Koji Igarashi’s resurrection of the classic action-adventure Castlevania games from Konami in the form of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon delivers the gaming world an 8-bit experience in 2018. Fans of the classic Castlevania games on the Nintendo Entertainment System may fondly recall the days of wielding a whip against Dracula as one of the Belmont clan, and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is hoping that nostalgia is enough to power new IP that sets out to do what Castlevania did but better.
How to Download Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
At the end of the review, you will find the Download button which you need to click in order to download Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.
The Game Review
Powered by a mega-successful Kickstarter campaign that was itself inspired by Capcom’s Keiji Inafune’s spiritual successor to Mega Man, Might Number 9, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is part of a series of games being released by the vaunted creator of one of gaming’s most storied franchises that will hopefully resurrect the classic 2D gaming we all know and love. This Metroidvania title is the companion game to the upcoming Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and was developed by Inti Creates.
Buoyed by the success of a Kickstarter campaign helmed by Igarashi with the explicit purpose of resurrecting the Castlevania series, the Bloodstained games represent a combination of modern crowd fundraising success and old-school gaming concepts. Promising a blend of Metroidvania like that found in the epic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon does not stray from its spiritual forebear’s gothic horror and creepy aesthetic.
While never shocking for shock value, the game continues to play around the edges of taboo with religious imagery and demonic forces as it upholds the tradition established in Castlevania titles that came out in the 1980s heyday of Hollywood cinematic horror.
The most successful crowd-fundraising campaign until Shenmue III, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon’s companion status to the mainline Ritual of the Night is evidenced most clearly by its decidedly retro graphics. Again, like Shovel Knight, this title is definitely old-school and fantastically so.
Gamers, again, will be shocked to learn this is not a classic title but rather a new game. For those unfamiliar with the Castlevania or Metroid series, those games typically feature horizontal and vertically-scrolling levels of epic scale within which are hidden power-ups, items, secrets, bosses, and more.
Exploration and survival are the names of the game in this genre and the better you are at keeping track of where you are and where you need to be, the faster this game will go for you. Combining role-playing game elements with traditional action-adventure gaming, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, as in other Metroidvanias will offer a potent combination of gear and upgrades that give the player incentive to keep pushing forward. In terms of lore, there’s a whole new story here that, while similar to the Castlevania titles, is different enough to justify its existence as a separate series.
You may find yourself recalling Castlevania as you play this platformer but you won’t find that it is Castlevania in its purest sense.
