I was sittning here contemplating and it just hit me: Why are the Castelvania games good?

Because when I think Castlevania the first thing that pops into my head stiff movement controls, which as a result of this are pretty unforgiving (let us admit it: the controls of 1-3 on NES where really crap). This is normally something that would doom most of games back in the days. But somehow Castlevania managed to presist and become a classic franchise. 

Sure the controls got better later, but some of the stiffness has always persistent in all the ones I’ve played. 

All of the Castlevania games I’ve played, I have loved and still find good being able to pick up and play from time to time (even Simons Quest which takes way to much flak imo). 

Of course I’ve not played all of them so I’ve missed out on som bad ones. But I haven’t played Symphony of the Night either, which seems to be considered the best. 

The ones I’ve played (that I can think of now) are:

Castlevania 1-3 (NES)

Castlevania 4 (SNES)

 Bloodlines (Megadrive)

Dawn of Sorrow (DS)

Portrait of Ruin (DS)

Of and ”Bloody Tears” is the best video game song ever made (thats maybe why I like Simons Quest so much).  

Like Hiku said, a big part of it is Symphony of the Night. It helped lay the groundwork for the Metroidvania genre.

Outside of that, I recommend watching this video:
https://youtu.be/V_xWHcb_AH4

The controls on the old games are stiff, but definitely not crap. The games are fun, offer a significant challenge, and have killer music. What's not to understand?

Then why are you asking?

super castlevania is a perfect action platformer there are no stiff controls or unfair challenges like in other games its 99% your skills and you can even moonwalk..

symphony of the night is overrated with unnecessary rpg elements and every time you die it takes forever to respawn.

long story short super castlevania is great every other castlevania game is flawed in more than one way.

So the Castlevania on SNES that broke the necessity of items is better than a literal genre definer?

castlevania was already defined Sotn just ripped off metroid.

Ah, thanks for reminding me that I need to play more of this great series.

S.O.T.N Was and is still an amazing game in the series. Don't know about anyone else, but I also really enjoyed the Lord Of The Shadow series as well.

The Vita needs an all new Castlevania game. ASAP

"The okay SNES title was the best"

"SotN ripped off Metroid"

*Looks at avatar*

Yeah, this isn't going anywhere.

- Moderated, Carl