SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV

Super Castlevania IV

Game Information
Country of Origin	Japan
Original Title	悪魔城ドラキュラ (Akumajō Dorakyura)
Translated Title	Demon Castle Dracula
Development Information
Developer	Konami
Director	Masahiro Ueno
Producer	Kazumi Kitaue
Designer	Kazumichi Ichihara
Artist	Kazumichi Ichihara Satoshi Kushibuchi
Release Information
Platforms	JAPAN: Nintendo Super Famicom (October 31, 1991) N. AMERICA / EUROPE: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1991-1992)

GAME INFO: Super Castlevania IV is the first entry of the series made for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and like, several of the console's launch titles, is a reboot of its predecessor for the Nintendo Entertainment System allowing the game to explore technological advances of the new console, such as Mode 7 graphics manipulation, multi-directional attacking, transparent overlays for environmental effects, and a much more sophisticated visual presentation overall. As such, players return to 1691 CE in order to experience Simon Belmont's encouter with the semi-immortal vampire Dracula. Like Casstlevania this entry is a linear, side-scrolling platformer that has none of the exploratory qualities of Vampire Killer or Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. However, the game does begin in the outskirts of Dracula's castle, much like Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, where the final levels resemble the stages in the very first Castlevania.

SETTING: Like the first Castlevania, this game is set in late seventeenth-century Transylvania, albeit Simon begins play at a much further distance from Dracula's castle. The sprawling, multi-directional maps established in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse are made linear in Super Castlevania IV, prompting Simon to maneuver through the dilapidated landscape of Transylvania before he reaches Dracula's castle, which closely resembles the layout of the first game.

FUNERARY IMAGERY: Most notably, the game's opening cinematic reveals the enormous gravestone of Dracula. When lightning strikes the stone, the cross crumbles and Dracula materializes as a bat, signaling his rebirth. Stage two begins in a disused graveyard that quickly recedes into a wilderness of trees, rocky outcroppings, and cascading streams. Crumbling, upright headstones are visible in the foreground and background, peering out from overgrown shrubs and ivy.

ANALYSIS: Unlike Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, this iteration of the series lacks the sprawling graveyards that appear throughout the overworld. Similarly, the graveyard appears somewhat later in the game compared to Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, though not substantially so, appearing in the beginning of the second stage rather than at the end of the first. The gravestones themselves, though somewhat indistinct amidst the greenery, still resemble the types of headstones that would have appeared in Western Europe during the late seventeenth century, though, like the rest of the series, somewhat dissimilar to Eastern European gravestones. Being the third entry in the Castlevania series to incorporate the graveyard level, Super Castlevania IV sets up a certain expectation to see a funerary imagery in a Castlevania game. Ultimately, by incorporating the external cemetery areas of its predecessors, Super Castlevania IV establishes the series' close proximity to graveyard levels and its later incorporations of funerary imagery outside of dedicated burial environments.