Konami's Castlevania series has been rumbling on since the 1980s, and while we haven't seen a new entry in quite some time, it remains one of the most beloved franchises in gaming history – and has recently picked up a whole new legion of fans thanks to Netflix's entertaining animated adaptation.
Given that the vampire-hunting antics of the Belmont clan have echoed across multiple hardware platforms and many different instalments, we thought it might be a good time to ask you – our dear readers – to rate each one in order for us to revise our previously-published list of the best Castlevania titles.
Rather than having a list of games sorted solely on our own personal opinion, we want the Time Extension readership to influence the list, offering a far more diplomatic ranking for the whole franchise. So, if you feel that we were unfair on Castlevania Judgment or that we rated Belmont's Revenge too highly, now is your chance to right that wrong.
The final ranking will be entirely down to 'User Ratings from our games database. Readers can rate any Castlevania game they like, and once a minimum threshold has been reached, that game becomes eligible for the list according to its overall rating. The ranking is fluid and can fluctuate over time.
Cast your ratings below, and these will directly influence our new-and-improved ranking when we republish it in the next few weeks.
Comments 15
Of course SotN first. Then the gba entries, then the DS. And finally Snes/MD. The rest I didn't much like although I'm still trying to get into the PS2 ones courtesy of Ayn Odin.
I will always prefer Metroidvania style over Classicvania. Except for Bloodlines and Rondo of Blood. The older games I just got aggravated with mainly due to the controls.
The answer may surprise you!
@Tasuki While I do like CV1 and CV3 quite a bit, Rondo and Bloodlines are where I think they got the control scheme just right, so it's not a surprise to hear you mention those two. The ability to jump on and off the stairs made such a big difference without unbalancing the level design. The stairs were one of the toughest "enemies" in prior games.
Of the classic style, I like the first and third entries on the NES. Rondo of Blood and Bloodlines are my favorite of the classic style. I also like the X68000/PS1 version, which was a pleasant surprise.
Of the Metroidvania type, I played SotN very late, but it lived up to the hype for me. Fantastic game. My favorites on the portables are Aria of Sorrow, Order of Ecclesia, and Portrait of Ruin. Dawn of Sorrow is very good, but I hate the touch elements. Luckily, there are hacks for that which fix that, so it would likely be among my favorites as well with that applied. Circle of the Moon, and Harmony of Dissonance are both good, but not as good as the others from my perspective, with certain things holding them back.
I find my myself going back to Bloodlines most often.
I enjoy going back and playing CV1, 2, 3 on the NES where I got started. Great Memories.
For some reason I played a lot of Circle of the Moon. I only recently tried SotN.
As you can probably guess I am a huge fan of the series. SotN is my favourite game. After that Aria and Down of Sorrow.
I don't have time at this moment to rank all the games, but I'll say that my favorites are Bloodlines, Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood. I didn't play Rondo until it came out on the Wii a few years ago, and I was very impressed by it. Bloodlines is the game I played as a kid, which introduced me to Castlevania. I still love it, and I think Eric Lecarde is a great, underappreciated character. And of course Symphony was an unbelievable revelation when it first came out. Everything about it was just amazing to me.
Classicvania for me with bloodlines at the top of them
Super Castlevania IV on snes is my favourite Castlevania game and in my top 10 games of all time! The music blew me away back in the day and I loved being able to whip in any direction and use it to swing across platforms. Not to mention all the flashy mode 7 stuff with the rotating backgrounds and Bosses...
Symphony of the Night and Castlevania IV are easily the two best games in the series for me personally.
While I came late to the series (SEGA kid in the 90s), I really enjoyed Castlevania IV and Bloodlines when I played them through the Konami Collection last year. However, my favourite so far is still The Adventure: Rebirth on the Wii. It was the first game in the series I completed and it has an absolutely thumping soundtrack.
Before anyone has a go; I do own Symphony of the Night through Xbox Arcade and Rondo of Blood through Virtual Console on the Wii. I’m just waiting for the right time to properly plunge into both of them.
I’m interested to see if everyone agrees that Haunted Castle is the worst Castlevania. Because it is (of the ones I’ve played)
Rondo and 3 are the best in the classic style, SotN and DoS in the metroidvania style, IMHO.
Symphony of the Night forever!
SOTN, just dropped 211.00$ on the PS1 greatest hits version. Worth it so far. Also have my old CRT 13inch hooked up with a Bluetooth speaker via the aux cord.
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