Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is the third Castlevania video game produced for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was published by Konami in Japan in 1989, and in North America in 1990, and in Europe by Palcom in 1992. It was later released on the Virtual Console for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U. The game serves as a prequel to the original, this time playing as Simon's ancestor: Trevor Belmont.

Why It's The True Beginning For Castlevania

 * 1) Great graphics for its time.
 * 2) The game decides to return to the design much like the original. However, it's not strictly linear.
 * 3) After completing the first level and at several other points throughout the game, the player is given a choice of paths to follow. The choices made by the player in these circumstances can have a profound impact on how the game unfolds.
 * 4) There is now a 1UP, meaning reaching a certain score isn't your only means of getting another life.
 * 5) There are 3 other characters that you meet along the way that can be playable.
 * 6) *Grant: Players can move quicker than Trevor, climb walls and change directions in mid-jump.
 * 7) *Alucard: Has the ability to turn into a bat and fly at the cost of Hearts.
 * 8) *Sypha: Has elemental spells that can home in on enemies, freeze them or burn them with a short range flame attack.
 * 9) There are four different endings. Which one the player receives depends on which additional character they beat the game with, if any. Each of these endings is a part of the canonical end and the main difference is who watches the castle crumble with Trevor and the text.
 * 10) The mobile re-release contains an Easy mode, similar to the 1993 Japanese re-release of the original Castlevania.
 * 11) The enemy type has the same enemy types like the original reminiscent of classic horror monsters along with some new ones like Mud Men, Cyclops, and Water Dragons.
 * 12) There are now 14 bosses consisting of a Leviathan, Snake Man Sentinel, Cyclops, and more.
 * 13) Great soundtrack.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The game is little too much like the original to the point that some may think it's an enhanced version of the original.
 * 2) The game also repeats a lot of the same mistakes like the original.
 * 3) *You can't control your jumps mid-air (unless you're playing as Grant).
 * 4) *Dying at any time, will cause Trevor to lose his sub-weapon and double/triple shot, go back to the leather whip and his heart counter is reduced to 5.
 * 5) *There's still knockback.
 * 6) *Annoying enemies like the Hunchbacks return and Medusa's move in the same way like in the original.
 * 7) If that wasn't bad enough the game is noticeably harder due to the enemy placements and the fact that the enemies do more damage the further you progress. Because of this, many fans consider it the hardest game in the Castlevania series.
 * 8) It's title is also confusing since there is nothing related to a curse. In fact, that would make more sense for Castlevania II: Simon's Quest to have this title since that was all about Simon trying to break a curse that he got from Dracula.
 * 9) All the items and sub-weapons are the same as they were in the original with the only exception of the 1UP.
 * 10) Level 7b is frustrating. You have to deal with a bunch of crumbling and shifting platforms, wait for falling blocks to fall so you can jump between each of them to reach a staircase, and worst of all, fight 3 bosses in one life.

Reception
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse received generally positive reviews with most critics calling it one of the best NES games of all time.

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