Wallachia: Reign of Dracula is the commercial debut of Migami Games, a small development studio that had previously built a reputation on top of its Castlevania fan games, most notably the two games in the Lecarde Chronicles series. As its name suggests, Wallachia is still heavily indebted to Castlevania, at least aesthetically. Medieval towns and castles, trap-filled caverns, and verdant forests are all lovingly rendered in pixel art that harkens back to 16-bit consoles, with a touch of Western influence that’s charmingly reminiscent of Amiga Europlatformers and MS-DOS shareware. The music, with its mix of wailing guitars and ROMpler synths, instantly recalls Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, although it sometimes veers a little too close to its influences.

Where Wallachia distinguishes itself as something more than a Castlevania fan game with the serial numbers filed off is its gameplay, which evokes several classic action-platformers from the 80s and 90s without feeling like a direct ripoff of any one particular game or series. You play as the archeress Elcin, who is seeking vengeance for the death of her parents and abduction of her brother at the hands of ol’ Drac. While Elcin has a sword for melee combat, her primary weapon is her bow. You can shoot a rapid volley of arrows or charge up for a much more powerful attack. Elcin can shoot in 8 directions; holding down the L button will lock her into place for stationary aiming.

Elcin has a surprisingly large number of additional abilities. She has a double jump, which is necessary for surviving the trickier platforming of the later stages, as well as a slide that’s activated by pressing the jump button while crouching. She can collect some passive arrow and sword upgrades and even some limited ammo arrow variants, such as a three way spread shot. Rounding things out, she has the ability to summon helpers such as her wolf companion Silviu by spending orbs that she collects throughout the levels.

What this boils down to is a game that plays a bit like Contra mixed with Shinobi, but it pulls in quite a few other influences along the way. This is a game made by folks who love the arcade and console action platformers of the 80s and 90s. In parts it recalls Wolf Team’s Annet trilogy, Valis, the PC-98 classic Rusty, and the output of gritty B-tier arcade manufacturers like Data East and Jaleco. It even pays direct homage to the bears from the TurboGrafx-16 classic Legendary Axe.

Make no mistake, this is a low-budget affair, and it has its fair share of jank. The control scheme feels way overstuffed: The crouching slide in particular is way too easy to accidentally trigger, and given that it’s impossible to cancel out of, it led to quite a few inadvertent deaths sliding off platforms during my playthrough. Issues like these are compounded by incredibly stingy checkpointing, which may be frustrating for some players who are less experienced with this genre. Unfortunately, the game also cuts off after the fifth level on Easy difficulty, which is needlessly punishing. But anyone who grew up with the brutal challenge of classics like Revenge of Shinobi probably won’t have too much of a problem getting through it on Normal difficulty (Hard is another story…).

Much like its influences, Wallachia is a brief game. Its seven levels can be skillfully navigated in around an hour, although you’ll definitely spend more time making good use of its unlimited continues on your first playthrough. There are a handful of unlockable bonus challenges and an in-game achievement system to extend the play time further. Wallachia is definitely for a fairly niche audience, but it’s refreshing to see this very specific era of games given such loving treatment. If you have affection for these sorts of games, it’s definitely worth picking up.