What shall one do when Dracula barrows the family lawn mower and doesn't bring it back? Well you go and stab him with a stake that's what! And on September 26th, 1986 you could on the NES thanks to the guys over at Konami. Not to be mistaken with the game that came out about a month later on the MSX2 by the name of Vampire Killer, which is just basically the same game but on a more inferior system that also no one owned. But that's a different story for a different day, for a different game, on a different system. So lets get back to this story for this game on this console....... on this day. Lets attack all this classic horror monsters and tropes with our whips as we take on the original Castlevania.

{Story/Difficulty}
When it comes to the story of the Casltevania series, I rather enjoy the overarching story, that is pretty missing in this game as its the first game in the series, and I highly doubt they had any kinda crazy plot ideas from the later games in mind in this game. So the plot is literally just making your way to Dracula and giving him a few whips for being a bad boy! You play as a guy named Simon who is a Belmont, a family we don't know much about them in this game so I'll just say: They are the family who have been defeating Dracula when he comes back once every hundered years and they got a cool whip to do it with! They are also said to not really be liked by the rest of the world even though they are the reason why Dracula hasn't taken over the world! But yeah that's literally the whole plot, Simon makes it to the end and takes out Dracula and you get a wild ending credits with a whole bunch of funny alias's based off old horror film icons. So lets just go on from there as there is literally nothing else to say about the story, so lets get onto the difficulty. And this game is hard!!! Like pretty hard, Really just think of all the hard stuff that could be in a old video game like this and chances are Castlevania either perfected that torment in this game or at least by Dracula's Curse! From the knock back, to the lack of directions you can swing your whip in, to the HORRIBLE STAIRS!!! And the Medusa Heads, which are kinda a series specific torment but a lot of other games have tiny enemies that go in random feeling patterns. At least there are no Flea Men in this game, OK sadly they are but at least here he is called Igor, so the PTSD cant fully kick in I suppose. Really everything about this game really just wants to kill you, and it will kill you millions of times until you get to Dracula who will kill you a million and seven times! But really he's the only boss that truly gives me a load of trouble, and I mean a load of trouble! I've probably only fully beaten this game twice but I'll get like to the last level and call it good cuz fighting Dracula in this game just isn't fun and I die a lot. By the end game everything will kill you in like 3 hits and that's not fun really as all the enemies are just enemies that you have fought before, I guess they just got really ripped between levels or something. And then lets say you get hit and your about to die, the only way your getting healed in this game is to whip the walls. When you do that you might be able to destroy some bricks which might be hiding...... an empty wall! But sometimes it'll be stuff of the wall meat nature like pot roasts and what not, but they are kinda few and far between at times. If you can get a fully upgraded whip then you can go a pretty far distance but even if you take out the hard to hit, hard hitting enemies then you still have to deal with the loads of different death traps through out each level. Be it bottomless pits, or crushers to crush you, or spikes to spike you. Just stuff to end your full powered run and make you have to smack candles for upgrades again. And obviously you can game over, and when you do it's back to the beginning of whatever level you died at, at least it's not the beginning of the games like other games. And when you die with more lives to spare you just start at the beginning of whatever screen you're on, which might be more painful then it sounds trust me. That's what I gotta say about the difficulty of Castlevania, I'll give it a 8 out of 10, its a super hard game trust me, and the flat story only gets a 4 out of 10. I swear 2 of those points are from the goofy end credits which are probably some of the best end credits on a retro video game like this!

{Graphics/Sound}
Ill just flat out say i don't really think this game looks to great honestly, i mean it looks fine, but Simon could use a few more frames, and definitely some more animations so i whip in different directions. But i do really like how the enemies look, they look pretty good, even if they get reused a whole lot. The backgrounds also look pretty nice all around as well, I do like the atmosphere of the outdoor sections and I like them a lot more than when you're actually inside the castle honestly. And I may be crazy, but I really don't feel like you ever actually get inside the castle, I dunno how to describe it, but like even the ever loved Castlevania 2 has a section that feels like your going into the castle. Its kinda short but I don't get that feeling at all in this game, one screen will feel like your inside of...... something, next your outside jumping over stuff, just to be in a weird cave next screen! Its not 100% that extreme but it never goes from just straight outdoor levels to straight indoor levels. The bosses are probably where its at, even if some like the Phantom Bat or Queen Medusa boss are just those enemies oversized I can really get down with them, and Frankinsteins Monster is just cool, but that's also where Igor is at! And yes Dracula has way to big of a nose! Either that or I assumed he was just wearing a mask or something. And that's where I'll leave my opinions on the graphics. The sound on the other hand, oh my, its so awesome. While they was over there honing their skills with all the different kinds of old school torments, they also made sure to carve out time to keep making amazing soundtracks as well. So many classic songs in this game from Vampire Killer (yes its called that) Wicked Child, Heart of Fire, literally just every song has went on to either be a classic because of this game or some other game later using it again. But outside of the literal killer soundtrack I don't really think much of the sound effects of the game, it feels nice to hit a boss and hear the hit sound, but really that's about it for real, this soundtrack is just so good that I really don't need anything else to make it sound any better really. I'll give the sound a 7 out of 10, but like a 7.8 out of 10. And the graphics a 6 out of 10, maybe like a 6.7 out of 10.

{Addictive/Depth}
I mentioned earlier that I've really only beaten this game about two times, but I've replayed it a few times from the beginning to at least past half way, I just really kinda get burned out from dying to much and having to keep restarting the level when I'm that late in the game. But I do get that some people are really good at this game, and you know, good on them, that's just not me. I really have to be in the mood to really want to go play this game, really if I replay a old Casltevania, its either Bloodlines, or Rondo of Blood or generically Symphony of the Night. Really I feel like the outdated-ness of this game makes it hard to pick up and replay at a whim, just getting used to moving and attacking and jumping is going to take at least the first level. Then you gotta really have the mindset to want to beat this and that's where I don't click always with it. And I kinda think the depth has a bit to do with it as well, as there isn't to much reason to replay the game once you beat it unless you want to try to get a higher score, which isn't really for me. There isn't any other characters to play as, no Second Quest, or New Game Plus, you just replay the game. The rest of the series has a few things to come back to, even Castlevania 2 had more depth then Castlevania 1, yes I just said that. I suppose there is all those lovely sub weapons that I don't really ever use outside of the Stopwatch really, and just don't pick up a random one you don't like as you'll lose the sub weapons you already have and you cant get it back! But there is enough of them that you can get a bit of a variety in some playthroughs so there is that. But ill have to give both the depth and the addictiveness of the original Castlevania a 6 out of 10. They give you more in the later games, just don't expect much here honestly.

After smacking Dracula's head into next Sunday (heard its a great place to take back) and saving the day I think we can all safely agree that the original Castlevania is a pretty great 8.1 out of 10 game. And so did they boys over at Konami as there is quite a few Castlevania games about Simon, or about this game, like the Gameboy Advance game, or Lords of Shadows, or how Castlevania 64 tried to redo/recapture the wonder of this game in a not so fun 3D way. But none of them will ever be the first Castlevania game, and while I might not 100% enjoy this game. I still feel the need to have it exist and have everyone who says they are a gamer, at the very least play this game for a few hours. It's well worth that amount of time, if not more to complete it, I'm sure Mc Shreeks would agree,