Castlevania: Dracula X

by Konami

Product Features

• Interact with characters from the hit cartoon show; fun, varied mini-games; find hidden items to unlock secret extras

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TMC8
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,930 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

The Belmont family had become famous for its vampire-hunting skills, with their most notable kill being Dracula. After several generations, the Count awakens from an eternal sleep, ready to exact his revenge on the Belmonts, settling the score once and for all. Little does he know that you are his worst nightmare! Using the family's trademark weapon a whip you must take on everything Dracula sends your way, including the Cerberus, Minaurus, and Salamander. Through more than seven levels of action, you'll fight a horde of evil undead monsters that are hungry for Belmont blood. Depending on the choices you make throughout the game, you can go down several paths, resulting in a game with virtually limitless possibilities. Will you be the one to finally lay Dracula to rest, or will the family "business" be as busy as ever? Play CASTLEVANIA: Dracula X and find out.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An uneven game but still a blast., February 22, 2003

By 

Ed Oscuro "edoscuro" (Battle Creek, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Castlevania: Dracula X (Video Game)

In short, if you like "old school" Castlevania, this will most likely appeal to you. If you're looking for a worthy replacement for the (one of two, actually) Castlevania games unreleased in America, don't look here. That said, I feel this game does a very commendable job with 2MB of memory to work with.

Hooray for misinformation, eh? Let's clear up a few things first and then get on to details.

CastleVania: Dracula X is spotted by its cover art identical to that on the PC-Engine (that's the Japanese PC-Engine Super CD-ROM^2 system; or TG-16 as NEC's system was known elsewhere), but this reuse seems more like a coverup of the fact that Konami didn't have a CD-ROM system to release the true Dracula X on in 1995. That said, a Super Nintendo box allows them to fit a larger picture on than the original PC-Engine game's CD-ROM case allowed--so it works out. From here out, the title I'm reviewing will be referred to as DX; the Japanese version of this game as DXX and the PC-Engine title as simply PC-E DX.

Now, this American version is inferior in a couple ways to the Japanese Super Famicom equivalent: Richter (your character) dies in a swirl of something odd and bluish in DX SNES--in Dracula XX we actually see blood. I'm not a big one for gore but Nintendo's magical blood-to-sweat potion has always made me uneasy. The second difference is that of the start animation: in DXX two snazzy silver crosses appear behind beautiful red kanji to the accompaniment of double metallic thumps (not a bad effect at all) while the American title, the one you're perhaps thinking about buying, has a quite slow and somewhat ugly scaling effect: the word Dracula appears suddenly and shrinks to normal size while an X is zapped onscreen Zorro style to the sound of two slashes. It's not as good looking as you'd think, but it's not horrible. The final difference is that of censorship, as another reviewer mentioned: DXX has an actual cross to throw around, just like the Japanese PC-E DX, while Dracula X for the Super Nintendo has the infamous boomerang. A small point, truly, seeing as the boomerang isn't that bad looking.

Onto the game. This is indeed a hard game, and it plays more like the original CastleVania than a story-based game like Dracula X PC-Engine was. Though your basic premise remains unchanged--save the girls--there's a lot less space to do it, and as a result even with the better platform the overall amount of detail suffers.

If you're looking for a PC-E DX replacement, don't come here. Dracula X for the PC-Engine has background details galore--that single skeleton in a chair that turns to dust when you touch him, the bell hunchbacks and money fall out of, the hidden staircase right before Dracula--those are gone here along with the alternate routes.

Instead, we have some levels that are new (and that's not always a good thing--the platforms in the very first level may be used to show off some of the original movement glitches PC-E DX hid quite well) and some that borrow from other games. Some levels are quite fun indeed--the falling bridge section is easily recognized by fans of Super CV 4, and many spots are taken directly from CastleVania Bloodlines (such as the room with only a staircase leading up to the last part of the castle).

This game features one of the best levels in CastleVania history--hidden level 5'. The Atlantis Shrine from Bloodlines sits in the background as water spirits and other monsters appear in a setting much more suited to them than their original placement in PC-E DX (for some reason, the water spirits were in a clock tower there). Following the theme from Bloodlines, you must beat rising water levels.

The often-reviled Dracula fight is among the most innovative I've seen, but it's terribly long.

A lot of new graphics reside in this cart, and as such it is certainly not a weak remix. Even those that appeared before are often given new locales; the most unchanged fight is that of the werewolf. Shaft is gone, and Dracula's second form is different.

Though there is less variety overall, many of the graphic designs are much more beautiful than the PC-Engine title's. Sound is still great--indeed, the music is among the best for the Super Nintendo, though not on the absolute top tier as the samples used don't quite hit notes as smoothly as a game like Plok can make them.

This is far from the worst CV game ever made. In fact, it's one of the best...if you have the patience for it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The censored version of Dracula X was still pretty good, September 3, 2011

By 

BX Lounger (The Bronx, NY) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Castlevania: Dracula X (Video Game)

By now, everyone knows the story behind the making of this game. Castlevania: Dracula X was released in 1995 for the Super NES. It was basically a censored version of the same game released in 1993 in Japan for the PC Engine (AKA Turbo Graphix 16.) It's still pretty good as far as Castlevania games go but because of the many changes Konami made, it caused quite an uproar and debate. Again, the story behind this game has been covered by other reviewers so I will just go into the pros and cons of this version of Dracula X.

The PROS: Compared to the PC Engine version, the graphics have been updated and look better. In some areas, they are more crisp and sharp so it was nice to look at as you scrolled through the stages. The controls are spot on and the sound effects are typical for a Castlevania game. There are stages everywhere so there is incentive to see if you can find the right path to see them all. Like all Castlevania games before it, you can write down the password and continue where you left off if you stopped to take a break.

The CONS: Konami made a lot of changes to the game that impacted it in most ways. Some were done because of space constraints while others were a case of censorship (to keep in tune with Nintendo's "family friendly" policy.) So that means not all of the stages made it in and the bonus content found on the Japanese version was cut as well. The quality of the music took a big hit so it doesn't sound as good when playing it on the PC Engine.

If the Japanese version never existed, this game would have been met with more of a warm reception and obviously had better reviews. But the overwhelming changes made to it for the US/Mexico/Europe and South America regions were too much to ignore. It's still a good game to play and is hard to track down nowadays. So if you have yet to play this game, you could try a couple of options: pick up Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP which has this game and Symphony of the Night in all its glory, see if you can get a used copy of this SNES title or download this title for the Wii from the Virtual Console Service as they have the PC Engine version available for 900 points ($9.00.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Game that many Castlevania Fans do not like for some reason, August 15, 2010

By 

M. Birt (Santa Ana, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Castlevania: Dracula X (Video Game)

I personally think this game was better then Super Castlevania IV for SNES, but hey who am I to convince people of the truth. If you want to play this game I suggest buying the PSP version which is about 10 dollars as this SNES cartridge versions runs for at least 50 dollars which is a tad pricey if you ask me.