10 Best Castlevania Games
Vampire-killing, monster-hunting, whip-twirling action galore.
As part of its 50th Anniversary celebrations last year, Konami released the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, bringing back eight titles from the series' past for new and old players to sample games across the entire franchise. For long-time series fans, this was the closest we'd gotten to a brand-new Castlevania game directly from Konami (no, Bloodstrained: Ritual of the Night does not count) for a long time.
Series interest had also been stirred by the successful Castlevania animated series that's on Netflix. Long-time fans have wondered whether the franchise would be revived by Konami for a while. At the moment, though, the newest entry a sidescrolling action-platformer, albeit a mobile-phone entry so the level of detail and quality it will be is circumspect.
Since Konami don't overall seem too concerned with reviving the franchise properly, what better time could there be than now to go back to the series and sample some of its high-points across history?
There's around forty titles total included in the franchise, so here's a slightly slimmer list of ten of the best Castlevania titles, and ten of the best examples of action-platforming ever released.
10. Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was released in 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 as an attempt to reboot the franchise and shake up the storyline after fans suggested it had stagnated, reflected by the relatively poor sales of then-recent entries.
Developed by MercurySteam and Kojima Productions, Lords of Shadow casts you as a new hero in the Belmont clan. As newcomer Gabriel Belmont, you will put your rather innovative Combat Cross weapon to good use as you descend into madness chasing down the titular lords in order to steal back their powers and reunite the normal world with the Heavens above.
Along the way you'll learn a large variety of weapon combos, learn new types of magic, earn equipment to solve puzzles and introduce even further combat options, all the while following a rather engaging story narrated by none other than Patrick Stewart himself.
All in all, Lords of Shadow is a fun third-person action-adventure title that, at the time, had some very interesting implications for the franchise. It did spawn two sequels, although neither felt as significant or as satisfying as this first game.