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Castlevania Turns 40, And Konami May Have Just Teased A 3D Collection
Castlevania celebrated its 40th anniversary this week--an impressive milestone in video games and a terrifying pair of numbers for anyone who was born in 1987. Konami marked the occasion with a new video paying tribute to the original whip-slinging hero of the 1986 Famicom game, as well as all of the other influential entries in the Castlevania series over the last four decades. It's a cute little retrospective, and it might also be teasing something else from Konami, if our tinfoil-hat-speculation is right.
https://youtu.be/U9hmHw0JFUc
Right near the end of the video, Castlevania's first protagonist, Simon Belmont, takes a quick stroll past a series of non-ruined portraits in Dracula's castle. Eagle-eyed observers will note that these feature cover art from three of the 3D-era games--Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness, and Lords of Shadow. The fourth one is for Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, which launches in October 2026. Could Konami be teeing up a new compilation that bundles together the PS2 and Xbox 360/PS3-era 3D Castlevania games?
Portraits of ruin? Nah, just some really good games.
The company isn't saying anything, and there's a good chance that the games were chosen purely because they still have some of the best cover art in the franchise. They're pretty neat, artistically! But a Castlevania collection isn't uncommon, as Konami has released a few of these in the past. The Castlevania Anniversary Collection from 2019 collected eight games spanning the first 10 years of the series, and the Castlevania: Dominus Collection bundled all three DS-era games alongside the 1988 Haunted Castle arcade game.
What Konami did confirm is that it will hold sales for select Castlevania titles, new vinyl record soundtracks for classic games are available to preorder, and Castlevania on mobile is also free for a limited time through the iOS and Android stores.
For Castlevania fans, next month's release of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse marks a major moment for the series. Following the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 in 2014, the video game series went on hiatus, aside from the two compilations released. The Castlevania animated adaptations released for Netflix proved that there was still an appetite for the IP, and last year, it was announced that the developer of The Rogue Prince of Persia--Evil Empire--was reviving castlevania for PC and console.
So far, Belmont's Curse looks like a return to the series' roots, as it follows Rose Belmont through the ruined streets of Paris on her quest to stop Dracula. The game will let you turn tough bosses into powerful allies, and a demo for it will go live on October 1 ahead of its October 15 release date. Beyond that, there's hope that we could see more Castlevania in the future, as Konami's decision to outsource development to studios like Bloober Team and Screen Burn has led to several excellent new entries that have redefined what Silent Hill can be.
It looks like it's repeating this approach with Castlevania, and a compilation of the cult-classic 3D games sandwiched between new releases would be a fun way to kickstart a Castlevania renaissance.
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