Haunted Castle is a side-scrollingplatform game released by Konami for the arcades in 1988. The game serves as an adaptation or parody of the original Castlevania, but was not marketed as part of the series outside Japan. Unlike VS. Castlevania, it is not a direct port of the NES version, but rather it is a completely new game running on custom JAMMA-based hardware. The game has the player controlling a blue-haired Simon Belmont, who embarks on a journey through a dilapidated manor to save his wife Serena from the clutches of Count Dracula. Simon must trek through six stages in order to reach the Count's lair.
Gameplay
Haunted Castle is a typical platform game with six stages, which are played through in a linear progression. The player controls the main character, whose primary weapon is a whip. He must fight various enemies which consist partially of skeletons, zombies, mermen, and hunchbacks. By destroying certain enemies, he can switch his weapon to a more powerful spiked morning star. In addition, various "sub-weapons" can be obtained which provide different means of attack which consist of bombs, boomerangs, stopwatches, crosses, and torches. Hearts are collected to use each of these "sub-weapons." The player can only carry one sub-weapon at a time. Each of Haunted Castle's six levels conclude with a boss fight. Like in other games of the series, these bosses are generally taken from horror literature or legend, and include Medusa, Frankenstein's monster, and, being a series staple, Dracula.
Development
Audio
The soundtrack was composed in part by Kenichi Matsubara, who previously did the soundtrack to '. There are several notable music tracks in Haunted Castle that have been reused in other Castlevania games. The well-recognized "Bloody Tears" is used in this game as the theme for Stage 3. Another arcade piece, the Stage 1 theme "Cross Your Heart", was recently reused in ' under the title "Crucifix Held Close" and as an unlockable song in '. It is also part of the "Akumajo Dracula Medley" that appears in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3, along with "Bloody Tears". "Clockwork's Beat", which plays during Stage 5, was remixed in ' under the name "Underground Melodies". Finally, "Don't Wait Until Night", played during Stage 6, which borrows hints of "The Silence of Daylight",, was remixed in for Julius' theme "Heart of Fire", though this particular song is actually a medley of the Haunted Castle tune and "Heart of Fire" from Stage 5 of the original Castlevania.
Releases
A PlayStation 2 port of Haunted Castle was released by game publisherHamster in May 2006 as part of the Oretachi Gēsen Zoku series. This port was only released in Japan. In September 2017, Hamster released the game for the PlayStation 4 as part of their Arcade Archives line of digital releases. This version includes the option to play the Japanese, North American and European versions of the game. Haunted Castle is also included in the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, released digitally on April 19, 2019 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. Unlike the stand-alone Arcade Archives release, the version of the game included in the compilation varies depending on the region.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Haunted Castle on their April 1, 1988 issue as being the sixth most-successful table arcade unit of the year.
