Castlevania Made Me A Horror Nerd
Thank you, Konami for This Incredible Series!
When I Became A Gamer
I’ve been a gamer ever since I was 2 years old. I’ll never forget when my brother gave me his hand-me-down NES (the only hand-me-down I ever wanted). I ran through the house to my living room, helped my dad hook the system up, and plopped down right in front of a huge tube tv that we had in our living room.
When I hit that power button…and then took the cartridge out and blew on it and put it back in the system cause it refused to play at first (The NES was prone to doing that sometimes) I started up Super Mario Bros. And from that moment on, I knew I was a lifelong gamer.
In the years since that day in 1997, I’ve played many games and different franchises across different genres. But there’s one franchise in particular that resonates with me more than any other gaming franchise has ever since I started gaming. That franchise is Castlevania, a game franchise that I adore, and have loved ever since I first played it.
A Passion Is Born
It was around September of 1999, I was 4 years old, and I loved to go to my local video store (yes I’m old enough to remember that those were a thing) and rent whatever movies or video games piqued my interest. One game, in particular, sat smack dab in the middle of the NES shelf, beckoning to me like my mother did whenever she’d want me to come in the house for dinner.
That game was the original Castlevania, and the box art that you saw at the beginning of this article is what drew my attention. The man with the whip whose name I would learn after reading the manual is Simon Belmont, the creepy castle towering over him in the background, Dracula’s face looming over the castle as if it were a full moon…all of those details about that front cover art captivated me.
Then I flipped the box over to the back and saw the screenshots and I thought to myself “This game looks AWESOME” so I decided to see if it was true. Before I could say “Hallelujah” I grabbed the third and fourth games in the series (I couldn’t find the second game), took them all to the front counter, and paid for them with the money I had saved up for a rental, which was 5 dollars at the time.
The entire car ride home I’d open up one game, read the manual for it, admire the artwork on the cartridge, and rinse and repeat that same process for the other two games. I couldn’t believe how cool the artwork looked and I would read the story blurbs that were in the manual and I would think to myself “Why can’t just go home already so I can play this?”.
When I finally did get home I ran out of the car as fast as I possibly could, ran through the dining room into the living room, plopped down in front of the tv, and started up the first Castlevania game. As soon as I saw Simon walk across the front of the castle outside the gate and saw him stand there, taking in the sight of this massive, creepy castle in front of him while the brilliant soundtrack played in the background, setting the tone for the scene, I was immediately hooked.
I fell in love with the gothic horror setting, the enemies (most of them anyway…SCREW YOU FROGS AND MEDUSA HEADS), the music, literally every single thing about this game captivated me and made want to play more. Which is why I’m glad that I rented 3 and 4, cause I played the hell out of all three games that entire weekend.
I didn’t beat any of them obviously, because I was a 4 year old after all and these games are HARD AS BALLS on the first playthrough. But I DID, however, have a blast playing these games. I didn’t care that I was dying over and over and over again, I was having fun smacking things in the face with Simon and Trevor’s whips and humming along with the music as I did it.
A Seed Was Planted
I didn’t know it at the time, but a love and passion for Horror was born right then and there, and wouldn’t fully grow and flourish until three years later when I was 7 years old. So not only do I owe Castlevania for cementing my love for video games, but I also owe it for planting the seed that would eventually sprout into the love and passion for the horror genre that you see today.
And that’s why I love Castlevania. It’s the only video game franchise that I constantly go back to on a regular basis. It’s the franchise that cemented my love for video games. And, more important than anything else…It spawned my love for Horror.
So thank you Konami. Thank you for bringing Castlevania to the West in 1987. If it wasn’t for this series, I may not be the nerd that I am today.
Thank you so much for reading the first here in my new publication, and I hope to see you in the next one.
-Brandon “TheMadBelmont” Madden
