Kid Dracula | DJcube

Adorable Dracula-kun stars in this comical adventure.

JP release: 19th October 1990
NA release: 16th May 2019
EU release: 16th May 2019
AKA: Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (Japan), Castlevania Jr (Brazil)
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Indie Gamer Chick Review: Yes!
Platforms: NES
Version Played: NES

Kid Dracula is an odd little game starring the son of Dracula. Just called Kid Dracula (who may or may not be a version of Alucard, Konami have snuck in Easter Eggs into later games). Kid Dracula sleeps for ten thousand years and finds his minions against him when he wakes up, now following the time demon Galamoth. It’s up to Kid Dracula to fight his way to him and regain control of the underworld.

The game plays like a simple version of Mega Man. Kid Dracula fires little balls of magic and has a similar style jump. The game even has lots of ladders instead of the usual Castlevania stairs. Another very similar aspect is that you gain new abilities from bosses.

These range form different kids of shots to new abilities, such turning into a bat or swapping gravity for yourself, which are used in some interesting ways thorougt the levels. The game does feel a little bit slow, but movement still feels precise.

The levels and enemies are a bit incoherent, starting off in Castlevania but then going off to floating pirate ships in the sky, New York City (with the Statue of Liberty hosting a quiz show as a boss), an annoying ice level and an lien space station. Other than the ice level (with the annoying sliding physics), they’re quite enjoyable levels.

Kid Dracula is a silly game, but an enjoyable one (although it does get difficult at the end) it’s not a “canon” part of Castlevania, but I think it’s fun to figure out how it could still fit in – perhaps with Galamoth destroyed, Kid Dracula could return to his original time and wake up much sooner, growing up into Alucard.

Fun

It is largely forgettable. That tells me that Kid Dracula is all charm but little substance. It makes for a good afternoon with your NES, but it’s not sustainable as a franchise. I get it now, and even if I want more, I’m also fine with what we got.
Indie Gamer Chick

Remake or remaster?

The English release in the collection is good.

Official Ways to get the game

Castlevania III is available in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection