Kid Dracula

released on Jan 03, 1993
by Konami

A remake of Kid Dracula

His pearly fangs drive the girls wild, while his dead-of-the-party sense of humor makes them scream. He's Kid Dracula, star of the mythical Transylvania 92010, and the coolest living corpse ever to stake his claim on the Game Boy. If you thought Mario had a way with magic, you should see junior jugular's spellbinding powers, including the mesmerizing bat transformation. Poof! Nobody wings it better than Kid Drac. This game is both a remake and a sequel to the original Kid Dracula, on the Nintendo Entertainment System.


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Fascinating to finally discover this in the Castlevania Anniversary collection. I'm down for "serious" game series getting wacky spin-offs, so this was very cute and kinda fun

Despite not being as widely loved or discussed as the mainline games in the Castlevania series, the original Kid Dracula for the Famicom was a great surprise for me when I decided to play through it. Not only did it have gameplay that it held up pretty well, with plenty of powers to use, fun levels to traverse through, and fun foes to fight, but it also managed to throw in plenty of different weird, out-of-nowhere elements that you would normally never see in a Castlevania game, making it that much more enjoyable, even if it didn’t make fun of the source material too much. It is a shame though that we never did get that game when it originally came out, and we had to wait until the Castlevania Anniversary Collection before we could actually play it… legitimately, anyway. However… that’s not to say we never did get any kind of Kid Dracula action over here in the west, because we would actually get another Kid Dracula game called… Kid Dracula. Definitely doesn’t make things confusing at all.

This game is a remake/sequel to the original Kid Dracula, and was the only game in this short little sub-series that we ever got here in the west for quite a while. Not only that, but before I did review the original Kid Dracula, this was the only prior KD game that I had played before that, and while it had been a long time since I initially played it, I remember having a pretty good time with it back in the day. So, I decided to revisit it since I had now played the game that came before it, and for the most part, I still had a really good time with it. Sure, it does have its issues, and it doesn’t have quite the same amount of charm as the original Famicom game, but for what we got here, it is still a pretty great title for the Game Boy.

The story is the most sequel-plot that one would expect from a Game Boy title, where the evil Galamoth returns once again, and it is up to Kid Dracula to go stop him once again, which I would complain about being too simplistic, but then again, this game comes from a series which usually just revolves around “kill Dracula”, so I don’t mind it all too much. The graphics are Game Boy graphics, but the sprites for all of the enemies are cute-sy and charming enough to fit the exact vibe that this game is going for, making it very pleasing to look at, the music sounds just like you would expect from a Castlevania game, but with a slight hint of “whimsy” that, again, fits with what this game is trying to go for, the control is straightforward for this type of game, so nothing to touch on there, and the gameplay is almost identical to the original game, which could be seen as an issue, but again, since this was our only helping of KD we got, that isn’t too bad overall.

The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of Kid Dracula once again, go through a set of eight different stages through environments which range from familiar, to somewhat out of the ordinary, defeat plenty of familiar and new enemies, each given a cartoony overhaul, with plenty of different attacks at your disposal, gather plenty of coins and hearts along the way to help you out, as well as to use in plenty of different bonus games in-between stages to get more coins and extra lives, and fight plenty of big, yet goofy bosses that will test your skills in a way that feels fair enough, yet not too easy. It is pretty different in many ways from any typical Castlevania game, which can draw in fans of series to welcome and enjoy, but for those who have played the original Kid Dracula, you may feel somewhat letdown by what you get here.

For the most part, this game plays identically to that of the original Kid Dracula, with very little new bells or whistles to be seen here. You still play in a Mega Man-like fashion, you still get new powers at the end of most pages, with them being mostly the same from the original, you still go through some of the same challenges and obstacles that were found in the original game, it is all basically a retread of what you had seen before. On one hand, this is perfectly understandable, as the game is somewhat of a remake, but at the same time, it is also a sequel, so you would expect a little more to be seen here, but we don’t get that. Luckily though, this didn’t bother me too much, as the game still managed to be pretty fun to run through, and it still had the same cartoony energy and attitude that I was hoping it would have, with plenty of different oddities to be seen throughout.

That’s not to say the game is perfect though, because it does have some things that do hold it back. For one thing, similarly to the Castlevania Adventure games, your movement speed is very slow, which did make the pacing feel a bit screwy. I don’t remember how the movement speed was in the original game, but I don’t remember being bothered by it at all, so going to this definitely feels like a downgrade in comparison. In addition, while it is great seeing all of these silly and exaggerated elements in one of these games again, I dunno, it all feels a little more… restrained this time around. For those who have played the original game, you remember that one boss fight that was essentially just a game show that was hosted by the Statue of Liberty? That was one of the weirdest, yet most enjoyable and charming parts of that entire game, and in terms of this game, it never takes the chance to get that weird again. I’m not expecting another quiz show, but I dunno, they could’ve done a little to make it more memorable in that regard. You know, outside of the bonus games.

Overall, despite the slower movement speed and the somewhat downgraded zaniness of this title, I would still say this is a really good entry in this short parody series for Castlevania, and one that I really enjoyed revisiting once again. It has most of the charm of the original, the fun and inventive gameplay remains intact, and it remains enjoyable enough to where you want to see what it will pull out next. I would definitely recommend it for those who loved the original Kid Dracula, as well as those who are big fans of the Castlevania series, because it manages to satisfy both of those crowds in plenty of ways. However, unfortunately, this is the last Kid Dracula-related thing that we have seen from the series ever since. I would say I want some sort of sequel or revival of this franchise, but since this is Konami we are talking about, I don’t want to risk that. Don’t ruin another classic franchise again… you know, when you aren’t busy ruining others.

Game #455

Almost the exact same game as the NES version, can't really choose which is better.

A fun little parody to play during Halloween. Great graphics, fun upbeat music, and entertaining horror parodies throughout. A little more challenging than it would let on but the password system helps out a lot with this.

this version is definitely a lot cuter and has some really nice little details like story bits between stages with dialogue and all that. and even more so than the last game they give you way more free lives and you can just kinda get infinite lives if you just know the timing on the roulette for the coins, in general the game just gives the player a lot of agency over how many lives they want. some similarities to the nes version but there are enough tweaks that make the game feel like a sequel. i think the biggest problem with this game is that some of the game's platforming is so obnoxious. like yeah you pretty much get all the lives you need and the game has a good amount of checkpoints interspersed in levels but sometimes it just gets so tiring when you die to the same obstacle like 4 or 5 times to some stupid shit. the bosses are all pretty fair though, the jason one was a little bullshit but aside from that one by far theyre the best part of this game and i wish the quality for the platforming was as consistent as it was for the bosses

A quick one.

Sometimes emulating, fast forwarding, and save scumming can make a fun little game all the more frustrating because you get impatient. That admittedly happened to me here. The slow movement and pacing was exacerbated with the modern wonders of emulation. Had I played it back when my GameBoy was shiny and new, it'd have been a more rewarding challenge. Stopping and smelling the roses would've been fine. I would've gotten weeks or months out of it.

Ultimately the game is on the easier side though. And with save states you can reset and make the game as short as it is. You just gotta learn what the level or boss is asking of you. A cute little game with some sneaky depth with the different power ups. But with plenty of clunk from the era. Fun little one session GameBoy platformer.

"Piece of cake. Let's go home."

[Emulated/played on Miyoo Mini v2]