Super Castlevania IV

1991

platform
hack and slash/beat 'em up
action
horror
single player

The story

A century of Transylvanian tranquility is about to come to a shocking end. Once again the mortifying screams of helpless villagers shake the ground as they huddle against new nightmarish horrors unleashed by the Duke of Darkness, Count Dracula. And this time he has a tombstone with your name on it, Simon Belmont. You must descend into Castle of the Undead and its gruesome ground, accompanied by the most chilling sound effects to ever tingle your spine. Inside, a freshly dug 11 levels maze features the treacherous Terrace of Terror, the dangerous Rotating Dungeon, the Sunken Ruins of Lost Spirits, torture chambers and creature filled caves. Use your whip like a grappling hook and swing past hundreds of traps and a host of ghost freaks, living corpses and hidden goblins. All while dodging or destroying the unpredictable spitting lizards, carnivorous coffins, and more. Find the concealed weapons needed to defeat everything from eerie phantoms to haunted furniture. Then prepare to find yourself face-to-thing with hideous torments like the Tongue Lasher, the Darkest Knight, the Bone-Afide Horseman and the Granite Crusher. When your nerves get shot, use your password and take a breather. But forge on, Simon Belmont, because if you though Dracula was down for the count, he's only just begun to fright!

What it’s like

Dark stone halls lit by flickering candles, with the rotating Mode 7 floors that tilt and spin the whole chamber around you, give this game a gothic, disorienting look, while the score swells with pipe-organ and brass stabs over a steady marching pulse. Its vibe is gloomy and theatrical, a campy-serious horror that suits a late-evening session or a nostalgic replay with the lights low. Vampire-hunter action drives the pace: each level is a tense push through traps and creatures, with the whip-swing and grappling mechanics giving the movement a rhythmic, almost dance-like flow, and checkpoints and passwords let you pause between bursts of danger. The horror is more creepy than grisly. Skeletons, ghosts, and giant monsters attack in waves, and defeated foes burst into puffs rather than leaving gore, so the violence is frequent and stylised rather than graphic, with fear coming from atmosphere and sudden jump-scares. It suits players who enjoy challenging action platformers, gothic Dracula lore, and old-school tension without gore or sexual content.

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