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Over two decades ago… July 4th, Nineteen Eighty…Seven, I believe… just months after an expensive Christmas holiday blessed me and my cousin with NES systems… I found myself visiting family for the holiday. That very same cousin was along for the ride and had brought his NES along giving “us kids would have something to do” while the adults did their thing. Down in the basement, hooked up to a 13″ color Zenith TV [using the old school prong adapters, prior to coaxial was on TVs], was this blessed gem of a game.

Castlevania was such a surprise because it actually made attempt to appear mature. Vampires, Ghosts, Demons, Dracula - all of this seemed so new and appealing at the time. The music was haunting, and the game was truly difficult [for us 7 year olds]. The funniest thing however, was that all of us spent nearly an hour just trying to figure out how to climb a staircase in the first hallway… but we were still having a ton of fun slaughtering ghosts and panthers while pacing back and forth.
We all attached ourselves to the additional weapons offered, each having a favorite [I’m a holy water fan myself]. I suppose the story, look, feel and the narrative behind my first foray into Castle Dracula are what makes it such a memorable title and worthy of the top 1/2 of this countdown.

Recent versions of Castlevania on the DS have really taken this franchise to another level - adding more of the weapon variety and solid narratives that the original established back in the 80’s.
If you are a real classic NES music fan, you can find a lot of Castlevania tracks have gotten a little lift over at OCREMIX.

Hope you enjoy the prints below.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 11:54 pm and is filed under gaming, art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.