Out of all the NES Castlevania games, this one has to be my favorite. Yes, everything you’d expect from a Castlevania game is there: A Belmont is attempting to destroy Dracula (this time, Trevor Belmont is the one wielding the Vampire Killer), you have your standard subweapons, and at the end of each stage is a boss.

What’s new, you say? Well, there are three bosses that you can actually turn into “party members” if you will: Grant DeNasty (a pirate who can climb walls and is an expert dagger user), Sypha Belnades (a magic user, with various types of magic sub-weapons and a staff) and Alucard (Dracula’s son, who uses Fireballs and can change into a bat). Do note that you can only have ONE of these people on your team, and if you want a different one you have to exchange him/her for your current party member.

Another new feature is the “Choose Your Path” feature. After each stage, most of the time you are given a choice between two new stages to go to next. This may not seem to be that great of a feature, but in Castlevania games, it’s a new feature. We’re used to being forced into the next stage, so it’s new, people!

Anyway, Castlevania III is definitely worth a try if you’re a Castlevania fan, or just an action fan in general. Yeah, it’s no SOTN and offers little to no RPG gameplay, but it’s still a great game.