Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
| Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse | |
|---|---|
North American box art depicting three of the game's playable characters: Trevor Belmont (bottom), Syphia Belnades (center) and Grant Danasty (top) | |
| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Director(s) | Hitoshi Akamatsu |
| Designer(s) | I. Urata |
| Programmer(s) | Yasuo Okuda Mitsuo Takemoto |
| Artist(s) | Noriyasu Togakushi Takeshi Fujimoto I. Urata |
| Composer(s) | Hidenori Maezawa Jun Funahashi Yukie Morimoto Yoshinori Sasaki |
| Series | Castlevania |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Action, platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is a 1989 action-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 pathes and multiple playable characters.
Castlevania III received positive critical reception. Multiple critics called the game a great return to roots for the Castlevania series and many highlighted the game's soundtrack as a point of praise. The game has been re-released on the Virtual Console for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The game was later adapted into the first two seasons of the animated 2017 Castlevania television series.