Castlevania ReVamped is a homebrew remake of the original Castlevania, for Windows and Linux, by Lv.4 Games. It was initially released in March of 2024 and was inspired by the developer’s love of the Castlevania series (“it’s something I have wanted to do for many years,” he says, and “it took about four/five months to create“).

The game was made in Game Maker Studio 2 and is based on the first NES Castlevania, and Akumajō Dracula on the X68000 (and the remake in Castlevania Chronicles), and in it you play as the iconic Simon Belmont, with his trusty “Vampire Killer” whip.

It features new graphics, levels, abilities, and gameplay elements, that extend the game way beyond the NES original and modernise it with exciting new additions, like wall-jumping, super-sliding, and dynamic, eight-way whip strikes. There are new items too, like health replenishment herbs (used as a secondary weapon – every time you use it it increases your health by one point), and enchanted cards which you buy from merchants, which boost your weapons or give you special abilities, and which you can have up to three active at once. You can even change your main weapon, when you’ve found and collected alternatives.

Many familiar monsters from the Castlevania series appear, and most have had their behaviour enhanced, often making them more challenging to confront. Bats, for example, now move more intelligently, chasing you around the room; Zombies rush you when they see you; and Dragon Skull Cannons fire rapid barrages, as well as breathing fire at you if you get too close.

Castlevania ReVamped also features gamepad vibration support, a CRT filter (for those who want that ‘old TV’ look), and input customisation. And there’s a Bestiary, showing details of every monster you’ve killed, and an exact kill count for each.

Of particular note is the excellent, varied music in the game, that pays tribute to the original Castlevania soundtrack. The graphics are suitably ‘8-bit retro’, and the smooth-scrolling screen shows a much wider view of the levels than in the NES original.

Best of all, Castlevania ReVamped feels good to play and has responsive controls. Save points are placed strategically around the castle, and you’re given three save slots to play with. The game is pretty challenging overall. If you die you’re sent back to your last save point, with a deduction of money. And thankfully there are no time limits on stages, so you can explore at your leisure and be slow and careful with progress, if you like.

Castlevania ReVamped is available to download and play for free, and I recommend that everyone give it a go as it’s a true modern retro ‘Metroidvania‘ experience, and is great fun to play. Check out the download link in the description of the YouTube video below.

More: Castlevania ReVamped on YouTube