Unlike many other Konami series that started on the arcades, Castlevania started as a home console game first, and then jumped to the arcades with this game, Haunted Castle.

The story is pretty much another retelling of the first Castlevania, but Simon is about to get married before Dracula kidnaps his bride-to-be. Besides that, the rest is pretty much the same, except Simon has blue hair and serious need to go to the bathroom.

Like many arcade games of the era, the gameplay pretty much takes center focus, so how does it play?
Well, it's pretty bizarre.
Simon's controls don't feel too different from his NES adventures, but there's a lack of a certain grace in them that makes them feel off. What I will compliment is that there is way less knockback this time around! If you jump into the air while holding forward, you'll continue to go forward. Thank you.

The sub-weapons are back, but many of them are very different. We have a Boomerang which... is definitely a boomerang, alright. There are bombs, which are decent, and then there is the Cross, which doesn't operate the same as previous titles, but can still be good at dealing damage. There is also the Stop Watch, which saved me many times like usual.

The problem is that it's way more difficult to get hearts for these sub-weapons. Hearts only come out off of some enemies, and there are no candles in this game to give you hearts. There are also no turkeys in walls to help you restore your health.
However, there is an alternate way to regain health, which is to press start after inserting a coin...
But this has a heavy consequence.

You see, like all arcade titles, you use coins to play. But even if you put it many coins, you are only allowed 3 continues. If you use them to regain your health, you lose your continues, and if you die, you'll have to start all the way at the beginning.

But this is where things start to differ for me, and why me playing this game on the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection helped alleviate a lot of the problems this game has.
You see, in every game of that collection, you have a difficulty option you can change by going into the menu. In this game especifically, you can also change the enemies' strength and this, folks, helped the game become more of a breeze.
By putting both of these settings on Easy, and by the fact that the Collection gives you Infinite Continues, Haunted Castle became a way less frustrating game.

Was it all sunshine and rainbows? No.
You're still often put in situations where you're dealing with an enemy, and then another one comes right behind you, with barely any time to react, much less dodge.
You're still thrown in situations where you have no choice but to take a hit, and hope to god you have enough health for the rest of stage.

But thanks to this collection, I was able to turn this game from a potentially frustrating experience into one that left me in a fine spirit.
So, if you ever want to play this game in anyway, play it via this collection.

The presentation of the game is pretty solid! While not all of the music is great, there are great pieces to be found here like Cross Your Heart and Don't Wait until Night. The game looks pretty good for the time, even if some animations are pretty weird, like Simon's pose in the Map screen.

Overall, Haunted Castle is a game that can be pretty frustrating if played how it was originally intended, but can be an okay time if played via modern means.