If I made a game part of a series that was this bad, I'd give it a different name too to try and distance it from its original namesake. Realistically this should have been called "Castlevania Arcade" or something else equally generic. Instead it gets the somewhat awful Haunted Castle name and is the most "Castlevania at home" meme there could be, except Konami actually made this.
I'd never actually heard of this until I started playing through the Konami Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection. Interestingly it's also the only non shoot 'em up on there. I still can't decide if I'm happy they included it as a historical oddity for me to try or not.
So the game plays very much like a "classicvania", which shouldn't surprise coming out only a couple of years after the original game. Visually it's ok, technically the sprite work is good and yet it all feels wrong. Like uncanny valley Castlevania or a fan made project. I can't put it into words but the fleamen are too large, there are no medusa heads, the whole game feels off, too....chunky.
Gameplay wise it has everything I dislike about the classic games but amplified. The enemies come from awkward angles, there are cheap hits and occasional traps you can only get past by level memorisation, or save states. The boss designs are really awful both mechanically and artistically. One of them looks like a vector man enemy and jumps while fleamen run at you. It doesn't even look like it belongs in this game. There is a boss on stage 4 that you can barely hit unless you get the right subweapon as he moves off screen when you approach and is generally just poorly animated. Add to this each level is on a roughly 5 minute timer and it's pretty evident this was entirely designed to try and take your money, not for entertainment.
I stopped on stage 5. Near the start you get on an elevator that goes straight up. As it moves there are stone ledges that hit and damage you that your character (who walks at such a slow gait it's like he has rickets) cannot avoid even when you see them coming. Knowing the pattern is the only way. It's awful. It just isn't fun, which is the purpose of gaming to me.
Honestly there just isn't anything about this game I like, nothing stands out, nothing's unique, clever or interesting and nothing about this is fun. I got the point score I needed for the Konami Arcade Classics trophies and then stopped. Literally any other Castlevania (except arguably the Game Boy ones anyway) is better than this. An interesting historical novelty of an attempt by Konami that is best forgotten.
- Unfun gameplay.
- Bad bosses in both art and gameplay design.
- Weirdly ugly compared with it's main series counterparts.
I'd never actually heard of this until I started playing through the Konami Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection. Interestingly it's also the only non shoot 'em up on there. I still can't decide if I'm happy they included it as a historical oddity for me to try or not.
So the game plays very much like a "classicvania", which shouldn't surprise coming out only a couple of years after the original game. Visually it's ok, technically the sprite work is good and yet it all feels wrong. Like uncanny valley Castlevania or a fan made project. I can't put it into words but the fleamen are too large, there are no medusa heads, the whole game feels off, too....chunky.
Gameplay wise it has everything I dislike about the classic games but amplified. The enemies come from awkward angles, there are cheap hits and occasional traps you can only get past by level memorisation, or save states. The boss designs are really awful both mechanically and artistically. One of them looks like a vector man enemy and jumps while fleamen run at you. It doesn't even look like it belongs in this game. There is a boss on stage 4 that you can barely hit unless you get the right subweapon as he moves off screen when you approach and is generally just poorly animated. Add to this each level is on a roughly 5 minute timer and it's pretty evident this was entirely designed to try and take your money, not for entertainment.
I stopped on stage 5. Near the start you get on an elevator that goes straight up. As it moves there are stone ledges that hit and damage you that your character (who walks at such a slow gait it's like he has rickets) cannot avoid even when you see them coming. Knowing the pattern is the only way. It's awful. It just isn't fun, which is the purpose of gaming to me.
Honestly there just isn't anything about this game I like, nothing stands out, nothing's unique, clever or interesting and nothing about this is fun. I got the point score I needed for the Konami Arcade Classics trophies and then stopped. Literally any other Castlevania (except arguably the Game Boy ones anyway) is better than this. An interesting historical novelty of an attempt by Konami that is best forgotten.
- Unfun gameplay.
- Bad bosses in both art and gameplay design.
- Weirdly ugly compared with it's main series counterparts.
if you've actually finished this game I have the legal right to make fun of you
Music: Good
Sprites: Good
Literally everything else: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Sprites: Good
Literally everything else: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
This game was made to steal kid's lunch money without being fun.
Música boa... mas o gameplay é extremamente doloroso para fazer você gastar mais dinheiro... mas por algum motivo você só tem 3 vidas mesmo gastando dinheiro?
Esse jogo é a definição de sadismo, mas se fosse balanceado poderia ser um jogo decente, se não relativamente esquecível.
Esse jogo é a definição de sadismo, mas se fosse balanceado poderia ser um jogo decente, se não relativamente esquecível.
There are some people who pretend that this is secretly the best Castlevania game. Those people are lying to others and more importantly, themselves. Just play an NES or 16 bit Castlevania instead.
this game is a fucking joke but it's fun once you get the hang of it and accept it for what it is.
Castlevania simply does not work as an arcade game. At least the music is pretty killer, though.
An awfully designed Castlevania game in terms of design and difficulty with a surprisingly good soundtrack. I was unfortunate enough to play this on an actual arcade machine.
A mean game for losers who want to waste their lives doing dumb shit like playing Haunted Castle. Did you know they released this on Switch? What the fuck? As dull as Vampire Killer was, that deserves to be remembered far more than this. Haunted Castle is like playing the original Castlevania except with sloppier controls and hit detection. In the first level alone there are numerous points where you're essentially forced to take damage because there's no way to predict incoming damage. Movement is so clunky that twitch reflexes won't get you anywhere either. Castlevania just doesn't translate to the arcade format. They kept the same progression and I can't help but realize this would just be infinitely better on a system that isn't designed to take money every time you want to play it. Also I really hate the North American promotional art, I'm sorry this is such a hateful review. 1/6
I legit spent 45 minutes trying to get past stage 4 lmao. This is practically unplayable.
I was all ready to be a contrarian about this one, as I sort of enjoyed the first stage, but... yeah, it's awful. Not even fun to save-state your way through just to listen to the dope music, which is really saying something.
Incompetent to an impressive degree. Did no one at Konami think that maybe, just maybe, normal people wouldn't feel like dumping all their hard-earned quarters into a borderline-impossible game that sends you all the way back to the beginning after 3 continues regardless of money spent? Feels like an arcade cabinet made by and for masochistic space aliens who overheard the people they abducted talking about Castlevania between probing sessions
God, the soundtrack is so wasted in this. I know plenty of people who enjoy the visuals and think the monster designs are cool, but I don't think they look good at all with this pallette. Besides, none of that matters if you're not going to see it, because you'll probably be dead and with no continues left by the second stage.
So this was really bad
So this was really bad
Some say Castlevania doesnt work as an arcade game.... I disagree, theres potential to make it work...
Just Konami's implementation of it sucked thanks to cheap enemies who dole out massive amounts of damage and a main character that has the walking speed off a sloth. Sure theres some pretty graphics and decent music but you'll never see or hear most of it outside of using cheats or watching a Longplay. Just go play actual Castlevania and you'll feel much better.
Just Konami's implementation of it sucked thanks to cheap enemies who dole out massive amounts of damage and a main character that has the walking speed off a sloth. Sure theres some pretty graphics and decent music but you'll never see or hear most of it outside of using cheats or watching a Longplay. Just go play actual Castlevania and you'll feel much better.