Castlevania Anniversary Collection

Review after 100%
A collection of some excellent games and some not-so-excellent games. I'm old enough to have grown up with this series, but I didn't truly discover it until much later in life. So as someone who grew up with the NES, SNES, and Genesis who was also a newcomer to some of these, I will give my perspective on each and say whether they're worth getting this collection for.
Castlevania
Relatively short, very well-constructed especially for the era it came out. It's somewhat difficult, but you have infinite continues and eventually you will learn all of the level's gimmicks and be able to overcome them. Due to its length, it's the most replayable of the bunch.
Verdict: Worth it.
Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest
Not as bad as its detractors say, but also not as good as its defenders make it out to be. This game walked so that Symphony of the Night could run. This is basically an adventure game where the challenge is not in the platforming, bosses, or enemy design, but rather in figuring out where you're supposed to go. Unfortunately, it's extremely cryptic and sometimes even intentionally misleading, not helped by the less-than-stellar translation. Once you look up a guide, though, the game loses all challenge.
Verdict: Hard to recommend when other adventure games exist which do everything this game tried to achieve but better. Mostly interesting as a relic of the past.
Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse
Here we go. This game is awesome. Also the one the Netflix series is based on. One of the only two I had experience with as a child, mostly through Blockbuster rentals. It is unrelentingly, unforgivingly hard, but also mostly fair. You will die until you learn what you're supposed to do, and once you've worked out a strategy to overcome it, the sense of accomplishment is without equal. After the first time I beat it, all I wanted to do is go back and beat it again with a different companion, or try a different route.
Verdict: Absolutely worth it, one of the stars of the collection. If you're going to play it and don't care about achievements, play the Japanese version, which has significantly higher sound quality and more fair difficulty.
Super Castlevania IV
This game plays differently than others in the collection, with the subweapons being nerfed but giving you the ability to whip in 8 directions, and Simon has the ability to adjust his mid-jump trajectory instead of being locked into into an arc one you jump. A lot of people say this makes it too easy, but those people fail to realize that the game's designers accounted for this and Simon has to deal with a lot of enemies coming at him at once from multiple angles. This makes it the most demanding classicvania on the player's dexterity and skill at action-platformers, where the others are more about careful, deliberate planning of every action you take.
Verdict: Worth it, another star of the collection, even if I prefer most of the others to it. Hard to say if you should play it first or last though. It makes a good entry point, but you may find the others frustratingly limiting in comparison.
Castlevania The Adventure
This game is the only one I actually owned as a child and it is responsible for me thinking Castlevania wasn't for me until I was in my 20s. It's one of the first games for the Game Boy and visually it is impressive. But it also shows they didn't have a good command of the hardware yet. This game is sluggish and the level design is terrible, and there's no sub weapons. This game and its sequel are the only ones I used save states to beat, because I just could not be bothered to try to beat it normally, it simply wasn't fun.
Verdict: Not worth it. This game sucks and aged poorly even within its own console generation.
Castlevania 2: Belmont's Revenge
The other Game Boy game in the collection. A marked improvement over the original, with snappier combat and much better level and boss design. However, that just results in it being a sluggish, ugly, mediocre classicvania instead of an outright bad one. Also, the second-to-last boss is a ludicrous spike in difficulty, likely the hardest in the whole collection, and I could not beat him without save states. The final boss meanwhile is an annoying memorization game, you just need to die repeatedly until you know precisely where to stand depending on where he teleports.
Verdict: Not worth it.
Castlevania Bloodlines
Back to good games. This game is awesome and my second favorite in the collection. It has two playable character options, every level is extremely well-crafted and fun to play through, and it's short but also highly replayable similar to the first Castlevania. It's also gorgeous with a banging soundtrack, not a single lackluster track in the whole game. There is only one problem with it: despite being as hard as any classicvania, it does not have infinite continues.
Verdict: Worth it, another shining gem in the collection. Just play the Japanese version instead if you don't care about achievements, it's a bit easier and you get the full ending regardless of what difficulty setting you play on. Using a password also restores all of your continues unlike the American version, giving you a form of more cumbersome infinite continues.
Kid Dracula
This may look like a kid-friendly version of Castlevania, but don't be fooled. As early as the second level, this game lets you know it's not to be taken lightly. I beat it in about an hour and a half, but I must have died 20+ times on one level in particular. Also the sprite work is very detailed by NES standards, but as a consequence it suffers from horrible slowdown issues.
Verdict: It's okay, it's nice to have it in the collection, but it's not a reason to buy it. It's more of a nice add-on to the actual reasons to buy this collection.

Before Castlevania Anniversary Collection, I’ve only dabbled in two games from the franchise: Castlevania: The Adventure on the Game Boy and Super Castlevania IV on the SNES. I didn’t finish either one of them, but I’ve always wanted to revisit this series at some point. Little did I know that I’d be doing it on the PC.
Castlevania Anniversary Collection was developed by M2, the team that also gave us Contra Anniversary Collection. Considering these two collections were released one month apart, and the Contra collection was merely adequate for an “Anniversary Collection”, I didn’t have high hopes for this compilation of Castlevania games.
As expected, Castlevania Anniversary Collection, like its Contra counterpart, runs in windowed mode with no clear option to change screen setting, and has a paltry selection of unremarkable border frames. Plus, the graphic design of the game menu and bonus book, titled The History of Castlevania: Book of the Crescent Moon, looks amateurish.
Further proof of how lackadaisical development of this collection was is the absence of original game manuals. I excused this for Contra Anniversary Collection, but not for this one. Castlevania games are action adventures, and it’s important to know what the icons means and how the in-game menus work (especially for Castlevania II). There are abridged manuals, but they aren’t very informative. Plus, the manuals are in The History of Castlevania bonus book! This means to access them, you’ll have to save your game with save state (thank goodness for that), exit the game, scroll to the bonus book, find the entries and read them, exit the book, and restart the game. What asinine design!
Ignoring that, however, Castlevania Anniversary Collection has a pretty decent set of games. It has most of the 8- and 16-bit game console and Game Boy games, but is missing Haunted Castle (arcade), Rondo of Blood (TurboGrafx-16), Dracula X (SNES), and Castlevania Legends (Game Boy). Haunted Castle and Dracula X are in the Dominus Collection and Advance Collection respectively, but including them here would have been more appropriate.
How much you’ll like this compilation highly depends on your appreciation for Castlevania and/or your nostalgia for this franchise. Here are my impressions of the ones featured in this collection:
Castlevania – Challenging, especially with the knockback and enemy placement. Very atmospheric, but limited colour palette made some aspects of the environment hard to detect. Truly a classic.
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest – I was particularly curious about this title because I read the novelization from the Worlds of Power series as a kid. It’s an ambitious, but confusing game partly because of the unclear, bad translation. The day/night cycle was poorly implemented, and became annoying quickly.
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse – Very challenging, but highly replayable given the branching paths, companion recruitment, and ability to switch characters. It’s brisk, responsive and fun, allowing Castlevania to end its NES era on a high note.
Super Castlevania IV – The multidirectional whipping and overpowered weapons made this game relatively easy. That, plus the bright, colourful art direction made it feel less like a Castlevania game. But, it’s still very fun, and it holds up well over 3 decades later due to the fluid gameplay and some amazing level designs.
Castlevania: Bloodlines – Although this game doesn’t star a Belmont, it allows you to play as either the whip-wielding John Morris or the spear-sporting Eric Lecarde. This offers two unique gaming experiences, making Bloodlines worthy of replay.
Castlevania: The Adventure – Marred by slow speed and clunky controls, this Game Boy title is frustrating to play – not just as a Castlevania game, but also as a platformer. If it weren’t for nostalgia, I wouldn’t have spent as much time on it as I did.
Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge – The Game Boy sequel is faster, has more responsive controls, and brings back subweapons. While a vast improvement over The Adventure, it still can’t match its 8-bit peers.
Kid Dracula – Kudos to M2 for putting in the extra work to localize this game in English, but this game is not the reason for your buying this collection. Despite the slightly unrefined controls, it’s a fine action platformer.
Castlevania is a crown jewel in Konami’s catalogue, and it deserves a better anniversary treatment than this. Seeing the impressive presentation and extra content that the Advance Collection and Dominus Collection have, could M2 or Konami have updated this compilation in recent years with better aesthetics and features? Of course! Would they do it in the future? I highly doubt it.
This is an unequivocally, woefully subpar anniversary compilation. It’s a shame because being able to play Castlevania, Castlevania III, Super Castlevania IV, and Bloodlines on the PC makes this collection worth getting. So, thumbs up to most of the games in the collection, but thumbs down on how the compilation was put together. Because of that, I recommend getting Castlevania Anniversary Collection only if it’s on sale.

It's not too bad. Shame there's NO easy way to exit the game or switch between windowed and full screen. Fix that Konami. You did for the latest Castlevania collection. Get it together.

A big ol bundle of classic Castlevania games. At this point, these weren't the Metroidvanias everyone expects from the series, but simple platformers with some fun gimmicks to them. I did experience some issues with the collection itself, such as it randomly not accepting controller inputs or the volume being kinda fucky at times. In addition, every game is emulated, which led into some problems with certain games. Overall, if you're just wanting to experience some old Castlevania history, or you're feeding nostalgia, or if you just want some platformers, I'd say this collection is pretty good. I have some very short reviews for each game below:
Castlevania (NES):
- For an 8-bit NES game, the graphics are quite well done. Every location feels distinct
- Music is legendary, especially Vampire Killer and Nothing to Lose
- Has the difficulty of an arcade game (egregious enemy placement and high quantity of enemies)
- Platforming is rough, had multiple times where I clip through objects I should have landed on
- Only game in this collection I've had crash (not the entire collection, just the emulation of it)

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES):
- "What a horrible night to have a curse" is a banger ass line
- Respect to the game for innovating so much, laying down foundations that would eventually cascade into games like Symphony of the Night
- Music slaps once again, Bloody Tears is a phenomenal song
- Gameplay loop and feedback can feel stale and mindnumbing at times, grinding required to buy essential items
- I can appreciate an open-ended adventure that allows you to explore at your own pace, but the absolute lack of direction and samey looking locations make the landscape a slog to traverse, rather than being an exciting cross-country journey for survival
- The final boss fight is hilariously easy, you can spam one item and it stunlocks the boss to DEATH
- Took me a while to come back to it, its an okayish entry in the series. Definitely prefer later titles

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES):
- Definitely my favourite of the bunch, especially after CV2 put a bad taste in my mouth
- Having 4 different playable characters elevated this game above the rest. Grant, Sypha and Alucard as noteworthy alternatives to Trevor makes the game worth multiple playthroughs
- Alternate routes increases replayability further, and its impossible to play every level in one run
- Music is once again a masterpiece, hearing the remix of Vampire Killer as I entered those final levels really got the blood pumping
- Game is obscenely difficult. It was a breeze early on, but it quickly spiked in difficulty, especially during that final boss fight (three phases really fucked me up!)

Super Castlevania IV (SNES):
- The upgrade from NES to SNES did wonders, the graphics are beautiful and Mode 7 only pushes it further
- The music is beautiful, at this point I'm wondering if any of the games have bad music
- Introduction of vertical whip swinging and limp swinging make the gameplay loop feel exceptional, if a little easier as a consequence
- The hook points are an extra little spice to the ClassicVanias that I didn't know I needed
- Platforming feels so buttery smooth, with proper air-strafing and Simon's general weight and feel being perfect
- Occasional lag and stutter when there is an overabundance of sprites on screen (due to this being a SNES emulation)

The Castlevania Adventure (GB):
- I get its an original Gameboy game but like holy hell it really hurts the eyes to look at, if it was on the original console it'd probably not be as bad
- Completely scrapping secondary weapons might have been necessary but it just really hurts the experience overall
- Game is constantly lagging when any projectile gets spawned, terrible
- The music is the only real saving grace of this game, it can be pretty good when it wants to be
- Movement feels terrible, Christopher is slow as molasses and his jumps feel super weird, he phases through everything sometimes
- Short game, has only four levels (good or bad, dependent on your perspective of the game)
- The Autoscroller level existing AT ALL with this garbage tier platforming really made me wonder what they were thinking here
- Besides the platforming being abysmal, this game is piss easy and if you want an easy completion, this game may just be that
- I know this game came out the same year as the GB (its old af), but unless you have some serious nostalgia for the game I'd just recommend skipping it

Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (GB):
- The Castlevania Adventure had no excuse, this game looks way more visually interesting AND it doesn't hurt my eyes
- SUBWEAPONS ARE BACK THANK GOD (This shouldn't have ever needed to be a good point)
- Christopher feels a lot better, still kinda sluggish and slow in movement but his jumps feel heaps better
- Framerate is more consistent, and not constantly dipping at the slightest inconvenience or projectile being spawned (can still lag though)
- Similar to TA, this game is quite short and only has 6 main levels (but there is no demonspawn autoscroller level with bad platforming at least)
- Having the Rock Castle have dark rooms that require active candles or Holy Water in order to see while platforming is actually awesome
- With this game existing, unless you want some VERYYY loose context to what happens prior (as this game is a direct sequel), you can just skip TA

Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis):
- Despite its shorter length compared to other games in the series, this is my other favourite in this collection (alongside Castlevania III)
- In my opinion, this is the most beautiful game in the entire collection. The Genesis-era graphics and audio just oozes charm
- Having 2 playable characters available right from the get-go (as opposed to CV3 where you have to find them during your playthrough) is splendid
- Eric being an easier character to pick up and use compared to John also allows more people to enjoy Bloodlines, when some may be pushed away due to the difficulty
- Great setup, having a cross-Europe trip in order to stop an evil countess is an awesome setup, and a good shakeup from the other ClassicVania games
- Faster pace and flow to the gameplay when compared to the NES and GB games. Its elating to blitz through stages like a speedy tank
- Difficulty is quite high up there, the enemies can be pretty brutal if you make any mistake. Not many I-frames to work with
- Subweapons having something akin to an EX attack depending on what direction you're holding is FUCKING AWESOME

Kid Dracula (Famicom):
- Goofy ass aesthetic perfectly fits this type of parody spin-off game, reminds me of something like Cat Mario
- Unlocking a new power after each stage is very rewarding, even if some powers are just blatantly OP (homing shot)
- Minigames after each level in order to obtain more extra lives is a fun little activity, if kinda pointless due to difficulty
- Besides a couple points where they just throw a lot of shit at you, this game is pretty easy. There are multiple health restores during a level and the bosses are not that hard
- Visual tearing and game lag are especially bad in this game, worse than most games in the collection
- Fun little game I'd probably only play once, it doesn't have much appeal in terms of replayability (no score system)

Castlevania: One of the all time classics. Feels like the root of action games in general started here even if it technically didn't. It respects your time and is surprisingly forgiving. Should be remembered across the generations, yadda yadda yadda.
Simon's Quest: Even if the game told you exactly where to go with a faithful translation, it's still a boring grindy mess, however ambitious it may be. Ironically AVGN and Nintendo's hotline back in the 80s probably profited more off this game than Konami did. Would've probably been forgotten if SOTN and other future games didn't reference it's mcguffins.
Castlevania III: Probably my biggest hot take: I do not think this game is that good. It does not respect your time like CV1 does, with it's numerous autoscrollers, slow platforms, long stair climbing sections and endless bone pillar/axe knight spam. Has a kickass Dracula fight though and some good ideas used better in other games.
Super Castlevania IV: This game is divisive and I'm in the camp that absolutely loves it. Simon's unique control feels amazing and powerful and the atmosphere is excellent. The game only gets so hard as to feel tense but not overwhelm you and actually kill you if you're paying attention, which is perfect for me. Nothing in the entire franchise gets me feeling emotions like the ending to this one. This and the first one are my picks for favorite classicvanias.
The Castlevania Adventure: The actual worst game in the franchise. There's a part in the first stage where you have to jump from platform to platform, from the absolute edge with no deviation other than a bat towards the beginning that flies in an unpredictable pattern. Feel the most memory test-y out of the series, I kept save stating while climbing ropes in the slow vertical autoscroller because I couldn't trust the game to not put instakill spikes at the top of them.
Belmont's Revenge: This one is actually really sweet. Don't know how the teams were assembled during the making of these games but if it's the same as the first GB one they've improved immensely. Would recommend over 2 or 3 even, if the peniultimate boss weren't so much of a pain in the ass. They made him way overtuned and ruined an otherwise solid sleeper hit of this collection.
Castlevania Bloodlines: Hated this game as John, loved it as Eric, who is sort of an easier mode of this game. Liked how they rethought everything about the series to make something that would stand out, and they'll never let you forget it's on Genesis. The bosses are the best part, which I can't say about any of the previous. The autoscrollers are the worst part, but thankfully they're almost frontloaded.
Kid Dracula: If I had a dollar for every time they decided the next Castlevania should just be Mega Man but you move slower, I'd have two dollars (Belmont's Revenge is the other), which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice. Not a fan of how they make you do various minigames between stages. Sprites are super cute I guess.

Overall: Could use more wallpaper borders and color options for the gameboy games, but this collection is alright. Doesn't do anything amazing but doesn't ruin anything either, aside from weird RNG in CV1. It's nice seeing some of the dev documents too.

The only enemies in this collection, that are worse than Dracula, are the stairs.

It's probably thanks to the Belmont clan that we have elevators.

This is a great collection of the classic Castlevania games. I remember playing the first and second games on NES as a kid and never being able to complete them. It was a ton of fun playing them as an adult. This collection is put together very well, it contains English & Japanese versions of the games.

The save state feature is nice, I know many people consider this cheating, but it helps remove frustration. My only complaint is there is no quit game option from the main menu. I played it completely on the Steam Deck and had to force close from the main menu (you can switch between games, just not exit the main application). I had no issues with saves being lost, just seems strange no quit option. I had no crashes or glitches, it ran perfect.

Highly recommend this collection to anyone looking to play these for the first time or to relive childhood gaming.