Haunted Castle Revisited

A redesigned version of the very first Castlevania arcade game

NA release: 27th August 2024
EU release: 27th August 2024
JP release: 27th August 2024
Developer: M2
Publisher: Konami
Time Extention Review: 8/10
Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch
Version Played: PC

With the Castlevania Dominus Collection, M2 were allowed to do another revival of a previously disliked Castlevania game. They did a great job reimagining Castlevania: The Adventure, so it’s great to see them give it another go, this time revitalising the arcade adaptation of Castlevania 1, giving it a completely fresh look at. It’s a bit more faithful an adaptation than The Adventure Rebirth, taking the opening, bosses and stage themes and creating new levels around them.

It plays just like a traditional Castlevania game, getting to the end of each level and defeating a boss before time runs out. It plays great, with smooth and responsive controls. The subweapons add some classic ones like the axe and knife, but keep some of the altered versions from Haunted Castle, such as the boomerang (functions like the Cross) and Torch (Holy Water).

There’s only six levels, some surprisingly short, but they look lovely and have plenty of fun set pieces. The game has multiple difficulty levels, and checkpoints are quite lenient (putting you at the start of the current “room”), and failing a jump no longer results in death, instead taking a slither of health and putting you back before the next jumping section – which is handy as there’s some really nasty platforming segments.

It’s a lovely little game, and it’s a shame that M2 aren’t given the task of either recreating more unliked Castlevania games or even creating new classic style Castlevania games – they certainly have the ability to do so, even with the large gap between their two entries in the Castlevania franchise.

Fun

While it doesn’t quite reach the hollowed heights of the franchise’s 8 and 16-bit glory days, Haunted Castle Revisited nonetheless represents a long-overdue rehabilitation for one of Konami’s least auspicious arcade releases and is almost worth the cost of the Castlevania Dominus Collection on its own.
Damien McFerran, Time Extension

Remake or remaster?

This is a great version of the game.

Official Ways to get the game

Haunted Castle Revisited is widely available in the Castlevania Dominus Collection.