Akumajou Dracula is a platform game developed by Konami. The first part of the popular game Castlevania. A hero armed with a whip fights against crowds of evil spirits and living skeletons with one goal: to get to the center of world evil - Count Dracula. The game plot is simple as never before. With a whip, you can not only kill enemies, but also knock out bonuses in the form of hearts and bags of money from candlesticks. The game was originally released in Japan on floppy disks for the Famicom Disk System, but in 1993 it was re-released for this region and on cartridges.
Castlevania (in the Japanese version of Akumajou Dracula) is a typical 8-bit era platformer. Along with Super Mario Bros., Tiny Toon Adventures and many other classic games, it once shaped the players' idea of what a modern, interesting, high-quality platformer should be like. The main character of the game is Simon Belmont. Armed with a Vampire Killer whip, he exterminates evil spirits and brings light to the world. His task is to go through many trials and defeat Count Dracula himself.
Castlevania consists of six levels, which are completed in the only possible way, without plot branches and alternative levels. Each of these levels inevitably ends with a boss fight.
Unlike other platformers, here jumping is possible only to the left and right, there is no possibility to control the hero in the air. This can sometimes get on your nerves, because a slightly inaccurate calculation can instantly lead to the loss of a life. Jumping in this game must be filigree. By collecting bonuses, you can increase the length of the whip (and hit enemies at a safer distance from you), as well as get some additional types of weapons.
After defeating Dracula, an additional level of difficulty appears - Hard Mode. You start the game again, while retaining all the additional weapons that you had at the time the game ended. The difficulty lies in the fact that you die after only four hits (twice as fast). On each screen, either a bat or a jellyfish head flies additionally. But at the same time, secret places are also added where you can get additional items.