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The History of Castlevania
  The Main Castlevanias
   Vampire Killer
   Castlevania
   Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
   Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
   Super Castlevania IV
   Dracula X: The Rondo of Blood
   Akumajo Dracula X68000
   Castlevania: Bloodlines
   Castlevania: Dracula X
   Castlevania: Symphony of The Night
   Castlevania 64
   Castlevania 64: Legacy of Darkness
   Akumajo Dracula: Circle of the Moon
The Game Boy Titles
   Castlevania Adventure
   Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
   Castlevania Legends
Related Games
   Haunted Castle
   Vs. Castlevania
   Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
   Konami World
   Kid Dracula
Graveyard
   Castlevania: Resurrection
Related Links

 
Super Castlevania IV
Akumajo Dracula in Japan
Released: 1991
Systems: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

screenshot
In the early 1990s, the 16-bit era was just starting to get interesting. The Sega Genesis was slowly building toward an extensive library of games, and Nintendo released the long-awaited follow-up to the NES, which was cleverly named the Super Nintendo. With the release of new powerful systems, Castlevania fans were eagerly waiting for a Castlevania game to take advantage of the new hardware, but surprisingly, Konami's own in-house development team would not be the masterminds behind the first 16-bit Castlevania. Instead, Konami looked to a small team of designers and programmers that would later become known as Treasure. Needless to say, they didn't disappoint, as Super Castlevania IV raised the bar for graphics, music, and control.

The most obvious difference between Super Castlevania IV and previous games is obviously the graphics. Instead of a small, brown, and blocky sprite, Simon Belmont in Super Castlevania IV is a massive character with much more prominent details, such as black armor, wristbands, a headband (similar to the one Trevor Belmont wears), and black boots. In fact, this version of Simon Belmont looks much like the hero in the arcade version of Castlevania, who is known as Haunted Castle. Other parts of the game benefited tremendously from the new hardware as well--especially the backgrounds.

 Early Footage
 
This movie comes from a demonstration tape sent out to retailers to show how Castlevania IV was coming along, and as you can see, there was still plenty of work to be done.
 
The backgrounds were no longer stale bitmaps composed of a few simple colors--they were now complex works of art filled with large sprites, animation, and layers of parallax (the process in which different levels in the background move at a different speed to give a pseudo three-dimensional effect). The development team even managed to incorporate the Super Nintendo's vaunted Mode 7 sprite scaling effects into one prison level, where the walls circulate around Simon while he walks across a wooden bridge. Out of all the new levels, one particular favorite is Dracula's haunted treasure room, where jumping from treasure mound to treasure mound is necessary for progressing through the level and where all kinds of spirits are emerging from the ground--needless to say, it's still one of the best Castlevania levels.

As good as the graphics are in Super Castlevania IV, the music is even better, and to this very day, Castlevania IV's remains as some of the best ever produced on the Super Nintendo. Each track fits incredibly well with the particular environment through which you are traveling. From the slow, almost ambient track at the very beginning of the game to the remixed versions of Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, and Beginning, Castlevania's IV soundtrack is dynamic and about as close as you can get to orchestral quality without using CDs.

screenshot
Unfortunately, there were a few major complaints associated with Castlevania IV--one being that it was simply a remake of the original Castlevania for the NES. Without question, they are both incredibly linear games that leave little in the way of replay value except for those who just want to play each amazing stage repeatedly, but there is some variation in gameplay and level structure that makes Castlevania IV much more fun than any previous Castlevania game. Simon's whip is now much more useful because it can be thrown in any direction while walking or jumping, but best of all, it's possible to take direct control of the whip and use it to hit those hard-to-reach enemies. Moreover, special rings are scattered throughout a few levels, and they aren't there just for decoration--these rings are actually used to help Simon swing across large gaps, or in some cases, just to help him hang above the ground. Special items are controlled with a single button rather than pressing up and attack combinations as in previous games, which is a nice addition since it's so easy to misfire using the dual-button combination. The last of Simon's new abilities is the crawl-and-whip attack combination. All of these new features addressed many of the problems with previous Castlevania games, and the end result produced not only one of the best Castlevania games, but also one of the most memorable Super Nintendo games.
 
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