The original, and... not quite the best, but a gold standard all Classicvanias strive for. Unapologetically difficult by the end (mostly that accursed Stage 15, with all the Medusa Heads and Axe Knights), but one of those games where retrying is easy enough that it's easy to dust yourself off and come back at it for another try. Some day I will be cool enough to clear Stage 15 without using savestates (only so I didn't have to replay Stages 13 and 14 between Continues... I think). But I did beat Drac all on my own, doing nothing but trying and trying again until I got good at the video game.
Castlevania's just one of the coolest damn high-concepts for a video game, man. Count Dracula and all the other Universal movie monsters have teamed up, and a lone Conan the Barbarian-looking emmereffer is bringing them all down with just Indiana Jones' bullwhip and the power of God. That's, like, damn near every high concept that appeals to me. How cool is it that it was one of the first megaton third-party hits on the NES? How cool that Castlevania has legendarily terrific music, how it's grimy and gritty but also plenty colorful, how it's careful to put detail in all the places it's needed? Hell, how cool is it that Ninty let Konami get away with letting the player graphically behead a guy on the NES??? Castlevania's honestly one of those games that's so thoroughly baked into my DNA that I kinda just assume that everyone knows and "gets" Castlevania's whole thing. Like... it's weird to me that a bullwhip is not considered standard vampire-hunting gear. Whaddya mean, Castlevania's where that came from? In all respects, a great start to a series that, even at its worst, I can't help but love.
Castlevania's just one of the coolest damn high-concepts for a video game, man. Count Dracula and all the other Universal movie monsters have teamed up, and a lone Conan the Barbarian-looking emmereffer is bringing them all down with just Indiana Jones' bullwhip and the power of God. That's, like, damn near every high concept that appeals to me. How cool is it that it was one of the first megaton third-party hits on the NES? How cool that Castlevania has legendarily terrific music, how it's grimy and gritty but also plenty colorful, how it's careful to put detail in all the places it's needed? Hell, how cool is it that Ninty let Konami get away with letting the player graphically behead a guy on the NES??? Castlevania's honestly one of those games that's so thoroughly baked into my DNA that I kinda just assume that everyone knows and "gets" Castlevania's whole thing. Like... it's weird to me that a bullwhip is not considered standard vampire-hunting gear. Whaddya mean, Castlevania's where that came from? In all respects, a great start to a series that, even at its worst, I can't help but love.