Game Review - originally written by Gideon Zhi (editor's note: founder of Aeon Genesis Translation Group)

God, I suck at this. I can't even beat the rollercoaster bit in stage 2 for chrissakes! But, um, yeah. This is sort of a Castlevania game, but it really isn't. It's a sidescroller featuring a cute midget version of Dracula as the main character. You go through levels throwing fireballs at stuff, and jumping over stuff, and, uh, stuff.

You can charge your shot by holding down the fire button (and the Kid gets this evil little grin on his face); this seems to be the only way I've found of getting Coins, which are needed to play the minigames. The only one I got to try was the “One Shot” game, which had a little Skeleton-T lookalike sticking out of a trash can, or something, but I didn't get to see what it was about because I didn't figure out the weapon-charging thing 'til I got to stage 2, and as I said earlier, I never made it past the rollercoaster. Doh. Also of note is that you can aim your fireball up by holding “up” on the gamepad. I didn't figure this out until about halfway through stage 1, and two of the three bats in the first hallway nearly killed me ‘cuz I didn't know this. Doh, again >_<

I don't know what the plot behind this is, unfortunately, because there doesn't seem to be one in the stage-and-a-half that I played. Maybe something kicks in later, but as far as I can tell, the Kid got woken up and he's pissed at whatever woke him up, so he throws a temper tantrum and goes bonkers on anything that gets in his way. And falls off of rollercoasters. And gets thrown off of clouds by witches and buzzards. And dies a lot. Doh.

All in all, this is a pretty cool game, I just suck at it. FUN!

Also, please note that this game has some really nasty emulator issues, so refer to Kit's readme for the full story.

The 8th game on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, and also one which had its debut in the West via that collection, Kid Dracula is a bit of an odd title. Very much in the vein of games like Famicom Splatterhouse game or Konami's Parodius titles (in which Kid Dracula himself would later appear), Kid Dracula is a silly take on an existing property in a familiar but different genre. Getting away from the melee-action platforming the series is so familiar with and going for a Mega Man-style shooting platformer, Kid Dracula is a very oddball but still fun entry in the wider Castlevania series.

Kid Dracula is chilling in his castle one day when it's suddenly attacked by monsters under the control of the galactic conqueror Galamoth. Not one to take such things lying down, Dracula sets off to kick some invader butt. The only catch is that Dracula isn't the big, adult Dracula we're familiar with. He's just a little kid! Obviously a non-canon game in the series, the game nonetheless has an epilogue that says that Dracula's defeat of Galamoth gained him such popularity that more and more monsters flocked to his banner until he was the new lord of darkness, which makes this something of a parody origin story for Dracula XD. The presentation all around is very colorful and silly like this, having bright, pastel color and a super deformed style for the monsters present, it is a very cute game (particularly for the Castlevania series). The only really exceptional thing is that the music is really nothing to write home about. It isn't bad, just not what you'd hope for with a Castlevania game.

The mechanics are very much like Mega Man more than they are Castlevania. Kid Dracula has a series of blaster-type powers he can use to fight enemies, and can even charge them for special effects (I think in-game they're spells he's casting). Upon beating a boss of a stage, you unlock a new power you can use, very much like Mega Man, however those powers very rarely (if ever) have any relation to the stage you just went through or the boss you just fought. You only get the special power of that weapon if you do a charge attack, so most of your time is spent with your weapon charged. The weapons also aren't dished out terribly balanced, with the homing shot you get for beating level 1 being one of the best weapons in the game. Several weapons aren't even weapons but platforming aids, letting you transform into a bat to fly or sticking to the ceiling. These are neat, but the execution isn't terribly inspired.

The level design is fine, but the later levels get pretty brutal with checkpoints, as the final stage doesn't have them at all. The bosses range from a little frustrating to super easy, and the final boss is a good challenge too. The only real dangers in the last few levels of the game is the aforementioned lack of checkpoints and a particularly nasty vertical climbing section, but even then the levels aren't that long. I didn't even end up using save states for this one. It's not a terribly long game, only coming in at around 2 to 3 hours over eight stages, but it's a fine time and a fine challenge for what it is, even if it isn't terribly Castlevania-y.

Verdict: Recommended. Kid Dracula isn't particularly amazing, but it's a very competent game and it's worth playing on the collection. The difficulty and overall design remind me a lot of Taito's Panic Restaurant or Konami's Biomiracle Bokutte Upa, where it's a silly, pastel-colored platformer, and the theme of this particular game just happens to be Castlevania's Dracula as a kid. It may not be the superior GameBoy sequel (whose absence on the Collection is quite odd, really), but it's still a fine game that will deliver a burst of retro platforming goodness, even if it's not ultimately that memorable.

I suck at side scrollers, but this cutesy kid's game was way harder than it had any right being. I've never played more than like, ten minutes of a Mega Man game so I have no real baseline to compare this. The only thing I can say is the final level is extremely punishing because it makes you restart the entire thing, even if you die to the final boss, and the bosses don't have health bars, which is extremely annoying. Overall, a decent time killer and it's funny to see what's possibly Alucard as this deformed, grumpy little vampire prowling the modern day world.

pretty fun to play, for the most part the game isnt too difficult and feels pretty fair. its cool that there are multiple different weapons but also some just make others obsolete or some just have no use except for in parts when the game deliberately wants you to use them. for some reason though the final level just has like a big difficulty spike?? the previous levels have some obstacles that will just kill you and it feels like you have to die first before you even know theyre there but the game hands out lives often and has checkpoints, the levels themselves really arent that long either. but then last level just like 3 bosses and an annoying platforming segment and if you die you get sent all the way back to the beginning of the level which was so ass

Honestly, this game is really rough. The first stage is pretty great. A cute little homage to the original Castlevana.

But after this the game just gets worse and the system obviously can't handle whatever this game has, since it has massive slowdowns.

RG35XX

Несмотря на более детский тон сеттинга игра довольно хорошая. Видно, что игра вдохновлена Super Mario Bros. Игра не такая хардкорная, как классические части, но это не главное. Важно то, что в неё очень весело играть.

Победа над боссом дает вам новую способность, некоторые из них придется обязательно применить на уровнях. Между уровнями есть небольшие мини-игры, которые требуют монетки. Проблема в том, что до самого конца игра сложно понять, как их получить.

Despite the more childish tone of the setting the game is pretty good. You can see that the game is inspired by Super Mario Bros. The game isn't as hardcore as the classic parts, but that's not the important thing. What is important is that it is a lot of fun to play.

Defeating a boss gives you a new ability, some of which you will have to use in the levels. In between levels there are small mini-games that require coins. The problem is that until the very end of the game it's hard to figure out how to get them.

Played on the Switch version of Castlevania Anniversary Collection. As an avid Mega Man player, I had hoped Kid Dracula would be a refreshing deviation from the classic CV formula (with which I was growing frustrated), and play more like a run-and-gun game. Upon reaching Stage 2, however, I realized this game is built on the same vindictive level design seen throughout the other games in the collection, with none of the redeeming qualities of a polished platformer. I am done with Kid Dracula, and with the rest of the collection; thanks for nothing, Konami.