A playthrough of Konami's 1995 action-platformer for the Super Nintendo, Castlevania: Dracula X.

After finishing the game with the good ending, I play it through again (at 39:13) from the start of the third stage to show the alternate stages and the bad ending.

In the early 90s, Castlevania fans were eating well. After wrapping up the NES trilogy with the incredible [ Ссылка ], Konami didn't settle for resting on their laurels (or putting them in soup). They went all out, unleashing another string of bangers over the next few years. The Genesis received Bloodlines, and the X68000, a remake of the original Castlevania. The PC Engine played host to the miracle that was [ Ссылка ], and the SNES's first holiday season kicked off with the release of the fan-favorite [ Ссылка ].

Dracula X ("Vampire's Kiss" in Europe) closed out the series' fourth generation console run when it showed up in late 1995, but it wasn't greeted with any of the fanfare and enthusiasm that its older siblings had enjoyed. The critics tore into it, and its relative rarity implies that it didn't sell particularly well.

The game is essentially a remix of Rondo of Blood. The setup is familiar (you play as Richter Belmont, your girlfriend has been kidnapped by Dracula, and he's using her as bait to draw you to his castle), the levels take place in similar settings, and many of the enemies and bosses were lifted directly from Rondo.

If you can take it on its own terms, Dracula X is a decent game - better than the average SNES action-platformer, even - but Castlevania games were known for their excellence. The bar was set high, and everything about Dracula X had already been done better elsewhere, both on cartridge and CD.

The graphics are nice and colorful, but they're a clear downgrade from Rondo's in terms of detail and variety, and they're missing the brooding atmosphere that made SCV4's vibe so memorable. The gameplay is alright, but the controls feel a bit off (it's so frustrating to backflip, only to have Richter clip through a platform that you saw him land on!), the level layouts are straightforward, and the mechanics don't push the series forward in the slightest. And even taking into account the split paths, the game is only about half the length of Castlevania 4, and to compensate, they loaded the stages with pits for enemies to knock you into. The music is fantastic, though, so major points there.

Like I said, though, Dracula X isn't a bad game. I've always thought of it as one that's better defined by what it isn't than by what it is, but there are worse ways to spend an October evening.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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