Best Castlevania Games, Ranked - Switch And Nintendo Consoles

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The Castlevania series has a rich history on Nintendo consoles ever since the original game came first to the Japanese Famicom Disk System way back in 1986, and then to the NES a year later. There may be a significant release or two from Konami’s vampire-killing catalogue still missing from Nintendo platforms (we’re looking at you, Symphony of the Night), but the vast majority of the series can be found on Nintendo consoles.

But where should you start if you’re new to the Castlevania series? Which Castlevania game is the best? Those are tough questions, but we’ve whipped up a ranked list of the best Castlevania games (on Nintendo consoles) below, as rated by Nintendo Life readers.

The series has many high points, plus a couple of very low ones, and comes in two distinct flavours: the more straightforward right-to-left style of the original games or the more expansive brand of Koji Igarashi-produced games — sometimes referred to as ‘IGAvanias’ — which combined spiritually with Nintendo’s Metroid series to birth an entire genre of ‘Metroidvania‘ video games.

For Switch owners, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection should obviously be your first port of call, with the following Castlevania Advance Collection containing one of the very best games in the series, and, most recently, the Castlevania Dominus Collection bringing the DS trilogy to modern consoles. Those collections themselves don’t feature in this ranking — only the games within — but rest assured that every one’s a winner.

And there’s always Koji Igarashi’s non-affiliated Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night once you’ve exhausted all the Belmonts below. The Switch version is far from perfect, but it is slightly improved since launch and is arguably the closest thing fans will get to Symphony of the Night on Switch (until Konami decides to put Symphony of the Night on Switch).

We’ve included a couple of spin-offs and oddities, too, but that’s enough talk. Wipe away those bloody tears, and let’s go kill us some vampires.

Available on Switch as part of Konami’s Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, as a standalone arcade release from Hamster, or as part of the Castlevania Dominus Collection, Haunted Castle is an odd duck. Made exclusively for arcades, it occupies a strange middle ground somewhere between homage, parody, and port and sees Simon Belmont (with a sprite which stands a quarter of the screen tall) rescuing his new bride from the villainous clutches of the Count. The music is by far the best thing about it, but despite looking superficially ‘better’ than the original, it’s an unfairly punishing arcade experience designed to empty your pockets of shiny coins. As such, there’s very little fun to be had. If you’re interested, you can check out the differences between the original NES game, its VS Castlevania arcade port, and Haunted Castle in this video.

One important caveat with this one: Haunted Castle Revisited, M2’s reimagined version in the Dominus Collection, is absolutely worth a look. In fact, our pals over at Time Extension whipped up a full review, so check that out if you’re intrigued to know more:

Without knowing that this was the third Castlevania for Game Boy, you could be forgiven for thinking this was the second game before Konami perfected things with Belmont’s Revenge. But no, Castlevania Legends was a late release for the ageing console (1997 in Japan, 1998 in the West) — the third and final entry and a less than auspicious farewell to Nintendo’s 8-bit handheld. Following the release of the towering Symphony of the Night on PlayStation would have been an unenviable task, to be sure, but even taking into account the platform’s inherent limitations this is an intense disappointment. With poor animation, lacklustre sprite work, and equally unimpressive level design, it’s hard to believe that this came a whopping seven years after its fantastic predecessor.

Simply put, it wasn’t good enough at the time, and despite being a sought-after collector’s item these days, it’s only got worse with age. It’s available on Switch as part of a Nintendo Switch Online subscription now, but we wouldn’t. Avoid.