Crossovers with Castlevania
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| Castlevania | |
|---|---|
| |
| First installment | Castlevania (1986) |
| Latest installment | Castlevania Dominus Collection (2024) |
| Number of installments | 32 (25 main, 7 spinoffs) |
The Castlevania (Japanese title: 悪魔城ドラキュラ Akumajō Dorakyura) series is a series of action-platform games developed and published by Konami. The games tell the adventures of a line of heroes (most prominently Simon Belmont and his lineage) and their struggle to protect the world from the evil forces of Dracula. Since its inception in 1986, the series has seen dozens of releases in various genres and has been adapted in a pair of critically acclaimed animated series.
Being an early hit title for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Castlevania enjoys a certain amount of fandom overlap with the Super Mario series, and the two series have crossed over in the Super Smash Bros. series and the animated series Captain N: The Game Master.
Overview[edit]
Castlevania was designed as a pastiche of classic horror movies. Most of the series takes place in the middle ages and have the protagonists fighting against a menagerie of classic monsters such as Dracula himself, Medusa, werewolves, and the Frankenstein monster. Its installments are usually serious in tone, though not without lighthearted elements and easter eggs.
The first generation of Castlevania titles is action-platformers. The protagonist must reach the top of Dracula's castle and defeat Dracula, which requires getting past a gauntlet of obstacles and enemies. Most of the protagonists use a magical whip that can be upgraded to increase its strength and length, and most installments feature subweapons such as axes, thrown daggers, and a stopwatch that can stop time. Using subweapons requires Hearts, which can be collected by defeating enemies or destroying background fixtures such as candles. The games require a more deliberate approach than other platforming titles as the protagonist usually cannot change their midair momentum after jumping and will be pushed back if hit by enemies.
The series format was overhauled with its 1996 installment, Castlevania: Symphony of the Light. Starring a new protagonist in Dracula's rebellious son Alucard, Symphony of the Light took inspiration from "search action" platforming games such as the Metroid series and used a nonlinear format, challenging players to explore Dracula's castle to find hidden items and abilities to explore more of the castle and uncover its secrets. Since the 2000s, most installments have been made in this format outside of remakes and deliberate throwbacks to the older titles.
Prominent crossover elements[edit]
Simon[edit]
Simon Belmont is the series first protagonist and the most prominent. A descendant of a long-lived clan of vampire hunters, the original Castlevania has Simon go through a quest to prove himself worthy of the family name by defeating Dracula. In the climax, he defeats Dracula in battle, but ends up being plagued by a curse ravaging his body. He is featured as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Dracula[edit]
Count Dracula is the main antagonist from the Castlevania series, based on the character of the same name from the titular 1897 horror novel, Dracula. In the Castlevania continuity, Dracula was originally a man named Mathias Cronqvist until he fell insane after the death of his wife and used a magical artifact that turned him into an immortal vampire. Dracula comes back from his defeats every hundred years or so and usually serves as the final boss of the games. These battles usually have multiple stages, as Dracula transforms from his regular self to larger and more demonic forms. He appears as a boss in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Richter[edit]
Richter Belmont is one of the descendants of Simon Belmont, who debuted as the protagonist of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. Richter faces the resurrected Dracula in the year 1792, storming Castlevania after the town of Aljiba was burned by Dracula's forces and innocent maidens were kidnapped, including Richter's girlfriend Annette. He is a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
[edit]
Captain N: The Game Master[edit]
Castlevania is one of the main property represented in the animated series Captain N: The Game Master, where Simon Belmont is one of the main character and founding member of the N-Gang. Even by the standard of Captain N's loose portrayal of its source materials, Simon stands out as a radical departure from the original character, being depicted as a vain and arrogant cleft-chinned ladies man wearing an old-school aviator’s outfit, sharing nothing in common with his game counterpart beyond being a man who uses a magical whip to fight his enemies. Throughout the series, Simon often tries to unsuccessfully hit on Princess Lana and asserts himself as the leader of the N-Gang. He is initially hostile to protagonist Kevin Keene, but grows fonder of him as the series progresses. He was portrayed in the series by Andrew Kavadas.
Dracula (named The Count in the series, the name he is referred to in the English Castlevania manual) is a recurring antagonist in the series, portrayed as both an independent villain scheming to take control of the land of Castlevania, and an ally of Mother Brain. The Count speaks in an exaggerated Romanian accent provided by actor Garry Chalk. In his final appearance, The Count to have a son named Alucard (voiced by Ian James Corlett), who is portrayed as a total radical skatesboarder.
Castlevania is one of the world present in the dimension of Videoland, shown as a rustic land inhabited by monsters and hapless villagers. It is the setting of a few season 1 episodes, does not appear in season 2 and makes one last appearance in the season 3 episode “Return to Castlevania”, whose story loosely adapts the plot of Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse.
In the episode “Simon the Ape-Man”, The Count raises a zombie army to conquer Castlevania, which proves inconvenient when Simon Belmont contracts amnesia, and through a series of events, believes he is Donkey Kong Jr.. In its climax, Simon and Donkey Kong team up to defeat The Count’s zombie army. In "Queen of the Apes", Simon attends a ceremony in Kongoland and gets an unwelcome fan club in a tribe of gorillas. In "The Lost City of Kongoland", Simon is part of an expedition to Kongoland to retrieve a magic artifact and gets ensnared in vines by Konga, the vicious spirit of the city's ancestral ruler.
Due to licensing restrictions, elements from the series were not featured in the Nintendo Comics System adaptation of Captain N.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]
Simon and Richter makes their Super Smash Bros. debut in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a third-party playable character, alongside fellow Konami characters Solid Snake. He was announced to be playable in the game during the August 2018 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct, alongside fellow newcomers Richter, Chrom, Dark Samus, and King K. Rool.
Simon's various attacks involve him using his "Vampire Killer" whip. His special attacks are Axe, an axe that is a powerful projectile; Holy Water, a magical, multi-hitting projectile dealing flame damage; Cross, a projectile with boomerang-esque properties; and Uppercut, a powerful uppercut that functions as Simon's recovery move. His Final Smash, Grand Cross, involves trapping players in a coffin and destroying it. Simon's whip is long-ranged, being effective to use from far distances. Simon's forward, back, and up aerials also function as tether recoveries, making them useful for recovering when close to an edge.
In his debut trailer, he arrives at Dracula's Castle and eliminates Death shortly after the latter killed Luigi. He later confronts Dracula himself but is nearly defeated, only to be saved by his descendant Richter.[1]
Similar to King Dedede in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Lucina in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, Simon's name is announced differently in the Japanese version to reflect the pronunciation in that language. This trait is also shared with Richter and King K. Rool.
In the Adventure mode, Simon is seen standing near a cliff when he and the other fighters oppose Galeem for the first time. Although Simon is not shown to be hit by Galeem's beams directly, he, like every fighter except Kirby, is imprisoned in the World of Light, where a Galeem-serving puppet fighter of him is created. Simon is later freed after his puppet fighter is defeated, and he subsequently joins Kirby's team against Galeem and later Dharkon.
Simon is a heavy fighter, being heavier than Snake, R.O.B., and Banjo & Kazooie but lighter than Samus, Bowser Jr. (and the Koopalings), Dark Samus, and Terry, while having the same weight as Wario, Ike, Ridley, and Richter.
Richter is classified as an Echo Fighter of Simon, with his moveset and animations being based directly on Simon's (although the two actually take inspiration from each other), making him the first third-party Echo Fighter and the only one of a newcomer instead of a veteran fighter. Richter's special attacks are Axe, an ax that is a powerful projectile; Holy Water, a multi-hitting projectile, with a blue flame that does aura damage instead of an orange burning one that does flame damage (as well as his only move with a gameplay-affecting difference from Simon's counterpart); Cross, a projectile with boomerang-esque properties; and Uppercut, a powerful uppercut that functions as his recovery move. Richter's Final Smash, Grand Cross, is functionally identical to Simon's identically-named Final Smash.
In Simon's debut trailer, he saves his ancestor Simon from Dracula's attack, and shouts a variant of his famous line from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (quoted above), "Die monster. You don't belong in this world!"
Beside Simon and Richter, Dracula is one of the game's bosses, being fought in several character's Classic Mode routes and in World of Light.
References[edit]
- ^ Nintendo (August 8, 2018). Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct 8.8.2018 YouTube. Retrieved August 8, 2018
