Castlevania: The Adventure holds the honor of being the first-ever handheld Castlevania game. It also holds a dubious honor; The Adventure is easily one of the weakest, entries in the series.

Is there anything decent about the game? For starters, it’s another attempt at expanding the canon and universe of Castlevania. And as far as Game Boy launch titles go, players could do much, much, MUCH worse. Still, even playing the game today, something about Castlevania: The Adventure seems…off.

Castlevania: The Adventure doesn’t feel like one

Starring Simon Belmont’s predecessor, Christopher Belmont, Castlevania: The Adventure has this particular vampire hunter fighting off…Dracula! (Strange for this series to take such a huge risk, I know?)

The Game Boy, despite all of its technical limitations, can produce some decent-looking games. Castlevania: The Adventure is actually a well-detailed Game Boy title. Backgrounds are actually one of the game’s most striking graphical features, creating mountains, graveyards, and haunted forests.

With a simplified control set up, Castlevania The Adventure has responsive controls, which is perfect for the game’s platforming sections, which dominate the majority of the game.

There is a lack of weapons to play around with, so no Holy Water or knives to toss at zombies. However, Christopher has managed to wield a Vampire Killer whip that, when upgraded, shoots fire. Sweet

One of the weakest in the series? How so?

With all that summed up, The Adventure sounds good, right? When going on your quest to defeat Dracula, players will notice how unbelievably choppy and slow. In typical old-school Nintendo console fashion, flicker and slow down are all too commonplace. This goes against the game’s focus on platforming and long range combat.

Also, the lack of weapons makes the gameplay very repetitive.

Finally, Castlevania: The Adventure’s soundtrack does not translate well onto a Game Boy. It’s shrill, ear-piercing and just not pleasant to listen to.

It’s not a horrible game, (no game is as bad as Haunted Castle) Castlevania: The Adventure isn’t one worth seeking out. The game was actually remade for the Wii and could be considered to be the better game of the two. (Author’s note: that will be covered…)