3/5 ★ – Empyrean's review of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.

Whilst it’s far from the worst in the series, Dracula’s Curse is the first time I’ve actually been disappointed in a Castlevania game. It’s typically considered to be the best of the NES era by a significant margin, but whilst I liked a lot of its new ideas such as the branching paths and companions, I found it to be a mostly sterile retread of the original. There’s no new memorable levels or bosses, and worst of all is the music is pretty bland too. A banging soundtrack is a Castlevania staple! All the good stuff here is lifted from previous games. CV3 isn’t bad, but it doesn’t do enough to make me want to play it over the original which it’s trying so hard to course correct to. Grant is fun though!