Vimm's Lair: NES Reviews - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Nintendo
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
8.24
8.26
8.20
8.32
Votes: 100
Reviews: 2


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Reviewer: Seth Koopa Date: Apr 18, 2005
Ah, I know this one well. Castlevania III, the only Castlevania game I played thouroughly (I still don't have the patience for II), perfects the formula of the original Castlevania. And it is one of the best early fun you could have slaying monsters.

Graphics: 8
Quite good, but I have seen better. The doors opening looks kind of funny, and the walls and floor tend to be kind of monotonously blocky, but mostly the graphics convey the terrains Trevor battles through and the monsters very believably and the imagination that fuels the game gets plenty of elbow room.

Sound: 10
As always, it's not the instrument that counts, it's the one who makes use of it. The composer(s) did a stunning job with this game. The music is very diverse and one tune is hardly ever repeated for two levels. It conveys many different atmospheres, be it exciting or spooky or ancient city-esque etc, but always manages to be catchy.

Gameplay: 10
There really is no lower score I can give this game. The game is very challenging and intriguing, even if you (like me) aren't into this kind of stuff. It starts out easy, then gets slowly but steadily tougher. The last levels of the game require you to have become a master at controlling Trevor, which is, frankly, quite annoying sometimes. It particularly makes me clench my jaws in frustration when he hits an enemy and is thrown backwards down a flight of stairs to his death. But you quickly accept controlling Trevor as a beginning challenge to beat and, before long, you'll learn to make use of his weaknesses to your advantage.

Not only is the game HUGE and will take a lot of time to beat, it also gives you the choice of selecting your own path. From time to time, you come to crossroads where you can select which of two paths to take. There are two major paths you can take (Europe is big, you know), one of which also breaks into seperate paths, but eventually both paths meet. This breaks up any linear feeling of the game.

Sometimes, after defeating a boss, a person will offer to accompany you, and if you say yes, you can switch to your companion whenever you wish. It is rather slow and tedious to switch, true, but is often useful. By far the best of them is Siva, the vampire hunter who can wield magic from spell books he finds.

Trevor's journey through Europe makes perfect sense; if you choose the path that takes him to Greece, you will find Atlantis, sunken, and even battle a Greek mythology monster. The monsters you'll encounter are found in European myths. It's clear the creators of the game studied monster myths for each part of Europe and put them together into the game as Trevor reaches that particular part of Europe. This is marvellous work and makes the environments and monsters not only intriguing, but believable as well.

Overall: 10
One of the best NES games. Everything about it, really, is a masterpiece. It's creative, it's intriguing, it's exciting, it is challenging, it has fun references to our world, it has good music - what more can you ask for?

A mate of mine owned my copy of the game. One day, he left it with me (we had been playing it where I lived), and when I went to return it to him, he told me, "You keep it".

 

Reviewer: João Luiz Date: May 13, 2003
Castle 3 is the best of its series, if you consider nes and snes castle games. Everything is perfect in this game. You can choose the best way to finish, using up to four caracters to it. This is, in my opinion, one of the best games ever. Just take a look at the rates and you will see what I'm talking about.

Graphics: 10
This game has the best nes graphics. The background graphic detail is impressive for a nes game (the clocktower level and the scene when you are climbing the stairs to face Dracula are awesome). Even after 13 years after being realesed, the graphics can still impress the ones who didn't played the game 13 years ago, like I did.

Sound: 10
Ok, it's terrible, but we're talking about a nes game. 13 years ago the sound was amazing. Castle games are famous for the impressive sound they have, and Castle 3 is no different. Specially the final song, "flash back", which is one of the best songs of the history of videogame.

Gameplay: 9
This game is very easy to play, but the caracters don't have all the move that the new videogames can reproduce. But it doesn't mean that you can't do anything; you have lots of moves, if you consider all the caracters, and this moves are easy to learn.

Overall: 10
This is a classic, and it's the best Castle game of all. You can play with more than one caracter, the storyline is amazing, the difficult is great, the visual fantastic, the sound is cool (for a nes game). The game is fun and easy to play. If you ever played a Castle game series you'll love this one.

What else can I say but: play it, if you have never done it, and play it again, if you had the pleasure of already doing it.