Its hard to believe that it has been 35 years since Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse was released on the NES console. Dracula’s Curse was the sequel to the Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest which came out for the NES back in ’97 which many people still speak fondly about today. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse was quite possibly one of the most difficult NES games ever made next to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game which also came out in 1989. Castlevania III saw Trevor C. Belmont as the main protagonist as he seeks to travel across the fictional country of Wallachia to defeat the main villain Dracula. The cool thing about Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse was the fact that players could recruit allies along the way in certain parts of the game. Some of the other playable characters included Grant Danasty, Sypha Belnades and Dracula’s son Alucard. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse had sixteen stages with four different endings depending on the decisions player makes in regards to recruiting allies. Dracula’s Curse had a map which showed possible paths players could take within the game and was non-linear which made Castlevania III more intriguing than other NES platformers from the 80’s and early 90’s.

The setting of Dracula’s Curse took place towards the later part of the 15th century and level designs really captured the vibe of that particular time period in history. Despite, having access to useful weapons like daggers, holy water, axes and stopwatches Castlevania III was one of those games that made titles like Mega Man II seem like child’s play in terms of difficulty. Castlevania III did not quite reach one million copies in sales following its NES release but it clearly outsold its ’91 sequel for the SNES Super Castlevania IV. Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse eventually ended up being ported to the Wii-U and the Nintendo 3DS through the Virtual Console but never received an official remake. The Castlevania video game series is pretty much dead in this day and age and Konami should consider remastering classic NES titles like Dracula’s Curse in the future.