Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse

141K plays 1989 #Action#Platform

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is a 1989 platform game developed and published by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released on December 22, 1989, in Japan, September 19, 1990, in North America and in May 1992 in PAL regions by Konami's Palcom publishing label.

Despite being the third numbered installment in the Castlevania series, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is a prequel to the original Castlevania (1986), being set a few centuries before its events. The game's protagonist is Trevor Belmont, an ancestor of Simon Belmont, who is called into action to vanquish the forces of Dracula. Relinquishing the role-playing and action-adventure elements from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, the game returns to the action-platforming gameplay of the original Castlevania but also introduces new concepts to the formula such as branching level paths and multiple playable characters.

From Wikipedia's article Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Keyboard controls

NESPlayer 1Player 2
D-pad↑↓←→IKJL
BZN
AXM
SelectShiftB
StartEnterSpace

Hotkeys

  • 1 Quick save state
  • 2 Quick load state
  • 3 Change save slot

Gamepads are detected when you press a button. Remap any key from the emulator’s Controls menu (gear icon).

Emulator help & troubleshooting

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Keyboard controls

NESPlayer 1Player 2
D-pad↑↓←→IKJL
BZN
AXM
SelectShiftB
StartEnterSpace

Hotkeys

  • 1 Quick save state
  • 2 Quick load state
  • 3 Change save slot

Gamepads are detected when you press a button. Remap any key from the emulator’s Controls menu (gear icon).

Emulator help & troubleshooting

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Pixel Verdict

Castlevania III: Dracula’s CurseNES

4.0 Great job!

Critics 82 · 3 reviews

What the reviews talk about

Key wordsoriginal

What the critics said

  • The staff felt that it returned to Castlevania's roots after Castlevania II yet "took the series to new heights."

    — GamesRadar+, 2012

  • In a retrospective review, Allgame editor Christopher Michael Baker highly praised the game, describing it as "the greatest Castlevania game to ever grace the NES" and "possibly even the greatest Castlevania game to ever hit any system".

    — AllGame (Christopher Michael Baker)

From the Reception section of Wikipedia's Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse article, under CC BY-SA 4.0. The words are the critics'; their full reviews are on the publishers' pages.

Scores

  • AllGame 4.5/5
  • Famitsu 7/10, 8/10, 8/10, 7/10
  • Total! 1992 80%

From the review table of Wikipedia's article. The face takes, first that applies: the Metascore for this platform, GameRankings' archived average, our average of the critics (one number per publication, a panel averaged), one review alone, the players' rating. Critics and players are never mixed.

Players' rating: 83/100 · 396 votes

Full reviews

Face key

  1. 1.00+
  2. 1.540+
  3. 2.050+
  4. 2.560+
  5. 3.068+
  6. 3.575+
  7. 4.080+
  8. 4.585+
  9. 5.090+

5.0 Outstanding! · 4.0 Great job! · 3.0 Good job · 2.0 Could be better · 1.0 Wake me up when it's over · A thumbs-up adds half a point. Our own drawings, in the spirit of the faces GamePro magazine used in the '90s.

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