Enter its darkens if you dare.
- NA release: April 1987
- JP release: N/A
- EU release: N/A
- Developer: Konami
- Publisher: Konami
- The Inverted Dungeon Score: 7.2/10
- Platforms: Arcade
- Version Played: Arcade
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The Nintendo Vs. Arcade system was essentially console technology for arcades. The cabinet was designed with a replaceable card and artwork, meaning that one cabinet could be converted into a multitude of different games once interest in one went down, all without needing to buy a new cabinet. The system mainly got conversions of NES games, but with a focus on two player (hence the Vs), with some games offering simultaneous multiplayer and others requiring players to take turns.
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Vs. Castlevania is just Castlevania, though. There’s no added multiplayer – not even a pallet swapped “brother” for Simon so players can alternate. It’s a singleplayer game on a system designed so much for multiplayer that every game has “Vs.” in its name. That said, they have changed things for this release: enemies do a ton more damage and time limits have been shortened. It’s designed to take your money, after all.
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So, if you really want to play a more difficult version of the original Castlevania, this is the exact same game simply made tougher. Castlevania was also released on the PlayChoice-10 arcade system, which let you pay money to play for a set amount of time.
Fine
The first level is easy enough in the original that even with this penalty most players should be able to get to the end of the stage and beat the Giant Bat lurking there. But once you get into stage two, the natural difficulty progression of the short game means you’ll likely die, and quick, from this increased damage. It takes about three minutes to get into stage two, and then you’ll die quickly and go back to the beginning. Same perfected cycle to steal your quarters.
Mike Finkelstein, The Inverted Dungeon
Remake or remaster?
It would have been a nice bonus in the Anniversary Collection.
Official Ways to get the game
Vs Castlevania is avalable on Switch and PlayStation as part of Arcade Archives.
Castlevania Games by Date
1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
