Last week saw the surprise release of Castlevania Dominus Collection, a great compilation that (finally!) gives us a way to play the series’ three Nintendo DS releases on modern hardware. Castlevania fans have their strong opinions on which of these are the best, but the fact that Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia are now far more accessible is a win for everybody. Still, it was another inclusion in the collection that made my jaw drop when I saw the release trailer in last week’s Nintendo Direct: Haunted Castle Revisited, a brand new remake of a little-known Castlevania arcade game. And folks, it is absolutely gorgeous.
The original Haunted Castle is a 1987 arcade adaptation of Castlevania, and it’s…not great. It has its admirable qualities–particularly its banger soundtrack and, for the time, some impressively large and detailed sprites–but it feels stiff and awkward, and doesn’t capture the appeal of the NES game that inspired it. (If you want to get a good look at it for yourself, you can watch speedrunner LRock617 absolutely demolish the game in this run from this year’s Summer Games Done Quick event, but keep in mind that he makes it look easy; it’s definitely not.) Haunted Castle itself is here in the Dominus Collection, too, and it’s a very welcome inclusion, as it’s an interesting and important part of Castlevania history, warts and all. But what really makes it special is that it’s accompanied by a brand new remake that really is something to behold.
Made by the wizards at M2, Haunted Castle Revisited is a terrific, top-to-bottom reimagining of the original arcade game. It’s one of those arcade-style games that looks so good, it’s less like a real arcade game and more like my idealized childhood memory of what a great arcade game looked like. In other words, it looks like a dream. Where Simon Belmont’s walking animation in the original is awkward to say the least, here he strides with smooth, graceful determination. The multi-layered backgrounds give the world a sense of depth as it stretches away from you into the distance, with strands of fog giving the landscape a touch of gothic dread. The soundtrack absolutely pops. Your whip cracks with satisfying impact. Gone is the original’s stiffness, with Simon now feeling responsive and powerful. This is the great arcade game that Castlevania has always deserved but never received, until now.
Haunted Castle Revisited isn’t a long game, and your first journey from the countryside all the way to Dracula’s clock tower will probably only take you about 30 minutes. But that’s the way an arcade game should be–an experience you can come back to again and again for a quick jolt of adrenaline and satisfaction–and it’s great to have this short, stunning experience alongside the more elaborate, epic undertakings of the DS Castlevania games. It’s the kind of game that, for true arcade aficionados, rewards mastery, and I intend to keep playing it until I manage to get the ultimate satisfaction of a one-credit clear. Even if your interest is more casual, though, Haunted Castle Revisited is an audiovisual feast, a sumptuous treat of gothic richness that reclaims one of Castlevania’s most denigrated and overlooked games. It’s a treasure.