It’s just two weeks shy of being October, the spookiest month of the year. October does not just signify Inktober or any other compound word involving the name of the month. No; October means playing Mega Ran, Richie Branson & Kadesh Flow’s Ghouls ‘N Ghosts albums on repeat (we’re the kings of the night; GnG resurrected). I have high hopes of them releasing album number five, but in the meantime, just listen to a few tracks of the latest album and you’ll know why it’s part of the October canon: The first song on the album is a rearrangement of a classic Castlevania track—something Mega Ran loves to do and I love to listen to. Speaking of which; why don’t we all play as many Castlevania games as we can in October? We’ve got two things to celebrate: the spooky season (and thus the harvest of ample of pumpkins I guess) and the arrival of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, a new 2D entry in the mainline series! If you don’t count Igarashi’s Bloodstained series as a mainline Castlevania game, it’s been since Order of Ecclesia in 2008—18 years ago—that we ‘Vania fans are being treated to a brand new 2D metroidvania game. I’m not counting 2009’s The Adventure ReBirth; the remake of the 1989 Game Boy game; nor 2024’s Haunted Castle Revisited; the remake of the 1987 arcade game. Yet perhaps it is worth it to paste in a flyer for the arcade game to help get you into a creepy mood. Haunted Castle: Re-Vamp An Old Game With This New Kit! 1 To 2 Players. Doesn’t that penetrating gaze from the beautifully dressed woman kneeling next to a grave marked as “STONE” without getting a single spot of dirt on her very visible shiny legs send a chill down your spine? Or send anything down anything else? How about the gaze of Dracula himself, staring dangerously looking into the foggy distance, or rather, having this I-need-to-pee look? That was the late eighties—they don’t make them anymore like this. But no worries: they are still making a Castlevania game! Someone at Konami finally resurrected the genre after realising that this could be a sure way to fill the coffins back up with lots of cold hard cash; needed for research purposes to do execute some more cross-breeding vampire-werewolf-human experiments. I don’t understand why they realised it so late but better late than never. The Castlevania Collections on multiple platforms are still selling well; shouldn’t that be an indication for an appetite for more? In any case, I will enter October prepared. I already went ahead and played a couple of 16-bit entries that I somehow missed, such as Bloodlines on the MegaDrive and Vampire’s Kiss on the SNES. I play Aria of Sorrow each year: to me, it’s simply the best game in the series, and one of the best games ever created. It executes every typical ‘Vania mechanic flawlessly, has a soundtrack that just slaps, and doesn’t outstay its welcome. Obviously, it’s in my Top 20 GOAT list. Yet for being such a fan of the more “modern” metroidvania adaptations the series evolved towards after Rondo of Blood, I have never truly finished thé most important entry: Symphony of the Night. I wasn’t a Sony/PlayStation kind of person and even after finally having access to it through a hidden unlockable in the Dracula X Chronicles remake on the PSP, I had other more pressing things to do such as trying to figure out how this thing called working works. The game arrived in Europe a year after I graduated. Each year in October, we at the DOS Game Club play a spooky DOS game. Last year, that was Halloween Harry. In two days, you can join us playing Legacy: Realm of Terror. In Legacy, you explore yet another spooky mansion—this time not Dracula’s, but from someone or something much worse: something that serves as a gateway to ancient eldritch horrors. Why don’t you create your own spooky video game backlog to try and work through in the upcoming month? Here’s mine: Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles (the Rondo of Blood PSP remake) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Diablo II: Resurrected (I’ve played the original to death and feel the sudden urge to do a few more Mephisto hell runs. Plus, the new class looks amazing: official new content in a game that’s basically 26 years old!) I don’t expect to finish them all but if you are interested in exploring the Castlevania series, I do recommend to just start with the beginning. The original “classicvania” stage-based games are very short—but also very hard: that was the accepted way to artificially prolong the game length in the eighties/nineties. Play them through the Anniversary Collection or en emulator that features save states in case you get frustrated by bats knocking you off staircases. Trust me, you will. There are enough “best ‘Vania games” lists floating around on the internet. For me, the GBA and DS games are firmly placed at the top. Skip a game if it doesn’t click with you in thirty minutes. Enjoy whipping and be whipped by Death! And don’t forget to make good use of the bathroom if you suddenly find yourself staring at the distance. Related topics: / games / By Wouter Groeneveld on 29 September 2026.  Reply via email.