Castlevania (DOS)

Within this box your fate may be sealed.

NA release: 1990
JP release: N/A
EU release: N/A
Developer: Distinctive Software
Publisher: Konami
The Inverted Dungeon Review: 3.2/10
Platforms: MS-DOS
Version Played: MS-DOS

PCs at the time were a different beast, with lots of text based menus instead of anything you’d expect from a current desktop computer. With many different configurations, a lot of companies targeted the less powerful systems, as is the case with Castlevania.

This still doesn’t look as nice as the NES version, and is very gaudy, but is still better than the Commodore 64. There’s also control options so you can play with the NES control setup, with an actual jump button and not having to hold a button for the sub weapon.

But, once again, it’s not a great way to play Castlevania. Scrolling is extremely stuttery and controls are delayed. It just about does the job. Just make sure to play with the game muted, the music is ear piercingly bad.

Fine

Remake or remaster?

There’s nothing here that the NES version doesn’t do better.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no way to get the DOS version of Castlevania

Needless to say, the DOS version of Castlevania is an absolute skip. I find it hard to recommend anyone suffering through this game — there’s nothing enjoyable about the experience, and in this modern era where you can get Castlevania on just about any console in a perfect emualted port, why bother with this inferior version?
Mike Finkelstein, Inverted Dungeon