Game:

Haunted Castle (1987)

Duration: 1:57

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11

That's a nice bridge to Dracula's Tower you have there. It would be a shame if something...happened to it.

For those unfamiliar, Haunted Castle was a standalone Castlevania arcade game released alongside the NES Simon's Quest in 1988. By modern standards, it's a pretty lousy game, with its extreme lack of maneuverability and brutal difficulty making it a game you need to memorize before you can beat, but its early 16-bit audio and visuals are delicious.

Much of the Haunted Castle soundtrack found its way into other Castlevania games. Cross Your Heart (Stage 1) was rearranged in Portrait of Ruin on DS as 'Crucifix Held Close'; Bloody Tears (Stage 3) has found its way into a whole slew of other games; Basement Melodies (Stage 5) plays in an endgame area of Dawn of Sorrow, also on DS; Final Battle (Dracula Form 2) and Requiem Sent to the Devil (High Score/Name Entry) both popped up in Adventure ReBirth on WiiWare; and if this song sounds vaguely familiar, that's because it was mashed up with Heart of Fire from CV1 to form a new track, also called Heart of Fire, that serves as Julius' theme in Aria of Sorrow on the GBA.

Please enjoy my rendition. Check out a playthrough of Haunted Castle if you can. Drop a like if you made it through this colossal description, and if you'd like me to cover more Castlevania tunes, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

'Haunted Castle' is copyright 1987, 1988 Konami
Original composition by Kenichi Matsubara and Masahiro Ikariko
No infringement intended; cover made solely for entertainment purposes.
This track can be used anywhere except reupload, but please give credit.

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