Therefore, instead of one central location to explore, there was the added bonus of tackling different worlds outside of the castle itself. Shrinking Super Mario 64's level system down to size, protagonists Jonathon and Charlotte accessed new thematic areas by jumping into various paintings dotted about Dracula's castle. The anime style continued, and English voices were introduced for the first time, upping the cheese to even greater levels than before, but this game brought in more than a few new ideas to mix up the Castlevania formula. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Following the unequivocally superb Dawn of Sorrow would be a daunting task for anyone hoping to deliver the same quality experience, but Portrait of Ruin managed to give a really good go. A true masterpiece that has barely aged since release. The basic core remains, but Konami developed this considerably, with a sprawling castle sectioned off in such a way that players are encouraged to delve deeper and deeper, trying to uncover all of the mysteries within. This is certainly no insult at all as Konami ought to be praised for borrowing from the RPG-style of adventuring that worked so well and draping it across the GBA trio. Ever since Symphony of the Night hit the PSOne and revolutionised the Castlevania series, there have been constant associations, from both fans and industry-folk alike, with Nintendo's own Metroid franchise. It wasn't just a looker, though, as Circle of the Moon's melodic soundtrack was praised from the rooftops by all and sundry, accompanying some extremely gratifying gameplay. The conclusion? Circle of the Moon was doing nothing wrong, and when played nowadays, there is more of an appreciation for just how impressive Konami's first GBA effort looked. Konami relented and tried to adjust Harmony of Dissonance to compensate, but many then bemoaned the fact that things were far too luminescent, thus detracting from the dark undertones that have been linked with Castlevania since its initial conception. Rather than this being the game's fault, though, it was mainly due also to the dire GBA screen with its lack of any type of back- or even front-lighting.
The Game Boy Advance was privileged enough to house an extraordinary trilogy of Castlevania games from the Koji Igarashi era, with Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, and Aria of Sorrow, and whilst HoD let the side down slightly, nothing can be taken away from how fantastic CotM and the final iteration, AoS, were, and still are today.īack when the original Game Boy Advance hit, people actually took issue with Castlevania: Circle of the Moon because it accompanied the handheld at launch, so was chastised for being so dark in graphical tone that even under a direct light-source people struggled to see exactly what was going on. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Konami's Castlevania franchise is the most highly regarded across the industry not just due to its long-term existence, but its continually high standards across pretty much each release. Though it has been treated more lightly in more recent years by the company behind it, Cubed3 staff look back at 30 years of gaming history to highlight the ten greatest Castlevania entries Konami has ever put out.
The term "Metroidvania," which today points at a very specific subgenre of platform-adventure games, would not exist indeed if it wasn't for Konami's baby.
List of castlevania games by system series#
Not only has it managed to uphold mostly great standards of quality with most of its releases, but Castlevania has also been very influential in terms of game design, awarding it its place among the greatest and most fondly remembered game series of all time.
The Castlevania franchise turned 30-years-old this year, and over that long period of time, has proven to be one of the most prolific series of games of all time, with practically yearly releases for most of its life since its inception in 1986 on the NES and MSX systems.