Castlevania (1986 video game)
Castlevania, known in Japan as Akumajō Dracula, is a 1986 platform game developed and published by Konami for the Family Computer Disk System. It was originally released in Japan in September 1986, before being ported to cartridge format and released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in May 1987 and in Europe in 1988. It was also re-issued for the Family Computer in cartridge format in 1993. It is the first game in Konami's Castlevania video game series.
| Castlevania | |
|---|---|
North American NES box art | |
| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Director(s) | Hitoshi Akamatsu |
| Producer(s) | Akihiko Nagata |
| Designer(s) | Akihiko Nagata |
| Programmer(s) | Nobuhiro Matsuoka |
| Artist(s) | Noriyasu Togakushi |
| Composer(s) | Kinuyo Yamashita Satoe Terashima |
| Series | Castlevania |
| Platform(s) | Family Computer Disk System, NES/Famicom, Arcade, C64, Amiga, MS-DOS, Mobile phone, Game Boy Advance, Windows |
| Release | September 26, 1986 |
| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Players control Simon Belmont, descendant of a legendary vampire hunter, who enters the castle of Count Dracula to destroy him when he suddenly reappears 100 years after Simon's ancestor vanquished him. Castlevania was developed in tandem with the MSX2 game Vampire Killer, which was released a month later and uses the same characters and setting, but features different gameplay mechanics. It was followed by a sequel, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and a prequel, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, both of which were also released for the NES. Super Castlevania IV was released in 1991 for the Super NES and follows the same story. A remake for the Sharp X68000 home computer was released in 1993, and was later re-released for the PlayStation as Castlevania Chronicles in 2001.
Castlevania was a financial success and received widespread acclaim. It is considered an NES classic by PC World, while Nintendo Power and Game Informer both ranked it in their lists of the best video games ever made.