History of the Castlevania Series. ACT I. Act 3. The first revival of the Prince. // Castlevania III, Kid Dracula.
Power was not given by law!
As a representative of the dark race,
He did dirty things
With an evil grimace in the dusk.
Becoming like those who were
The scourge of his unfortunate fate,
He also drank other people’s blood,
Losing myself in passionate thirst.
Scarlet pupils sparkle,
And people are like targets in a shooting gallery.
Newbies don’t understand,
That they are creatures in this world.
Giving mortals only nightmare,
Tend to have obscene manners,
Conveying a great gift
Only the extremely unworthy.
Song excerpt
The King and the Jester – Dark Teacher
A. Knyazev, 2010
What is most important to you? Finish what you started or so that everything is fine with friends and family? Or maybe so that you yourself can live in abundance, or do charity work and help other people whom you can help? This is all important primarily for ourselves. To meet your own needs. Secondly, it is important for society as a moral impetus for a person, as inspiration for future actions and achievements.
For a creative person, be he a writer, artist, musician or, in our case, a game designer, the main goal is to present the essence of his work. This is to make the reader, viewer, listener grasp what he wanted to say. Entertain, think about something, convey some feeling or simply give information. Usually, few people succeed the first time. A person experiments, tries which techniques are more effective to use, how best to convey the sensations, the emotions that he experiences. The author looks at the public’s reaction, and if he is satisfied with it, then he is satisfied. If he wants, he will even further improve his business, adding something new and unusual.
But, as usually happens in our world, the author does not have time to say everything he wanted. Maybe he doesn’t know how to express what he wants to convey? Or are personal difficulties getting in the way?? Or maybe someone more influential told him that he should stop doing this business – it offends someone, interferes with someone, or simply does not bring much profit, because sheer enthusiasm will not get you far?
This is what Konami management decided, giving the last chance to Hitoshi Akamatsu and the last chance for the Castlevania series. And this chance was Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse.
The last part of the series (Dracula II: Noroi no Fuiin), was a controversial game among both players and the press. The game was confusing, the bosses were easy, the puzzles were unclear. Crooked game design hindered this game. Hitoshi Akamatsu tried to convey the spirit of adventure and the spirit of 16th century Wallachia in open (as far as one can say) locations, but it turned out to be a stretch. Although this game still left its mark on video game history, and not only as a game with the worst riddles, but also as a game that tried to make a non-linear journey (as Metroid and The Legend of Zelda did).
Konami management, despite this, was skeptical about the idea of creating a sequel. But having learned how much people liked Akumajou Dracula, she still allowed Hitoshi to make a sequel, with one “but” – it had to be like the first part: the levels were linear, complex, the bosses gave a challenge (or breaking one soft spot), the graphics were the most beautiful, the music was the coolest, but without riddles. Well, well… Said and done!
On December 22, 1989, one of the most beautiful, one of the most complex, one of the best sounding games was released – the game Akumajou Densetsu (translated by. eng.: “Legend of the Demon Castle”; per rus.: “The Legend of the Demon Castle”). The development was led by Hitoshi Akamatsu-san.
Plot-wise, the game is a prequel to the very first game – Akumajou Dracula, and takes place 200 years before it began.
15th century Europe. In the Middle Ages there lived a man whom everyone was afraid of. The man who renounced everything human. His name is Count Vlad Tepes, better known as Dracula. His possessions were located on the outskirts of Transylvania, in Wallachia. Dracula used forbidden magic to summon an evil deity. The demon granted the Count power, and in return he summoned diabolical creatures into the world to engulf all of Wallachia in darkness.
But this was not enough for Dracula. He wanted to capture all of Europe and drown it in the abyss of despair and eternal bloodshed. But the Catholic Church did not share these plans. She immediately called a powerful army into Wallachia, but there was no news from this army. Dad had to turn to mercenaries as well as Vampire Hunters.
The first person the Pope approached was Sypha Velnamdes, a monk who aspired to become a priest. Sypha has the strongest magic of fire, ice and lightning. But Velnamdes does not use weapons and is vulnerable to physical attacks. Sypha lost his parents as a child and was found wandering near the monastery, where he was sheltered by local monks. He accepted the Pope’s request.
Around the same time, in Vlahia, a group of rebels were secretly organizing the overthrow of Count Dracula. However, she was no match for the army of monsters, and the rebels were no match for Dracula’s forces. Some were torn to pieces, others were impaled on stakes, and the “lucky ones” were turned into disgusting monsters. Among them was the Wallachian trickster, Grant Dinesti.
Vlad Tepes was not completely satisfied with his power, and he wanted even more power and authority. So his deal with the devil extended to his son. But his son still has a human heart. Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes hated his father because he sold his soul to the devil. However, Andrian cannot challenge his father, since he cannot be dealt with alone. Andrian took the name Alucard and began his journey to find allies strong enough to stop his father’s tyranny.
Sypha Velnamdes, who was sent earlier, did not return after a large amount of time. Dad suggested that Sypha failed to complete the mission and is most likely already dead.
It was at that moment that a descendant of the oldest of the Vampire Hunter clans appeared. The one whom even the church itself was afraid of appeared. The one who was credited with devilish powers. The whole of Transylvania was afraid of this clan, just as they are afraid of Dracula. The long-haired young man from the Belmondo clan – Ralph K. Belmondo. He appeared to fulfill the Pope’s request and stop Count Vlad Tsepish Dracula. The church had no choice, since all the best hunters that were sent either disappeared without a trace or were already dead. Therefore, they had to agree to Belmondo’s proposal.
Akumajo Densetsu discards almost all game design decisions of the previous game, giving way to more familiar ones from the first part. Now there are no open locations in the game where you can travel throughout Wallachia. No confusing riddles. There is no collecting items, leveling up your character, purchasing items or other crookedly implemented ideas that were in Dracula II: Noroi no Fuin.
The game re-emerged from Akumajou Dracula, but it became much larger and more complex. Akumajou Densetsu multiplied all the advantages of the first game on the Famicom, and also added, perhaps, the most important idea of Dracula II. This is nonlinearity. No, the game is also divided into stages and blocks. We also need to get from point A to point B, defeating the boss at the end of the level (or maybe even in the middle of the level). But now in certain places we can choose which level to go to. Accordingly, during the first playthrough the player will not see the entire game and will not complete all levels – which adds replayability to the game.
Well, in terms of gameplay, this is the same Akumajou Dracula, with its three types of whip, all the additional weapons, as well as hearts, which are no longer used as currency or exp, but as they were in the first part – a consumable for using additional. weapons. Ralph is also clumsy here, he cannot control his jump, and with each blow he is thrown back, which can even play a cruel joke and throw the player into the abyss.
But not just Belmondo. According to the plot, we were introduced to three more characters who decided to confront Dracula. And we can also play for these characters, or we can go through the game without them.
Let’s start with the first representative of our brave heroes – Sypha Velnamdes. Sypha is a hereditary magician, and in his arsenal there are no deadly weapons, and he cannot boast of physical strength. Sypha fights off monsters with her staff and her magic. A normal attack does not do much damage, and the range is very short, but the magician hits twice as fast as Belmondo. And his health is taken away by one point more. But as was said earlier with Velnamdes, magic decides everything, and here it is of three types:
Holy fire – a very powerful flame that destroys everything in its path. Hit straight like Belmondo’s whip.
Frozen Crystals – ice crystals that shoot in all directions to freeze enemies. While the adversaries are in the form of ice statues, they can be easily destroyed with one blow. You can also use this spell to freeze the water underneath you.
Holy ranks – Sypha fires three very powerful bolts. They follow enemies in all directions and will not leave them until they reach their targets.
Hearts are also responsible for using magic, and only one heart is spent for each use of magic. In most cases, spells are very useful – they can help you get through the most difficult places as Ralph, and in the last levels it is much easier to kill bosses, but for this you need to get used to playing for him, as you used to get used to playing Belmnodno. But believe me, it only seems at first that Sypha Velnamdes is a useless and weak character..
Our second adventurer – Grant Dynasty. A rebel from a group of bandits, a group that decided to destroy the Grand Duke themselves. Grant’s main feature is his acrobatics. He crawls along walls and ceilings, jumps higher and further than Ralph, and can also be controlled while jumping.
Playing for this character after the clumsy Belmondo is simply a pleasure, but Grant’s only weapons are a throwing dagger, which is endless, and an ax as an additional weapon. They can easily crawl and jump half a block without getting caught by enemies and even skipping entire sections of levels. Where else will you see this??
Well, the last one in our line is Andrian Fahrenheit Tepes, better known to us as Alucard. Attentive players and readers have noticed that his name "Alucard" is a mirror anagram of his father’s name – "Dracula". And Alucard fully lives up to his name. He’s a vampire just like his father.
Alucard can turn into a bat and fly through difficult sections of levels (hearts are taken away for this ability), and his attacks include fireballs that improve up to three times (for each improvement, the number of balls that shoot in different directions is added). This is, so to speak, a version of what would happen if we were allowed to play as Dracula.
All our heroes will not start the adventure from the very beginning of the game, since they began their campaign against the castle of darkness before Ralph Belmondo. The player will find them only during his journey, and then only one can be taken as a partner. We start with Ralph, who, before entering the cursed land in the possession of Count Dracula, decided to pray in front of the altar in a ruined church, and the sky hurries him along, flashing lightning in the sky. Belmondo begins his long journey in the last settlement before the castle, which is now infested with creatures and zombies.
The main part of the game is not going through the ancient castle, as it was in the first part (we will only be in it for 3 blocks), but the road to it, which takes 7 blocks. And in total we will go through 10 blocks per game, which is 4 more than in Akumajou Dracula on the Famicom. But 10 blocks in just one playthrough. There are a total of 16 blocks in the game, which is not even twice, but about two and a half more than in the first part.
But how do we get to other blocks?? After passing the village of the dead, which is the first block, we will be offered a fork where we can go either to the clock tower in front of the bridge to the castle, so the path will be even shorter, or bypassing into the forest, where we will then need to cross the lake.
If we choose the path to the tower, then at the top we will meet a monster, which will be the robber Grant Dynasty, and after defeating him, Ralph will break Dracula’s spell and Grant will offer his help to Belmondo. Here the player himself has the right to refuse him or accept the offer. In any case, the count sensed something was wrong and destroyed the bridge in front of the castle, so now he will have to overcome this block in the opposite direction and still go into the forest.
Well, if we go straight into the forest, we will leave Dynasty in the tower in the guise of a guard monster. In the forest, the hunter will also find a fork that leads either to the swamp or further into the forest. And in the forest, on the ruins of an old temple, where statues of monks are skillfully and accurately carved all around, Belmondo will meet a Cyclops, defeating whom his curse will dissipate, one of the statues will come to life and will turn out to be the lost Sypha Velnamdes. Sypha will also offer her help, and if the player previously took Grant as his assistant, then by agreeing to Sypha’s help, Dynasty will leave the travelers and go on her journey. In any case, then you have to board the ghost ship and swim to another deadly tower in front of the bridge.
If Belmondo decides to take a long and difficult path through the swamp, then he will end up in the catacombs, where an ancient vampire turns out to be sleeping. Having defeated him, the vampire introduces himself as Dracula’s son, Alucard, and offers his help, and he characterizes the battle with him as a test, since the journey ahead is dangerous. One way or another, after the catacombs, having passed either an old prison or a sunken city, the adventurers will find themselves in the catacombs of the castle, where they will emerge at the foothills, where the castle of the Count of Darkness stands majestically.
In any case, regardless of who you choose as your partner or which path you take, you will end up in the main hall familiar from the first game. Moving deeper into the castle, Ralph Belmondo comes to the throne room of the ancient vampire Count Dracula.
In one playthrough it is impossible to complete all the levels and take all your partners with you, and if you take into account the fact that each assistant has his own individual gameplay, then the game can be completed at least 4 times for different characters. And if you see all the blocks, then five times. And Ralph can go through all the blocks himself, that is, for him at least two large forks and two small ones – that’s 6, or even 7 times! Well, if you want to see all the possible blocks for all the characters that can be used to follow these blocks, then this is about 10 times a different adventure, along different paths for different characters! I don’t know, before Akumajou Densetsu on the Famicom, and indeed in the industry in general, there were linear platformers with such replay value?
And if in Akumajou Dracula on the Famicom you will spend about 1-2 hours per playthrough, then in Akumajou Densetsu you will spend about 2-4 hours in one playthrough. And multiply it by 10 times. Akumajou Densetsu was a really great game back in the day. And also do not forget that, as in the original game, here after the first playthrough there will also be a second quest, where there are not just more enemies and they hit harder, but also new content appears that was not available during the first playthrough. This doubles the replay value! This is great!
And if we are talking about enemies, then the bestiary has again been replenished with new representatives of not only ordinary enemies, but also bosses. There are 15 leaders for the entire game. In addition to Alucard and Grant Dynasty, and the Cyclops, old friends will also interfere in the form of: Gorgon, Frankenstein, Mummy and the phantom bat, as well as a pack of new complex and colorful bosses, among which it is worth highlighting Doppelganger. This scum is a copy of the character you will play for, that is, you are fighting against yourself. So let’s say 4 bosses in one bottle. And this bastard will suck all the blood out of you and crush all your nerves! Even Grim Reaper in this game is not so ruthless.
And yes, we will meet our https://casino-yeti.co.uk/ old friend again, and in a familiar block! He will be waiting for travelers in the main hall of the castle. And although Reaper is not so difficult, and for some characters even easy to kill, he will be able to surprise you with a second form that cannot be taken by any additional. Ralph Belmondo’s weapon. You only have to hit with a whip, or switch to another character and pick at them with an additional weapon.
Well, the main bastard is, of course, the Prince of Darkness himself – Count Vlad the Impaler Dracula. And he is also not as complex as in Akumajou Dracula, but this is compensated by his three forms – the last one which is the very embodiment of the ancient deity to whom Vlad sold his and Andrian’s soul. It will be quite problematic to defeat them at once, but it is very possible.
After defeating the Count, we will be given four endings, where Ralph Belmondo will stand alone or with a partner on a cliff and watch the dawn together against the backdrop of a destroying castle. It is in one of these endings that we learn that Sypha Velnamdes is actually a woman. And after this journey, Ralph Belmondo, together with Sifa Velnamdes, will continue the Belmondo family.
The composers decided to write compositions in Akumajou Densetsu that are much better than in Dracula II and Akumajou Dracula, and much better than in all Famicom games released before. And all this thanks to a chip that was developed specifically for Akumajou Densetsu – the Konami VRC6 chip (VRC-VI).
At Konami, VRC chips, and indeed MMC chips (Multi-memory controllers or memory management controllers), were used to expand the memory of the cartridge, which made it possible to add a large amount of content in the form of better graphics, a large number of different objects, and even pseudo-scrolling of some graphics. All this was done by switching memory banks, which were located in a special chip.
So, in this version of the chip, Konami engineers added 3 additional channels: 2 pulse channels (Square 3, Square 4), and one sawtooth channel (Sawtooth). So, using the VRC6 chip, there are a total of 8 channels in the game! This is even 2 channels more than the Famicom Disk System. But when composing the music for Akumajou Densetsu, only 7 channels were used. Only the triangular one was not used. At all. I never heard him in the entire game.
Three composers were responsible for the music. This is Jun Funahashi, Yukie Morimoto and Hidenori Maezawa. And it was Hidenori Maezawa who knew how to use the sound capabilities of the VRC6 chip to its full potential, because he was one of the engineers of this chip, and most likely, it was he who was responsible for the sound equipment of it.
Akumajou Densetsu was memorable thanks to the music, and I’m not talking about the technical part of this issue, but about the compositions themselves written specifically for this game. This game has a lot of memorable music that emphasizes the atmosphere of some truly creepy and unpleasant locations, in a good way. And when necessary, driving music also plays for your ears.
In general, the style of music was chosen in the direction of the first part, namely Akumajou Dracula. There is even one composition that came from the 1986 game, of course in an improved version. And yet, there is one composition here that will be one of the three most recognizable tracks from the Castlevania series – Beginning. So we can say that the tracks Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears And Beginning form the musical layer of the series. These three tracks will be most often found in future games in different arrangements.
As written earlier, the VRC6 chip significantly expanded not only sound capabilities, but also graphics. Thanks to this mapper, the developers were able to significantly improve and diversify the visuals compared to previous parts. With all the past parts. So, even in the intro of the game, where we are told the backstory of this whole action, clouds disperse over the castle under a beautiful parallax effect. By the way, this effect will still be used in the game.
Deja Vu (Vampire Killer)
Akumajou Densetsu also has a lot of moving parts in the background. There are even lightning strikes in one block. The locations themselves are worked out as thoroughly as the console allowed. There are whole pieces of foliage on blocks, and elaborate statues, and a varied forest, and also a beautiful waterfall along which Ralph makes his way to the top. Beauty!
There are also many new interactive objects in this game. Turning platforms and presses with spikes were returned here, and also swinging pendulums and beams were added, on which you will also have to balance. On the 8-bit Famicom it all looks very amazing and technologically advanced. Both in terms of graphics and game design. Akumajou Densetsu is still one of the most beautiful games on the 8-bit Nintendo. And one of the most difficult.
This adventure, one of the Belmondo family, is also praised for its elaborate game design. So well-developed that every block, every level is built in such a way that you can complete the game without much pain for each character. Even on the second playthrough. Plus, in the first block there are places where Ralph cannot reach, but the same Alucard or Dynasty can easily.
This game is difficult – yes. She’ll let you shit yourself more than once. You will have fifth place already on fire during the second or third block. But again, she’s honest. This game minimizes all random deaths through no fault of your own, just like Akumajou Dracula did on the Famicom. Yes, there are places here where you will feel like the game is to blame, that you died again because of randomness. But, if you pay more attention, you can pass even many difficult places the first time. Not all, but many.
Another thing I like about this game is that many of the obstacles are introduced to us in advance and under safe circumstances. Spinning platforms appear for the first time in the first block. The first platform at the very beginning of the stage, where, having fallen from it, we will not die, but will simply go down to the blocks below.
In the same way, one gets acquainted with the balancing beams on a ghost ship. At the very beginning of this block they show us beams and let us try to climb on them. Then, further in this block there will be a place where we will have to jump over them, but now there is no floor under us, and if the character falls from it, he will die. And these beams also appear in the last levels, where we are again safely introduced to them if we do not follow the path of the ghost ship.
Well, the same with pendulums. They first appear in the second block, where the Dynasty monster lives. First we can practice jumping on them without losing life, because there is a floor under the character, and then jumping over the abyss. And if we missed this level, then in the last block we will also be safely introduced to pendulums first. In any case, we will not miss these obstacles, and in any case, without any particular risks for the player, we will be introduced to them.
And the levels are built in such a way that there is practically no sudden appearance of an enemy. We first see the adversary, think about how to safely approach him and knock him down, or how to get around him, if there is such an opportunity. Why practically? Yes, because Hitoshi is also a joker, and can shove a couple of enemies at the beginning of a block, who, after a couple of seconds of the start of this block, will jump on the character, and you won’t even have time to blink.
Critics and players liked Akumajou Densetsu very much, those who were able to defeat it to the end. Famitsu gave Akimajou Densetsu a score of 30 out of 40, praising the developers for having the courage to go back to the basics of the first Famicom game and develop it to a very high level. Critics liked the wonderful music, the stunning visuals, the feature of playing the game as several characters and the non-linearity of this passage. But due to excessive complexity, the points were lowered. So, the game is 4 points better than Dracula II, but 4 points worse than Akumajou Dracula. All this according to critics from Famitsu magazine.
The game was traditionally released to the West in September 1990 in America, and much later in December 1992 in Europe. And… the Western version is so different from the Japanese version on many points, where the most important of them is the music.
When launching games to the West, Nintendo controlled the release process very strictly. Big N produced the cartridges itself, and accordingly, it did not use chips from third-party developers. Therefore, the developers had to get out of the situation, since the VRC6 chip could no longer be present on the cartridge, and it couldn’t be on Western cartridges, or more precisely, it would not reproduce additional sound channels. The cartridge board simply did not have contacts that were responsible for the music in this game on Japanese cartridges.
Although the graphics were saved thanks to the mapper from Nintendo MMC5 itself, which could do everything the same as the VRC6 chip. Well, in terms of graphics. Well, the music had to be sacrificed and completely rewritten.
Deja Vu (Vampire Killer)
As you may have heard, now she is not so expressive and deep. Of course, the composers rewrote the music well, but part of the charm of the game itself disappears. And Western players will not be able to officially hear the wonderful soundtrack of Akumajou Densetsu for many years, content with only the stripped-down music of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. But it’s true, for this game the Western release is just a “curse”. A curse for players.
For some reason Akamatsu-san decided to complicate an already quite complex game for Japan for a Western release. It’s nice to make it so complicated. New enemies have appeared in some locations, the behavior and some of the attacks on the bosses have changed, the candlesticks contain other items, and often they are useless. And Dracula with his last block is already a nightmare. Starting from the fact that after death on Dracula you do not appear before going up to his chambers, as in Akumajou Densetsu, but at the beginning of the stage, that is, much further.
And even before the Lord of Darkness in Akumajou Densetsu, you can knock out a cross in a candlestick, which greatly helped in the final battle, but in Castlevania III only… a knife. Pick with a knife the even more complicated version of Dracula. If the first and second forms of the boss have not changed much, then the battle with the Deity himself has become more complicated – be healthy! Now the rays are not small and do not shoot only downwards. Now they are the full length of the character and shoot in all directions! That is, you will not only die on it more often than in the Japanese version, but it will also take longer to get to it. And more difficult! While you are trying to get to him, you can die before the cont, and then go through the entire block first if you please. Brilliant! Also, Grant can’t throw a knife. No, well, in principle, he can, only as an additional. weapon.
And in Castlevania III they also made the difficult mode more difficult. I wrote above that during the second round new enemies are added. So, I’ll correct myself a little. They are added in the Western version. That is, there are enemies in Castlevania III that are not in Akumajou Densetsu, and even then, this is only on the second round. Who in their right mind would go through the even more difficult Akumajou Densetsu?? By the way, the sprites of some ordinary enemies have been improved, and the bosses have also become prettier. Of course, they added a little more censorship in some places, and for some reason they changed the gremlin to a hatchback, but this doesn’t change much of the picture.
And of course, another main change that all fans of the series know is the names of the playable characters, as well as the backstory of the game. The Castlevania III manual says that the action takes place 100 years before the original Castlevania, that is, in the 16th century. Based on this, the American timeline of the series and the Japanese one take place in different periods of time and are in no way related to each other.
Accordingly, we do not govern for Ralph K. Belmondo, because he was in the 15th century, and for Trevor K. Belmont from the 16th century. By the way, the surname “Belmont” appeared in Castlevania II, but due to my carelessness I missed it. And in the original Castlevania we ourselves are in the castle.
But not only Ralph was changed to Trevor. Sypha Velnamdes changed her last name to Belnandez. And in the manual, before the name of each character in quotation marks, the word “SPIRIT” is assigned, which means “Spirit”, except for Trevor. “Spirit” Alucard, “Spirit” Grant DaNasty (yes, that’s the spelling) and “Spirit” Sypha Belnandez. No, it’s logical. If they lived in the 15th century, then after 100 years only the spirit will remain from them, although Alucard… But this is already fan nonsense.
And one more thing. Trevor Belmont is the grandfather of Simon Belmont, which is logical in principle, but in the manual of the first part (of course, Japanese, but in the West in the second part it was written that Simon was in the first, but that’s not the point) it was written that Simon’s grandfather is Christopher Belmont. Now let’s see. “Trevor K. Belmont”, where “K.” possibly means “Christopher”.
After all this, I have only one question – why the hell, and most importantly – why?? Why was it so confusing for the players of that time, who wanted to understand the lore of the game and even somehow learned something from Japanese sources?. Why Akamatsu-san?
And yes, in the intro the clouds no longer spread out to either side. whine.
But still they also loved it and gave it great ratings, multi-page guides were written, walkthroughs. There was a lot of advertising. And now it is ranked among the top games on the NES. And by “her” I mean Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Even IGN ranked this game 5th out of the top 100 best NES games. And I agree in principle, if we take both Akumajou Densetsu and Castlevania III in general, but if individually, then… Well, it depends on the taste and color, as they say.
And like previous parts, the game has been re-released many times. And in Konami Collector’s Series: Castlevania & Contra, and in Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and in the Virtual Console on Wii, Wii U and 3DS. Moreover, in Castlevania Anniversary Collection, you can play both Akumajou Densetsu and Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, which is very wonderful. And I advise you to first enjoy Akumajou Densetsu, and then try to complete the complicated Castlevania III.
But again, the original game is united not only by re-releases. In 2006, a port was released on mobile phones. Although I didn’t find an image of the game or a gameplay video, the screenshots show that the game as a whole is not very different from the original – Akumajou Densetsu. It was her, because the port was released only in Japan and as part of the Konami Masterpiece Series. The only difference is that an easy mode was added to the game, similar to the re-release on Akumajou Dracula cartridges on the Famicom.
The series about the adventures of Dracula, or more precisely about his machinations, was already quite popular by the 90s, especially in the land of the rising sun. Yes, many series of games from Konami were already known then, and Konami itself made parodies of them. Take the same series of Parodius shmups. And the Dracula series was no exception.
The Dracula series, despite not having particularly large sales compared to other Konami titles, was loved by players, so it would be stupid to throw this series into the abyss of oblivion, much less include it in themed games where the main characters of Konami games were present. A kind of hodgepodge. And I’m not talking about Parodious. And about the Konami Wai Wai World series (“Konami Noise World” trans. eng; “The Noisy World of Konami” trans. rus.).
Wai Wai World was released only in Japan in January 1988. Some evil Waruda began to attack the world of Konami. Konami Man contacts Dr. Cinamon (from the game TweenBee) and tells him the bad news – Waruda has kidnapped all of Konami’s heroes. Upon returning to Dr. Cinamon’s laboratory, Konami Man is given his assistant, Konami Lady, an android created by Dr. Now Konami Man and Konami Lady must free all Konami heroes and defeat the evil Varuda!
This is the plot of this game, which is needed so that we start looking for references… that is, characters from Konami games, and go through the levels familiar to us. Everything here is teeming with references. Take the same Dr. Cinamon who appeared in TweenBee. Or a penguin that teleports us to different levels – very similar to the penguin from Antarctic Adventure.
The game is a regular platformer. Not particularly difficult, but with elements of exploration. We have 6 levels to choose from. Each of the levels refers us to a specific game from Konami. The Goonies, Gonbare Goemon, GetsaFumaDen, King Kong and Akumajou Dracula. There is also Easter Island, which most likely refers to Gradius.
So, to save the character, you need to find the key in his level and find his cell. Looks like something, yeah? (hello from Vampire Killer) You unlock the cage and free the character from his shackles, and you can play as him. Each character has its own characteristics and additional. weapon. For example, Getsa Fuma from GetsaFumaDen can break certain blocks. So without it we will not be able to get to Easter Island, because at the beginning of the level we are prevented by a barrier of gray blocks. And so on.
It is important to us that Simon Belmondo can be freed from Dracula’s castle in Transylvania. Teleporting to this level, you can immediately see familiar creatures – bats, zombies and… slimes? (Hello again, Vampire Killer). After walking a little through the cemetery in front of the castle, the heroes enter the castle itself. And no, we don’t go straight to the main hall. He’ll be there later.
In the castle itself we will meet skeletons, flying eyes, skulls, armor, spearmen, as well as Dracula himself in the main hall in front of the room where Simon is imprisoned. But first we need a key, and it is located in the basement of the castle. The key is guarded by… an overgrown two-legged one-eyed toad? And the theme of this boss is the theme of the battle with the curse of people from Akumajou Dracula.
Simon Belmont Theme (Vampire Killer)
Boss Battle Castlevania (2nd form Dracula)
We defeated the frog, go back to the hall, kill Dracula there, and free Simon. Belmondo is now under our control. The vampire hunter hits the same way as in the original game – with a whip. But he doesn’t stop on the spot when he strikes. And in general, the controls here are smoother and easier. It can be controlled in the air and does not knock Belmondo back when receiving damage. By the way, in the secret room you can get a cross that Simon will throw, like in Akumajou Dracula. Only hearts are not wasted.
When you select a character, the game plays theme music from the game they came from. Simon’s is Vampire Killer, which has been slightly changed. Since Simon Belmondo can be saved at the very beginning of the game, he can also try to complete the entire game. And honestly, it’s fun to watch Simon wander around a modern metropolis or ancient Japan. And you can go down to hell with him. In general, wherever he goes. And the game is funny. If you like Konami characters, I recommend checking them out. She might like it.
The second, and last, crossover game of Konami characters – Wai Wai World 2. SOS!! Paseri Jou ("Noise World 2. SOS!! Parsley Castle" lane. eng.; “Noisy World 2”. SOS!! Parsley Castle Lane. rus.) was released three years later in January 1991. And again only in Japan. And this game is much better and more interesting than the previous one. In the story, a villain kidnaps Princess Konami of the World. Dr. Cinamon sends his android Rikli on a rescue mission. And the bastard is in space, in some mysterious castle. But we understand what kind of castle this is. Is it true?
But there will be more than one path to Rikli Castle. You can choose three characters as partners, including Goemon, Getsu Fuma, Upa from the game Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa, Bill Riser from the Contra series and our Simon Belmondo. This time the game is all linear, and there is no need to go through certain levels to save the characters and later play as them. Before the game, the player will be given four sets of three heroes. Simon in this game is the same as in the first Wai Wai World, only he can’t throw crosses.
In addition to Simon from Akumajou Dracula, the level itself came – Dracula’s castle, to which you must first fly on the Vic Viper ship from Gradius through space and jump across the track, like Frogger from the game of the same name. Then we get to the castle, and… Akumajou Dracula fans will be happy.
We first enter the castle courtyards, which are similar to the first block from Akumajou Densetsu. Then we go down to the catacombs. And all this to music that starts like Stalker, and then comes the familiar Vampire Killer. Then the heroes climb a tower covered with stained glass frescoes, similar to Akumajou Densetsu, to a bridge that will also collapse. Well, and finally the main hall of the castle, at the end of which 3 coffins await us. More precisely 4. The 4th one will be the boss. And the second part of the journey we will pass under Bloody Tears. The music here is not just blatantly taken from previous games, it is well rewritten to suit the style of this game.
World 9-2 (Stalker\Vampire Killer)
World 9-2 (Bloody Tears)
World 9-2 (Boss Battle\Dracula 2nd Form)
Yes, I wrote above that the game is much better quality than the first part. There are not only platform segments from different games, but also a scrolling shooter from Gradius and TweenBee. And if you don’t know that you are playing Wai Wai World 2, then you might think that these are new parts of Gradius and TweenBee. There is even a separate world with riddles. In short, I advise you to play it and pass. Have a lot of fun if you’re a fan of old Konami games. It’s a pity that it was only released in Japan. But that’s understandable. Outside the land of the rising sun, no one knew about Gonbare Goemon and GetsuFumaDen. It’s a pity. It’s a pity..
The last adventure of Dracula on the Famicom console, or rather the adventure of the son of Dracula, was released again exclusively for Japan in October 1990. And this adventure is not of Alucard, as you might think, but of another son – baby Dracula (“Kid Dracula” eng. lane.; “Boku Dracula-kun” trans. Japanese. tran.). Only the Japanese in 1990 on the Famicom were able to play Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (“Demon Castle Special: Kid Dracula” trans. eng; “Special Demon Castle: Baby Dracula” trans. rus.).
After a long 10.000 years of sleep, the demon king finally awakens – Baby Dracula. The first thing he decided to do was drink a can of fresh blood… tomato juice and watch your favorite show on TV. His viewing was interrupted by one of his “faithful” minions, the bat. The mouse attacked its former master, but the boy easily threw the servant away. Baby Dracula demanded an explanation.
The bat said that when the boy was sleeping peacefully in his coffin, the power was taken over by an ancient reptile – Galomoth. At the same moment, Galamoth was broadcast on TV. He said that the boy slept too long, so he is no longer needed as the ruler of the dark forces. The kid, freaked out by such impudence, grabs his father’s old cloak and decides to find the new self-proclaimed demon king and reclaim his throne.
This game is very different from the original Dracula trilogy. But that’s understandable. It is mostly a parody and a spin-off from the original series of games. Therefore, there is no need to hope for a horror atmosphere, well-developed locations, complex gameplay (although sometimes this game gives you a kick) and music that will last for centuries. Everything is simple and to your taste. And the main thing is clear. Kid Dracula (I’d rather call it that) is more like the games of that time made based on well-known franchises on a small budget. On Kyattō Ninden Teyandee ("Samurai Pizza Cat" lane. eng.; “Pizza Sammurai Cats” lane. rus.), Felix the Cat ("Felix the Cat" trans. rus.), and even to the same Wai Wai World.
We control Dracula’s offspring – Baby Dracula (yes, he doesn’t have a normal name). Compared to the Belmonds and ordinary people, the boy is very active. Controllable when jumping, jumps far, and easier to control. The only attacks in the arsenal are fireball (Fireball; Normal; FIRE), but this is only at the beginning. After each level (except the last 4), the baby receives a new skill:
Bomb Attack (Bomb; BOMB) – projectiles that cause damage over a large area when they come into contact with an obstacle.
Almost every one of these skills will come in handy at least once during the journey. Somewhere bats will need to fly through a narrow passage, some bosses cannot be killed without a certain skill, and in one place you need to jump on the ceiling to get through without any problems. But often, after receiving homing projectiles (and this is after the first level), you will not use other abilities except when absolutely necessary.
And the baby dracula’s journey is quite long and eventful. Over the course of 9 levels, the boy and I will visit Dracula’s castle with its main hall, clock tower and throne room. And in some factory in the sky. And in the metropolis. And in the desert with the pyramids. On the ship. And even in space. That is, we were not deprived of a variety of locations. As well as the variety of enemies.
Each location has unique enemies, some of whom were the slaves of Baby Dracula. Zombaries, bats, Frakensteins with bows, spear knights, and even Jiangshi are present here, which they wanted to add in Dracula II. And these are enemies only from the first location. And the further into the forest, the more partisans. Much. Snowmen, sumbarians, drowning swimmers, UFOs… King Kongs? Japanese deities? Robo-Turtles… No, that’s not so surprising anymore. Spider-Man!? Well… At least it’s not the Ku Klux Kla… Oh damn.
And here we move from a variety of ordinary enemies to a variety of bosses. And the first boss who stands in our way, and even took the castle away from us, is a representative of the Ku Klux Klan. And with a swastika on his head too. And then there will be a chicken, a robot, a dragon, the head of a sphinx. Yes, there is even the Statue of Liberty as a boss. More precisely, as the host of a quiz, where we must correctly answer three questions faster than the chicken and the guy with the cap on his head. We came to get even.
In general, there are a lot of mini-games in Kid Dracula, and they all happen after completing the level. We will first be given the opportunity to play “amidakuzdi” – a Japanese lottery, where we choose which mini-game we will play. A slot machine, guess the color of the panties of the dancers in the cabaret, try not to kill (or kill, I still don’t understand) the skeleton in the bucket, or another lottery with balls. Each game has one prize – lives. But the leader of all this disgrace is not generous, and for participation in the game he demands coins, which are knocked out of enemies on the level. Can only be knocked out with a boosted attack. He uses these coins to give himself a new haircut every time.
Well, and accordingly, the king of demons himself, Galamoth, will also fight with us. Twice. The first time we will meet him is after Egypt, when we go up the pipe, and may this segment be damned. These platforms sucked everything they could out of me, especially when the missiles are still appearing. Yes, the metro in the metropolis was not as exhausting as this crap! In any case, we will easily defeat him the first time.
But the second time he will be the final boss. But first you need to complete the last level with 2 boss fights. At a time. And Galamoth too at once. That is. Entire level, with three bosses at a time. Now I believe this game is part of the Dracula series. If at the beginning of the game it seems to you that the game is easy enough to pass without stress, then at the end you will hate certain segments.
But after defeating Galamoth, Baby Dracula becomes the new Demon Lord. All the boy’s henchmen are happy about the return of the old ruler, but this, of course, is after he tore some of them to shreds, but that’s not the point. The main thing is that now they are all his friends and can take a photo as a keepsake.
This game wouldn’t be part of the Dracula series if it weren’t for the memorable music. Of course, the compositions are not as elaborate as in other games in the series, but this is a spin-off, and for a spin-off the tracks sound even good. The first level, Dracula’s Castle, will feature a reworked Beginning theme. Moreover, it has been redesigned to suit the mood of the game. Now the motives do not call for going on a dangerous journey in order to defeat the next universal evil. No. This is a catchy, cheerful composition, which immediately makes it clear that nothing serious or ominous is to come in the future.
From the music in the game you can understand that for baby Dracula this is nothing more than a game. As in principle for the player. A simple (almost), unobtrusive game that you enjoy playing through. In the second level, the music is airy and inspiring, which matches the local scenery in the form of the endless sky and clouds. Yes, even the name of these tracks gives more childishness and frivolity to what is happening. Water Cha Cha from the third, underwater level. Or Everything Falls Down Ouch Ouch Ouch, which plays on the fourth, snowy level, where the entire surface is slippery and you can easily fall off the ledge. Although some tracks are repeated, this is not even noticeable, since they fit well into the events taking place.
Go Go at the Castle (Stage 1)
Hop and Step Above Clouds (Stage 2)
Water Cha Cha (Stage 3)
Everything Falls Down Ouch Ouch Ouch (Stage 4)
Robot Battle (Stage 9)
Well, the local graphics are simple, not particularly elaborate. But it’s clear that this is the style of the game. The sprites themselves are large and detailed (cartoon-like). The first level even has moving mechanisms and swinging pendulums from Akumajou Densetsu. The game itself has 3 sections where we move at high speed. Some bosses are made up of composite sprites. And at the last level, and in the splash screen, there is a parallax effect. So the developers could make the game detailed to the smallest detail. But why is this? She already looks good, and even stands out stylistically, especially compared to the rest of the series. And it is not just a spin-off, but a parody of the franchise.
Players and the press received the game with restraint upon release. Famitsu gave the game a 25 out of 40 points, 1 point worse than Dracula II: Norou no Fuiin. For a parody game, and even more so for a spin-off, this is pretty good. The game came to the West very late – in 2019 in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, both in its original form and in translated. By the way, in the translated form the game was called Kid Dracula, and the swastika in the dude’s cap was removed. But otherwise, everything remains the same. Also, the game was ported to mobile phones only in Japan in 2006.
In fact, Western players learned about the existence of the Dracula boy much earlier, but not on the NES, but on the portable Game Boy, in a sequel or even a remake of this game. But we’ll talk about this next time.
Konami gave one last chance to series father Hitoshi Akamatsu. Akamatsu-san took full advantage of this chance. Akumajou Densetsu, and Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse remains many people’s favorite game in the series and their favorite game on the Famicom/NES platform. It is very different from similar games of competitors and not only competitors, but also other Konami games – in its sophistication and scale. It’s clear that Hitoshi put his heart and soul into his work. The players liked the game. And the press was delighted. Sales were strong, but not big enough to satisfy Konami bosses.
Even then, Konami was chasing profit. She was interested in high-profile titles that could bring in big profits. They had the rights to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the franchise was a cash cow for Konami bosses. Many developers were thrown into profitable projects, not allowing them to finish their projects properly. Castlevania was lucky to be one of the first Konami franchises to generate good revenue.
But what about Hitoshi Akamatsu?? Did Konami management really close the franchise and not let Akamatsu work on it?? Well, she left the franchise. It brought money, and there were a lot of fans. But the father of the entire series will no longer be involved in any development work on Castlevania. After Akumajou Densetsu, Hitoshi Akamatsu developed his last game, Jarinko Chie Bakudan Musume no Shiawase Sagashi, which was released only in Japan and was not successful. Therefore, his bosses removed him from game development and demoted him to an employee at one of the Konami shopping centers, and after that he quit.
At that time, many people left Konami who did not develop hits and games with multi-million sales. Some remained in the gaming industry, leaving for other companies like SNK, Squer Soft, Namco, while others never touched the gaming craft again. Hitoshi Akamatsu is one of the latter. I haven’t heard anything about him. There is no information on the Internet, and gaming journalists cannot find him or his residential address. There’s not even a normal photo. So where he is, what he does, and whether he is alive is unknown. But he left the video game industry on a high note.
So what about Castlevania?? The series has gone into decline? Of course not. The series subsequently blossomed, all thanks to talented developers who could improve on the Akumajou Dracula formula. And one game could even present the main feature of Akumajou Densetsu from a different angle. Even one of the currently popular genres will be named after the games in the series – and this is all thanks to the godfather of the series, who will later be a producer. But these are the events of the future Act II of the History of the Castlevania Series.
