Castlevania is an action platformer for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Known in Japan as Akumajou Dracula ("Demon Castle Dracula"), this game is about a clan of vampire hunters known as the Belmonts hunting down and killing Dracula himself.

You play as Simon Belmont, and fight your way through Dracula's castle (known in English as "Castlevania", a portmanteau of Castle and Transylvania, har har). You have many weapons at your disposal. Your main weapon, the Vampire Killer whip has somehow been passed down through the Belmont clan for generations. You can get power ups for that (essentially changing it from a leather whip, to a short chain, and longer chain whip). You also have many sub-weapons, which require hearts to use. These include a knife, throwing axe, holy water, cross boomerang and stopwatch (which freezes all enemies on screen). You can only throw one of these in a certain period of time, unless you get the "II" and "III" powerups.

Simon is dead... and not so happy about it. Being defeated countless times by Dracula was one thing, but his problems went way beyond that and not even the eternal rest could end his indignation. Because of those - and for not having anything else to do, anyway... - the now, Undead Warrior, decided to put the blame for his defeats on his whip, switched it for a sword and will fight one more time in this new attempt to regain a little of his long lost pride. He just had no idea Dracula was also bored lately and chose to change all the levels, created more traps and improved the challenge for those who'd dare to face him again.

This hack consists of many graphical changes (the first one, "The Cemetery", was almost completely redone), level design, fonts, life bar, some items and characters were also redesigned to fit the new plot.

UPDATES

v2.0

[list]
[li]Improved Simon's design and animation[/li]

[li]A few unintentional shortcuts removed[/li]

[li]Enhanced visual and level design in some areas[/li]

[li]Included and better positioned items to help Simon on his task[/li]

[li]Fixed general small bugs[/li]
[/list]

v3.0

[list]
[li]Easier to identify the background structure on the first level[/li]
[li]Lots of changes on the scenery of the first level[/li]
[li]Blocks better distributed and some puzzles changed for the second level[/li]
[li]Traps, optional paths, puzzles added and more on the third level[/li]
[li]Many improvements on the fourth and fifth level design (bridge session)[/li]
[li]Necessary changes on the sixth level, Clock Tower and Dracula's Chamber design and appearance[/li]
[li]Some items, enemies and structure added, switched and better positioned[/li]
[li]Small bug fixes (wrong stairs pointers, platforms, shortcuts...) and refinements, making it more faithful to the purpose and balance of the hack, resulting in a more polished experience.[/li]
[/list]

v3.1

[list]
[li]More bug fixes in some stages[/li]
[li]Some changes on the last fight against Dracula[/li]
[li]Fixed a typo on the end credits[/li]
[/list]

Database match: Castlevania (USA) (Rev 1)
Database: No-Intro: Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210216-231042)
File SHA-1: 0D6E5910D09CBA12FB8B61123E6F3087A90F503C
File CRC32: 9AB191BC
ROM SHA-1: 3DCB69A8C861C041AEB56C04E39ADF6D332EDA3A
ROM CRC32: B668C7FC