When you hear "Castlevania...

[jfe2]

... do you think of the classic NES titles, the more current Metroidvania titles, or the new 3D reboot?

I personally think of the Metroidvania entries in the series whenever Castlevania does get brought up. The classic games are absolutely great, but I think that the SotN-style reinvention of the series sort of defines the game to a lot of people today.

[alienjesus]

I've only played one castlevania (order of ecclesia), but its still the classic style of gameplay that pops into my head when thinking of castlevania.

[irixith]

SotN style. The other games just feel inferior now -- it's very much a case where what came after was so much better than what came before, that's it's hard to go back and play what came before. (This doesn't always happen!) With Castlevania, it started with Simon's Quest -- but come on, unless you've got your rose-coloured glasses on, it was so awkward to figure out where to go and what to do that the game is far more rage inducing than fun.

[GSZX1337]

Since I've only played the first three for the NES, I think of those games when I hear "Castlevania".

[brunoafh]

SotN style. The other games just feel inferior now -- it's very much a case where what came after was so much better than what came before, that's it's hard to go back and play what came before. (This doesn't always happen!) With Castlevania, it started with Simon's Quest -- but come on, unless you've got your rose-coloured glasses on, it was so awkward to figure out where to go and what to do that the game is far more rage inducing than fun.

I hear what you're saying (especially with Simon's Quest), but the classic Castlevania games are in no way "inferior". Castlevania, Castlevania III, Castlevania Chronicles, Bloodlines, and Rondo of Blood are all incredibly fun games that have their own value that's distinct from the SotN style games.

[jfe2]

SotN style. The other games just feel inferior now -- it's very much a case where what came after was so much better than what came before, that's it's hard to go back and play what came before. (This doesn't always happen!) With Castlevania, it started with Simon's Quest -- but come on, unless you've got your rose-coloured glasses on, it was so awkward to figure out where to go and what to do that the game is far more rage inducing than fun.

Yeah Simon's Quest was a bitch of a game. I never have gone back to it, but I would love to see a remake that fixed some of the problems that the game suffered from.

I think its worth bringing up that Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth was an AMAZING game for WiiWare that played like a classic Castlevania title.

[CatchFiveBats]

Definitely the Metroidvania ones.

I came into the Castlevania series a bit late with the series' start on GBA, so that style comes to mind first for me. I also agree with brunoafh in that the 'classic' style of Castlevania is close, if not equal, in quality to the Metroidvania titles in its own way.

[Bradtemple87]

Metroidvania

[fvgazi]

Metroidvania. SOtN is hands down one of my favorite games of all time. I'm slowly going back through the older ones such as rondo of blood and it's still fun. They're just not how I got into castlevania.

[HellHammer]

I think Super Castlevania IV.