Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

"For once, Mr. Belmont isn’t the only one who wants to see Dracula die"

Castlevania is an all-time classic action-platformer. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is not. With Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, Konami decided to go back to the first game's blueprints, run it through the photocopying machine a few times, apply a shiny coat of varnish, before sending it off to the assembly line. In other words, Dracula's Curse is that all-time classic action-platformer bulked up to extreme proportions.

Once again, Dracula rises. This time we aren't with Simon Belmont; he hasn't been born yet. Set a couple of hundred years before the two games that came before it, Trevor Belmont steps into the limelight. He knows the deal and so should you: where there's an evil vampire overlord, there's a need for some serious whipping. After offering his final prayers upon a sacred altar, Trevor picks up his tough, leathery family heirloom and begins the long march to Castlevania.

Wicked forests, tricky clock towers, ghost ships and more await him before he can even lay a foot inside Dracula's abode. Carrying on the journey aspect of Simon's Quest was a great idea. It allowed for double the amount of levels seen before whilst ensuring that they weren't too similar. But wouldn't it be boring to have to cover the exact same levels every time? The game would be just too long. Konami figured that too and so they have instead split them apart here and there. In between levels, you are occasionally prompted to select from two different paths. Taking a look at the map shown, you'll see that depending on which areas you decide to negotiate, the following levels will differ too. Ultimately you will end up at Dracula's castle where you'll run through a straight gauntlet of stages, but it's nice to know that there are several ways to get there.

Trevor starts off by himself, and just like any other human being, he does get lonely. Trudging through swamps and mountain ranges does get boring, especially when it's your job to kill every living or undead thing you see. Luckily for him, Trevor does come across a few other brave souls who wouldn't mind kicking some vampire ass. There's Sypha Belnades, a youthful witch who may have weak physical strength, but is able to fire off some rather powerful area-effect spells. Grant DaNasty is a monstrosity who you'll meet atop the clock tower, but once you smack him a couple of times to lift his curse, he'll offer his agile services to you. Remember those annoying flea men pests that bound around like raving rabbits? Well Grant's a similar beast with quick speed plus the ability to walk on walls - very useful indeed. Then there's Alucard, the moral son of Dracula himself. There's some history between him and his father, but you're not going to turn down help from someone who can morph into a bat and shoot out triple fireballs now, are you?

Three's a party, though. That's why you can only have one accomplice with you at any time. Choices, choices: do you go for magic strong enough to wipe the floor with bosses? Not much help if you can't reach them in the first place, though. Perhaps Grant's agility will help you get by unscathed, or Alucard's high flying. They brute strength can't compare to Trevor's, though, so at any time you wish, simply hit the select button and you'll switch between the two. It's a great mechanic and it serves to provide more ways to tackle the devious traps, relentless enemies and trick platforms that lie before you. Instant death pits are as prominent as ever and the multitude of flying enemies only makes things harder than ever before. Dracula's Curse is without a doubt one of the toughest in the series, but at least you are given some leeway with the useful abilities of the secondary characters.

Bosses were a high point of the first game, but they became rather tame once you figured out the secret holy water spamming technique. There are more stages here than before so it figures that there are just as many more boss fights, and this time some holy water isn't always going to save you. Most bosses have weak-points that you can't just hit while standing. Precision jumping is more important than ever and if you can't hack it, you had better hope that your partner can. Again, depending on who you recruit, your strategies must change to fit the situation. Absolutely beautiful; I'm glad they brought this team-play back in later instalments.

The rest of it is pretty much the same. You start with a bare leather whip that is twice upgradable to a longer ranged, morning star whip. Sub-weapons remain unchanged with your holy water, cross, axe, knife and stopwatch all here. The other characters have their own unique sub-weapons too. Grant has a better knife attack and Sypha has fire, lightning and ice spells. Alucard doesn't pick up anything, though, but he's enough of a badass as it is with his bat-morphing and classic vampiric fireballs. Whatever the challenge that presents itself, with such an array of special abilities, where there's a will, there's a way.

But I'm not trying to downplay the difficulty; this game is still an utter monster to finish. The levels are tough enough to remove a hefty chunk of your life before you reach the end. And then once do get there, the bosses that are eagerly awaiting your arrival block your way, and they are no longer the pushovers they once were. As usual, Death makes an appearance, and as usual, he's a sickle-flinging maniac. The duel here is arguably one of the toughest Death battles ever, making it also one of the toughest battles in the history of gaming. Some insane jumping will be needed to avoid his constant offence and then you have got to figure out how to hit him safely while he swoops about the place. Oh, and he has a second (less annoying) form too. Give yourself a pat on the back if you manage to finish this game fair and square.

It's still worth a shot, though, even if you may not get to the very end. The journey across Wallachia is pure magic on an 8-bit box. The stiff controls are still here and if you couldn't handle them before, maybe games like this are not for you. But that's your loss if so. With some of the most detailed sprites of its time (not too hard on the eyes these days) and yet another crazy good soundtrack to urge you forwards, how can you go wrong? Multiple paths, heaps of levels, just as many bosses, several playable characters, and a return to Castlevania's roots - this was a benchmark 2D action-platformer in its time and currently it is regarded by many as the best classic Castlevania out there. It's a hard game, real hard, but with so much hardness, Dracula's Curse ends up being an incredibly rock-solid masterpiece that every hardcore gamer should try.

Now pass me the whip and a jar of holy water; it's ass-whipping time!

VERDICT - 8.5/10 Vampire killing has never been so trendy; bring it on blood-sucker!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/07

Game Release: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (US, September 1990)