…And How You Can Play Them!

Anyone keeping up with my recent work on The Bacon (especially our editor!) will notice that I’ve been absolutely head over heels for the Castlevania franchise lately.  With the series spanning nearly every mainstream system throughout gaming history (and several peripheral ones as well) it’s been an exciting journey.  With the hardware already in my possession, my efforts have been focused on gathering up the games themselves along with ample equipment to “enhance” gameplay.  In other words, all Castlevania games are hard as hell so I cheated; get over it.

Naturally, the deeper one digs, the more one finds.  A handful of particularly obscure titles are out there and not easy to procure.  What’s worse is that in some cases even the equipment to play the games on is woefully unavailable.  In the Age of Information there’s always emulation for the die-hards, but being the strange sort of cheating purist that I am, I just can’t get into it.  Maybe it’s because I can’t cheat as easily and can’t see all the levels armed with only my own skill.  Or maybe I find the experience of using my right hand for directional movement and left hand for action counter-intuitive.  Maybe I can’t stand having to use my other 4 fingers instead of my thumb.  Excuses, excuses, I know, I still don’t like it.  Still, some of these rarities are on familiar systems but due to their lack of popularity or limited availability at the time fetch hefty prices nowadays.

I don’t pretend to know all that there is to know about Castlevania, and this list is meant as more of a casual exploration of lesser-known and/or less-available titles rather than an in-depth look at every nook and cranny of the series across all continents and spanning every Japanese spin-off.  I’ve purposely neglected (almost) those that are exclusive to Japan for a variety of reasons.

The obvious one is the complex issue of availability.  Japan-exclusive material can be rare in North America simply by virtue of being exclusive to Japan, while retaining a modest presence in their country of origin.  Then there’s the issue of what to do with one of these imports even if you had one:  is it for a system only available in Japan?  Do region locks on North American equipment prevent it from being played?  Is it nothing more than a Castlevania-themed facade on a popular Japanese game that crosses pinball with slots (yes, a trilogy of these exist)?  Now watch me insert foot in mouth – there are two exceptions on the list, but only because one is perhaps the most popular of the semi-unknown and the other made its way around many other parts of the world outside of Japan, though never landing in North America.

I learned most of what I’ve included here because I was initially interested in playing them myself.  Originally this list was meant only to describe said games and touch on the issue of why you may never have had the chance the play them, but as progress was made, I figured why not share what I’d also learned about how to play them?  Accordingly, each entry includes details on what’s needed to play.  Sometimes the answer is as simple as “buy it” or as obvious as “emulate it,” but other times these solutions are complicated by ancillary factors.  Besides touching on all reasonable options, I’ve also given my recommendation based mostly on ease of acquirement with consideration given to game quality and whatever other uncommon equipment may or may not be necessary.

Time to sit back and take an interesting look at some of the dark corners of Castlevania over the years.  Again, these aren’t necessarily the rarest, least popular, most expensive, or anything other than “10 Castlevania Games You May Never Have Played.”

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No Spoilers

• Number 10
• Number 9
• Number 8
• Number 7
• Number 6
• Number 5
• Number 4
• Number 3
• Number 2
• Number 1
• Final Thoughts

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Hover for Spoilers

• Number 10
• Number 9
• Number 8
• Number 7
• Number 6
• Number 5
• Number 4
• Number 3
• Number 2
• Number 1
• Final Thoughts

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Written by The Cubist

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