The Amiga version of Konami‘s classic Castlevania was ported by Novotrade and first released in 1990. I was surprised and excited that the first Castlevania had actually been released for the Amiga, but after playing it I kinda wish they hadn’t bothered, because it’s bloody awful.

The graphics are squat and deformed, and the player character – Simon Belmont – moves jerkily. The enemies are bizarre and lack authenticity; walking up and down stairs is very hit and miss (and looks weird); and the in-game timings are really poor. The worst thing about this port, though, is that the reaction times between pressing fire and Simon’s whip actually shooting out are abysmal, causing untold frustration…

The only good thing about this port is the music, which is an okay rendition of Castlevania‘s recognisable tunes. Otherwise: it’s dogsh*t.

If you’re a Castlevania fan, the only reason you might want to play this is to see just how bad it really is. Novotrade should have done a lot better than this garbage!

The Amiga deserved better, but thankfully someone else is working on a vastly superior, more authentic port of Castlevania for the Amiga, so that we can all put this blasphemous conversion out of our minds forever…

More: Castlevania on Wikipedia
Steam: Castlevania on Steam
Steam: Castlevania Anniversary Collection on Steam
GOG: Castlevania 1, 2 & 3 on GOG.com