Castlevania 3
Page contents last updated on November 20, 2023
| Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Action Platformer |
|
| Konami |
Castlevania 3 is without a doubt the best Castlevania on the NES. Its presentation pushes the NES hardware to its limits, and is (for the most part) a very fun and fair challenge. The Castlevania adaptation on Netflix is mostly focused on elements from this game.
My biggest draw to Castlevania 3 is its branching level paths and unlockable characters which can join your party. You can only have one other character travel alongside Trevor Belmont, which is a shame but it's still a cool feature regardless. At the end of some levels, you'll come to a crossroad. The characters that you'll meet on your way to Dracula depend on the path that you choose. You can press select at any point to switch to the other character in your party.
If you decide to climb the clock tower, you will unlock Grant. Grant is a pirate who has been transformed into a monster by Dracula. His attack is a fast but short-range dagger. He can climb on ceilings and walls, and he can control his jump mid air. Grant is by far the best character to unlock.
Sypha has a weak attack, where she bashes enemies with her staff. However, Sypha does have unique sub-weapons. Sypha's sub weapons are magic, elemental attacks which are very useful and do quite a bit of damage.
Alucard, the son of Dracula, is a projectile based character. When fully upgraded, he can shoot a shotgun-blast of projectiles. His projectiles are weaker than Trevor's whip, but still comes in handy when trying to attack hard-to-reach enemies. He can also transform into a bat and take flight at the cost of hearts. When he takes a hit in his bat form, he will transform back into his vampire form. As you might imagine, being able to fly comes in very useful in certain parts of the game. The only sub-weapon that can be used by Alucard is the stopwatch.
In one of my recent playthroughs of the game, I unlocked Grant at the top of the clock tower. This was a pretty cool moment in the game. I ascended the clock tower, fought the monster that Grant had been transformed into, and let him join my party. I was then surprised that I had to descend the tower in order to finish the level. It made sense, but I was surprised to see this in an NES game. The game world in Castlevania 3 has a really cool sense of connection. Every level connects to each other in a way that makes sense.
After descending the tower, I chose to take the Alucard route. I descended into the catacombs, and found myself face to face with Alucard. Upon defeating him, he joined my party in place of Grant. It was cool to fly around as Alucard, but holy shit his levels are annoying. There's one level in particular with falling blocks that I was stuck on for ages. His levels feel extremely long at times. I did eventually beat the game, but next time I think I'll just stick with Grant!
Castlevania 3 is a fun challenge, and is definitely up there among my favorite Castlevania games. I love the branching paths and different playable characters, but I feel that the controls and presentation of the later games is better. I wouldn't recommend Castlevania 3 if you're getting into the series, but I do recommend it if you have other Castlevania games under your belt.