Reviewing another Castlevania game? YES PLEASE! Yeah, I talk a LOT about Konami and Castlevania. It's one of my favorite video game franchises of all time. I've already covered the original NES trilogy here on the Retro Reboots, as well as the jump to the Super Nintendo with Super Castlevania. Castlevania Bloodlines, I've done a video for, but perhaps I'll say more about it. That leaves the last side-scrolling Vampire Hunter game to appear on a 16-bit console, the Castlevania: Dracula X.

Dracula X is a stripped down incarnation of the original Rondo of Blood game, which was a Japanese exclusive for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM until being ported to the PlayStation Portable in the Dracula X Collection in the mid 2000's. It was released in 1995 exclusively for the Super Nintendo, the SNES cart can go for a king's ransom at online retailers. Dracula X removes a majority of the voice acting, cut scenes, Richter's skill set, and completely alters a great deal of the stages to the point that it's essentially a different game altogether. 

The plot involves Dracula and his forces raiding a village in Transylvania, kidnapping Richter's girlfriend Annet and her sister Maria Renard. A descendant of the Belmont clan, he wields the skills of his grandfather Simon and embarks on a journey to rescue them. The game never mentions Annet and Maria again. In the original game, the 12 year old Maria was an unlockable playable character. Yep, that's not present here.

While many elements of Rondo of Blood are missing, Dracula X certainly does come off as an inferior port, as the hardware of the Super Nintendo can't quite do the same kind of justice for it as the PC Engine CD, is it really that bad of a game? Most of the reviews indicate it's pretty mixed because of what it ISN'T capable of rather than what it IS. Speaking about the gameplay, it can be considered a step back from Super Castlevania's very fluid and accessible controls. While the 8-directional whipping is gone, Richter still has an incredibly fast strike. The recovery is a little trash, as it feels like he gets locked into the animation, so if I wanted to throw and alt weapon, I gotta be a little more precise about the input.

Also gone is the ability to control your mid-air trajectory during jump. This was a complaint some critics had regarding the old Castlevanias, as Simon would just commit to a jump arc. In Dracula X, you can KINDA gauge your movement, but nowhere near as freely. The secondary weapons are launched by holding up and Whip, returning to old form, as opposed to Super Castlevania's option to map it to a single button. This makes using alt weapons on stairs a pain. With enough hearts, you can use super attacks that damage all enemies on the screen, that's pretty cool. And he has a sweet backflip you can use to get yourself out of dodge.

Alright, so Richter isn't as skilled with the whip, is a little stiffer to control, and lacks responsiveness. These are definitely detriments...BUT I'm okay with them, for the most part. I talked about it in my Super Castlevania review, while I believe opening the mechanics up more gives the game more accessibility, the feel of the original NES games is something that's more appealing to me. The Dracula X game feels more at home to a lot of the ebbs and flows that I enjoy about Castlevania. It's technically not superior, but a preference I'm in favor of, mind you. 

Dracula X has some decent graphics that try to emulate Rondo of Blood, but unlike Super Castlevania and Bloodline's inviting visuals, much of the backgrounds and sprites are incredibly washed over and have a dull, flat paper doll look. There are some neat tricks, like the Mode 7 being used for Stage 1's burning city, and Richter's animations are fluid. The bosses are disappointingly dinky and don't look as imposing, compared to previous games. Sure, the fights are tough, but are lacking a gravitas. 

The music remains great, that's always been a staple of the series. I'd go as far to say that Dracula X has some pretty underrated tunes. The heavy hitters in the series still outclasses it, to a degree, the production sounds like it was recorded from the inside of a half filled bottle of seltzer. This game, however, also has my favorite whip cracking sound effect in a Castlevania game, it's incredibly satisfying. 

As far as the game's challenge, Dracula X holds its own with the other games in the series, I might say its difficulty is more spotty and inconsistent. There are some legit cheap kills throughout certain portions of levels, while most is straightforward, THEN you'll hit portions where it feels like you'd have no choice but to take damage without the most pinpoint accurate jumping and evading. The bosses, as mentioned before, don't feel too tough.

All in all, Castlevania: Dracula X is flawed, but still a decent game in the series, if not coming off like a twisted bastard child. It brings little new to the franchise and feels more like a step back in a lot of regards, I found it rather entertaining in a lot of regards. A commendable effort, and I am glad it was featured in the Castlevania Collection.