula isn't the big, adult Dracula we're familiar with. He's just a little kid! Obviously a non-canon game in the series, the game nonetheless has an epilogue that says that Dracula's defeat of Galamoth gained him such popularity that more and more monsters flocked to his banner until he was the new lord of darkness, which makes this something of a parody origin story for Dracula XD. The presentation all around is very colorful and silly like this, having bright, pastel color and a super deformed style for the monsters present, it is a very cute game (particularly for the Castlevania series). The only really exceptional thing is that the music is really nothing to write home about. It isn't bad, just not what you'd hope for with a Castlevania game.

The mechanics are very much like Mega Man more than they are Castlevania. Kid Dracula has a series of blaster-type powers he can use to fight enemies, and can even charge them for special effects (I think in-game they're spells he's casting). Upon beating a boss of a stage, you unlock a new power you can use, very much like Mega Man, however those powers very rarely (if ever) have any relation to the stage you just went through or the boss you just fought. You only get the special power of that weapon if you do a charge attack, so most of your time is spent with your weapon charged. The weapons also aren't dished out terribly balanced, with the homing shot you get for beating level 1 being one of the best weapons in the game. Several weapons aren't even weapons but platforming aids, letting you transform into a bat to fly or sticking to the ceiling. These are neat, but the execution isn't terribly inspired.

The level design is fine, but the later levels get pretty brutal with checkpoints, as the final stage doesn't have them at all. The bosses range from a little frustrating to super easy, and the final boss is a good challenge too. The only real dangers in the last few levels of the game is the aforementioned lack of checkpoints and a particularly nasty vertical climbing section, but even then the levels aren't that long. I didn't even end up using save states for this one. It's not a terribly long game, only coming in at around 2 to 3 hours over eight stages, but it's a fine time and a fine challenge for what it is, even if it isn't terribly Castlevania-y.

Verdict: Recommended. Kid Dracula isn't particularly amazing, but it's a very competent game and it's worth playing on the collection. The difficulty and overall design remind me a lot of Taito's Panic Restaurant or Konami's Biomiracle Bokutte Upa, where it's a silly, pastel-colored platformer, and the theme of this particular game just happens to be Castlevania's Dracula as a kid. It may not be the superior GameBoy sequel (whose absence on the Collection is quite odd, really), but it's still a fine game that will deliver a burst of retro platforming goodness, even if it's not ultimately that memorable.

Played on the Switch version of Castlevania Anniversary Collection. I will not be returning to this game.

En general esta muy genial el juego, excelente jugabilidad al momento de cambiar las habilidades, linda música, bonitos gráficos, y lo mejor es que tiene password pero hasta el stage 7, desde ahí en adelante los 3 stages siguientes no tienen, por lo que si no se termina y estás en el stage 9, como me pasó, tendrás que volver a jugarlo desde el stage 7 nuevamente, algo que me resulto super frustrante. Me gustó mucho a pesar de eso!.

It's a realy cute game. I found it fun magical and whimsical. The game had great controls that made it quite enjoyable. It's filled with many different weapons but under utilizes the need to switch them making it feel uninovative. The last level is a bit obnoxious and ruins the pacing. Probably the worst thing about the game is the sound effects in the final boss. The boss isn't to difficult but the sound makes the experience unbearable. As fun and cute as the game is it's not great objectively.
I have a personal doc with some notes that I am working on refining my game reviews this is the first on this system. I pro will start versioning them and adding that to them.