The third game in the Castlevania series, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, was first released for the Nintendo Famicom in 1989 in Japan (under the title of “Akumajō Densetsu“). A North American NES release followed in 1990, and a European release in 1992.

Castlevania III is set 100 years before the events of the first two games and in it you play as Trevor Belmont – a predecessor of Simon Belmont, the hero of Castlevania and Castlevania II.

Castlevania III is more linear than Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, but it does have branching levels, companions, and double and triple use of secondary weapons. General gameplay is basically the same as previously, with platforming, staircases, traps, and constantly re-spawning monsters. Trevor Belmont’s primary weapon once again is the “Vampire Killer” whip, which is upgradable.

The companion system is quite good and comes into play when you rescue someone. This usually happens after a boss battle, when you can decide if you want to allow them to tag along or not. You can only have one companion at a time and pressing Select switches between Trevor and whoever you have with you. Accepting a new companion will ditch the one you currently have.

Of the three companions you can have there is: Grant, an acrobat who is fast, can climb walls, and wields a dagger (in the English versions – in the Japanese version he uses throwing knives); Sypha, a sorceress vampire hunter who can cast powerful magic and uses a staff for melee attacks; and Alucard, the dhampir son of Dracula (made famous in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) who can turn into a bat, shoot magical fireballs, and is naturally tough due to his vampire blood. Knowing who to use at certain points in the game provides access to unreachable areas, hidden power-ups and extra lives.

At different points in the game you also get to choose a direction at a branching path, which adds re-playability to the game. Some routes are more difficult than others, so it’s worth reading a guide if you want to maximise your playthrough.

Other cool features in Castlevania III include: smart-bomb-like crucifixes that clear the screen of enemies when collected; freezing water so you can walk on ice; companions shaking your hand when they join you, and saying farewell when they leave; and some really nice, atmospheric background graphics and music.

When you beat a boss at the end of each stage you get your life meter re-filled, which is great. The downside to winning a boss battle, though, is that you lose all your hearts and weapon power-ups afterwards (boo!), so you have to start from scratch collecting them. Thankfully it’s not too difficult to get powered-up again. The only other way of healing is to find hidden food items as you progress through the game.

One really annoying thing about Castlevania III is that the level timer is back, and it’s really frustrating when you run out of time when you just want to explore every nook and cranny for bonus food items. I ran out of time a few times and frankly got tired of it. It’s also easy to fall to your death where stairs meet platforms too, which is another very annoying feature. The information bar at the top of the screen moves around too, which I noticed when I was sorting through the screenshots (although I didn’t notice it when I was playing the game), which is a bit sloppy. There’s also quite a bit of sprite flicker/tearing going on, which can be distracting and makes it difficult to get good screenshots!

Overall, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse is a very good game. It’s maybe not quite as good as part two, and it’s definitely not as good as part four (Super Castlevania IV on the SNES), but it’s still a decent progression in the series. Dracula’s Curse does have a fairly high level of difficulty so can be frustrating to play at times, but it’s well-presented and a worthy challenge to undertake.

Like the previous two NES Castlevania games, there are a variety of ROM hacks available for Castlevania III. I particularly liked the enhanced colour version by Sebastian Angel, which changes palettes to create a more subtle use of colour. The colours in the original version are a bit garish at times… The screenshots here show both the enhanced colour version (first), and the original version (at the end).

More: Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse on Wikipedia
More: Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse on strategywiki.org
Steam: Castlevania on Steam
Steam: Castlevania Anniversary Collection on Steam
GOG: Castlevania 1, 2 & 3 on GOG.com