Looking for some vampire killing action? Published by Retroware and developed by Programancer (the teams behind Prison City), The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest is currently in development, and places the roles of the titular character (not so subtly named in reference to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest) in this quasi-open world side-scrolling adventure, sporting traits from Konami's legendary series.

Simon Quest aims to destroy Dracula, but his great rival Stan Helsing defeats the Lord of Darkness before he gets a chance to. Driven by jealousy because Stan killed Dracula first, Simon sets out on an adventure across Wallachia to gather what he needs to resurrect the Vampire Lord, defeat him, and reclaim his glory. 

With an overworld and dungeons, The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest captures and improves on a lot of the progressive elements seen way back in Castlevania's sequel on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Retrospectively, many saw its play style as ahead of its time, but poorly implemented with vague directions, poor translations, and the lack of proper navigation.

Quite fascinating that one of the more divisive and critically panned games in Nintendo history helped birth explorative action into being one of the planet's most popular genres. With many different hazards, enemies, giant boss battles, traverse the dangerous areas with a plethora of skills and weapons. Taking later mansions may lead to different endings! AND YOU CAN PET THE DOG.

Add The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest to your Steam Wishlist. Look for it making its way to the PlayStation 5|PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2025.