I had shelved this game for a while and did not realize how close I was to Dracula, so beating it after just 2 stages came as a bit of a surprise.

It's definitely the hardest out of the original trilogy, with some annoying parts like what felt like an increase of fighting on stairs and an incredibly poorly placed checkpoint on the Dracula boss battle. If you're playing on original hardware, good luck with the second one especially.

Still, there are branching paths and multiple characters to recruit, increasing the replay value and adding depth, while still retaining that Castlevania 1 formula.
There is quite a bit of room for experimentation and coming up with different strategies on the fly is a must.
The improved graphics and soundtrack were also pretty good.

Overall, I'd say this game falls into the category of games I appreciate more than I like. It's by no means a bad game. I had fun with it in quite a few places, I get the reasoning behind most of the design decisions and how important it is to gaming history, but it's not exactly my type of game.

Remember that corridor before the Death boss fight in Castlevania 1, usually regarded as the hardest segment in the game? Yeah you do, enemies all around, hard to telegraph their movement, you had to be resourceful, every step was important, literally no room for mistakes or improvisation; it was challenging in the first game, but it felt good to beat it once you learned how it worked, at least it was just one room, right?
Now imagine that corridor, but it is now an entire game, this is Castlevania III. Yeah, technically speaking it is better than its predecessors, I mean, wow, 4 playable characters, that's awesome, and soundtrack fucking slaps! But that's where it ends, at least for me, this game isn't nowhere near as fun as Casltevania 1, I swear I tried, but it's just frustrating, facing the same reused bosses, falling in the same stairs, taking damage from the same fucking bats, even with save states this shit is annoying.
It just wasn't fun.

A much better step after Castlevania II. This is a real expansion on the first game, with far more content, level paths, even characters to play, adding a TON of replayability. Unfortunately, to accommodate for this, this game is also significantly harder than the first, and not in a fun challenge kind of way.

The first Castlevania felt like each screen was a puzzle specifically constructed with a solution to make it by unscathed, but this game’s more loose design due to the different possible characters overcompensated with unfair bullshit and perfect precision to scrape by.

I think it is a much more impressive game than the first, and if I decide to play it more I may end up liking it more, but the first Castlevania just feels so classic, so perfectly designed, whereas this feels like a really impressive fan game without the technical game design behind it to back it up.

what an outstanding NES game, might be my all time favorite on the system that i’ve played so far. great action with 4 unique playable characters, all with really fun playstyles and cool abilities. the level design is really great, and i think the branching routes are great for replayability.

for me though what elevates this game is its stellar presentation. the spritework is fantastic, with great character and monster designs, clearly portraying movement and actions. the environments are richly detailed with superb color usage, and its shocking how varied and readable the different levels are for an 8-Bit game. i played the japanese version through the castlevania anniversary collection, and the 3 additional sound channels allotted to the famicom via the japanese cartridge take already fantastic compositions and fill it in with rich and wonderful sounding chiptune instrumentation.

overall, a tough as nails, really fun, and very pretty adventure through the countryside to defeat dracula. well worth your time!