As this year draws to a close, most gamers will remember 2011 as the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series, due in part to Nintendo's compassionate and year-long marketing celebration of all things Zelda.
However, unlike Nintendo, Konami has, (for whatever reason,) criminally neglected to celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of it's own influential video game series: the original Akumajō Dracula, (Devil's Castle Dracula,) or, better known to us outside Japan - Castlevania.
Released in September of 1986 in Japan, Castlevania not only introduced early Nintendo Entertainment System adopters to a more eerie setting of adventure game; it also brought to life many of Hollywood's A-List Horror movie monsters in a beautiful marriage of simple control and soul-crushing difficulty. The first game would go on to spawn three direct sequels, (as well as numerous remakes across different systems,) while the second game, Simon's Quest, would not only serve as the inspiration for a massive series reinvention in the 32-bit era, it would provide half of the foundation for the major game genre we compare games to today as 'Metroidvania'.
Seeing as how there has been very negligible mention all year of anything Castlevania, I wanted to start a thread here in the hopes of sharing news and stories related to the series, as well as any other discussions or questions anyone might have.. I'll be adding to this thread often, and I hope others contribute as well! (But please - no 'which Castlevania game is the best' questions.. If I wanted to start a 'poll' thread, I would have made that option available.)
But enough talk.. Have at you!
I remember being so damn depressed at that shitty ending.. How could they make such an awesome game, but make the ending so brief and anti-climactic..? A few days later I went onto Castlevania Dungeon and found out that I actually screwed up and didn't really beat the game.. 
