Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse Review

Ok. Listen. This is gonna sound nuts but hear me out, ok?

What if Castlevania… but 3.

I know. I know. Your mind? Totally blown right now. Take a moment, get your bearings. Maybe you need some water or something. Don’t you worry, I’m not going anywhere.

200+ years before the events of Castlevania (that’s right! Prequel, baby!) that Dracula dude from the last two games has been out Dracula-ing all over Europe and these folks over at the local religious institute don’t like it. So they go to Trevor Belmont and are all like “Hey. Buddy.” Ya know, though guy talk. And they say that since you Belmont’s are like super human in one way or another and since you guys hunt vampires, you need to go with with Dracula.

And so he does.

But! Ol’ Trevor he likes himself buddies. So in this game Ol’ Trev (that’s what I call him, anyway) can recruit a pal. There’s Grant, he’s like a ninja pirate dude that can climb walls. There’s Sypha, he/she’s a wizard (game says she’s a he). Made of soup but packs a punch, and Ralucard. I mean Alucard. He’s big, he’s slow, he’s weak, but he can turn into a bit.

So you play through the game and as you encounter these people you can decide which one you want to talk with you. And there’s only one allowed. So choose wisely. Or else.

Gameplay is back to CV1 style. Stages with a beginning, middle, and end. Boss waiting for you at the end of the stage. Beat the boss and pick which path you want to take for the following stage. This is how you’ll meet certain companions and skip out on others.

End of the game is Dracula and, well the end of the game I suppose.

Graphically the game is, again, a step up from it’s predecessor. It looks better than CV2 and much better than CV1 but the goofy color palate from CV1 is back with a vengeance here. Even more neon colored ancient stone used to build the world around you.

Sprites are better, backgrounds are better. Everything is better but the colors are just weird.

Music is better too. Castlevania likes to reuse a lot of music in between their games, and when it’s this good that’s totally ok. You’ll find some old classics and new favorites.

So in terms of the game itself it is, technically, the best of the trio on the NES but, for me, I think it’s the least fun. CV1 is a nice quick little excursion into spook video games. CV2 has the RPG thing and the ending thing and I really enjoy that style of Castlevania game. CV3, much like Mario 3 (for me), may be the best built of the games, but if it were about half as long I think I’d have a better time.