| Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse | |
|---|---|
 North American box art depicting three of the game's playable characters:Trevor Belmont (bottom),Sypha Belnades (center) andGrant Danasty (top) | |
| Developer | Konami |
| Publishers | |
| Director | Hitoshi Akamatsu |
| Designer | I. Urata |
| Programmers | Yasuo Okuda Mitsuo Takemoto |
| Artists | Noriyasu Togakushi Takeshi Fujimoto I. Urata |
| Composers | Hidenori Maezawa Jun Funahashi Yukie Morimoto Yoshinori Sasaki |
| Series | Castlevania |
| Platform | Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Release | |
| Genre | Platform |
| Mode | Single-player |
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse[a] is a 1989platform game developed and published byKonami for theNintendo Entertainment System. It was released on December 22, 1989 in Japan, September 19, 1990 in North America and in May 1992 inPAL regions by Konami'sPalcom publishing label.
Despite being the third numbered installment in theCastlevania series,Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is a prequel to the originalCastlevania (1986), being set a few centuries before its events. The game's protagonist isTrevor Belmont, an ancestor ofSimon Belmont, who is called into action to vanquish the forces ofDracula. Relinquishing therole-playing andaction-adventure elements fromCastlevania II: Simon's Quest, the game returns to the action-platforming gameplay of the originalCastlevania but also introduces new concepts to the formula such asbranching level paths and multiple playable characters.
Castlevania III received positive critical reception. Multiple critics called the game a great return to roots for theCastlevania series and many highlighted the game's soundtrack as a point of praise. The game has been re-released on theVirtual Console for theWii,Nintendo 3DS andWii U. The game was later adapted into the first two seasons of the animated 2017Castlevania television series.
Castlevania III abandons theaction-adventure androle-playing elements of its immediate predecessorCastlevania II: Simon's Quest and returns to theplatform game roots of the originalCastlevania. Unlike the firstCastlevania, however,Castlevania III isnon-linear: Trevor, the main character, can be assisted by one of three possible companions, and after completing the firstlevel, and at several other points throughout the game, the player is given a choice of twobranching paths to follow. The player can obtainmultiple endings depending on the choices they make throughout the game.
There are two main routes through the game's sixteen stages, which are referred to as blocks and are broken down into several sections. The second stage is an optional excursion for picking up one of the three partner characters, and the main branch occurs part way through the third stage. Each route contains a total of nine stages (ten if the player takes the optional second stage). The upper route takes the player across the lake to the main bridge, entering Dracula's castle through the front gate, while the lower route takes the player through a series of tunnels and caverns, leading to a climb up the cliff face below the castle. The lower route also features one short branching section of its own at stage 6. The two paths converge in the main hall of the castle.
The game is set during the year 1476, whereCount Dracula has started to ravage Europe with an army of monsters. The Belmont family of vampire hunters, once exiled fromWallachia, are called into action. JoiningTrevor Belmont in his mission to defeat Dracula are three new playable characters:Sypha Belnades, a young sorceress with poor physical attack power but powerful elemental magic spells at her disposal;Grant Danasty, a pirate with the ability to climb on walls and change direction in mid-jump; andAlucard, Dracula's son, adhampir with the ability to shoot fireballs and transform into abat. Trevor can be accompanied by only one companion at a time. If he chooses to take on another he must abandon his current companion. The ending of the game differs depending on which companion Trevor has with him at the time, or if he does not take another character with him at all.
Besides the different title,Akumajō Densetsu, the Japanese version has several other differences. It contains a specializedVRC6coprocessor chip. The game's audio programmer, Hidenori Maezawa, assisted in the chip's creation. This chip added two extrapulse wave channels and asaw wave channel to the system's initial set of five sound channels. The majority of the music combines the channels to imitate the sound of asynthesized string section. Western versions of the NES did not have the ability to support externalsound chips, so the North American release replaced the VRC6 with Nintendo'sMemory Management Controller 5 (MMC5). The game's music had to be changed by Yoshinori Sasaki to comply with the NES's standard five channels.[citation needed]Akumajō Dracula Famicom Best was a soundtrack album that included the Famicom version of the game's original music.[4]
In the Japanese version, instead of using a stabbing dagger, Grant throws daggers as his main attack. Some enemies do lessdamage in the Japanese version, and had their sprites changed for the Western releases. Some instances of nudity on the enemies were censored, and religious iconography was pared down. The Japanese version has slightly different backgrounds in many stages, and has special effects not seen in the North American and European releases.[citation needed]
The North American andPAL versions have several hidden features that can be accessed by entering a certain name for the player, which include starting the game with 10 lives (by entering the name "HELP ME"), the option to start the game with any of the three spirit partners, and to access the second, more difficult quest. These features are not present in the Japanese version.[citation needed]
It was released in Japan on December 22, 1989, in North America on September 19, 1990, and in Europe on May 1992. The game also received a Windows release on November 16, 2002. The North American packaging artwork was painted by Tom Dubois, who stated that he was inspired by animatorRay Harryhausen's works.[5][6]
It was released on theWiiVirtual Console in the PAL regions on October 31, 2008,[7] in North America on January 12, 2009[8] and in Japan on April 21, 2009.[9] It was released on theNintendo 3DS Virtual Console in the PAL regions on April 17, 2014[7] and in North America on June 24, 2014.[10] It was released on theWii U Virtual Console in Japan on April 16, 2014,[11] in North America on June 26, 2014[12] and in the PAL regions on September 4, 2014.[7]
It was later released again as part of theCastlevania Anniversary Collection forNintendo Switch,PlayStation 4,Windows, andXbox One on May 16, 2019.[13] The Famicom version was made available to western audiences for the first time as a bonus update to this collection a month later.
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame | 4.5/5[14] |
| Famitsu | 7/10, 8/10, 8/10, 7/10[15] |
| Total! | 80%[16] |
In the Japanese game magazineFamitsu praising it for a return to the first game's format, the new allies, and the upgraded sound, with two reviewers finding its main drawback was its excessive difficulty.[15] In 1997Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked it the 57th best console video game of all time, citing the multiple playable characters and routes to choose from and the outstanding graphics and music.[17]Nintendo Power listed it as the ninth bestNintendo Entertainment System video game, praising it for its strong improvements over previous entries in the series.[18]Game Informer's Tim Turi felt that it was a return to form afterCastlevania II. He discussed characters such as Alucard (whom he called iconic) and Grant (whom he praised for his wall cling ability).[19]GamesRadar ranked it the eighth best NES game ever made. The staff felt that it returned toCastlevania's roots afterCastlevania II yet "took the series to new heights."[20] GameZone ranked it as the third bestCastlevania title. The staff preferredIII the most as it felt like the original game the most; they felt its price on the Virtual Console was worthwhile.[21]
In a retrospective review,Allgame editor Christopher Michael Baker highly praised the game, describing it as "the greatest Castlevania game to ever grace the NES" and "possibly even the greatest Castlevania game to ever hit any system".[14]
IGN placedCastlevania III: Dracula's Curse 5th on their list of the Top 100 NES Games.[22]
FormerCastlevania producer and developerKoji Igarashi citesCastlevania III as his favorite game in the series, noting the sound and setting as the reasons. Shutaro Iida, who was a programmer for the GBA and NDS games and director ofCastlevania: Harmony of Despair, also said it is his favorite in the series, and cited the special sound chip in the Japanese version as the reason why.[23]
An animatedDracula's Curse movie had been in development since 2007 with writerWarren Ellis,Frederator Studios, andJames Jean attached to the project.[24] In August 2015, film producerAdi Shankar teased that the project, now an animated mini series, was finally in production.[25] Titled simplyCastlevania, the first season of the series premiered onNetflix on July 7, 2017.[26] After the 4-episode first season premiere, it was later renewed for an 8-episode second series which premiered on October 26, 2018. A ten-episode third season was released on March 5, 2020.[27] The final season, consisting of 10 episodes, was released on May 13, 2021.[28]
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