The WORST Castlevania Game You've Probably Never Played!

[@mattb6522]

Simon's walk makes it looks like he is holding it in so he can finally reach Dracula's bathroom!

[@Lonewolf3515]

They did my boy Simon dirty on this one. -_- lol

[@MaverickJackJohnson]

Based on how horrible the game is, I think Simon's gonna drop one in Dracula's bed not his bathroom.

[@jdaywork2693]

😂😂😂

[@sle2470]

"You will need, after your journey, to refresh yourself by making your toilet."

[@Zarathustra-rj4yz]

You'd have to crap too if your last meal was wall meat🍖

[@QuartzIsAnOxide]

Most arcade games had the decency of making their first level easy as to fool you into a false sense of security, but Haunted Castle pulls absolutely no punches, skeletons or bats.

[@Ventus_S]

It's funny how the first stage mobs do the most damage . Zombie = half, bat = 4 bars. Later stages they do 1~2 bars.

[@Phantom.Gaming64]

True, this game shows no mercy. It's either 1. Get good or 2. Have a truckload of coins at the ready to beat the game.

[@phorchybug3286]

What's a puch

[@Phantom.Gaming64]

@@phorchybug3286 He probably meant punches.

[@trendmassacre8423]

This game doesn't screw around 😂

[@TARINunit9]

There was a difficulty switch inside this game's motherboard. On the hardest setting, minibosses (such as the _wall_ at 1:18) will kill you in two hits. Every machine they sent to America was flipped to the hardest setting by default. Also on EVERY difficulty, using four continues would send you back to level 1. This was INTENTIONAL

[@lightspeedlegato]

I was just about to bring that up. The continue limit makes this game so much harder.

[@Don_Porculio]

Konami had a bad habit of making their arcade games way harder in America

[@lightspeedlegato]

I'm just glad I'm not misremembering the difficulty. I remember when I played this game that I would die in just a few hits so there was now way to just keep walking and abuse the I-frames. Also with limited continues, you can't just rely on check points either. I've still never beaten it and I don't think I'm enough of a masochist to do it.

[@marcosviniciusferreira6453]

I love castlevania and as such I finished this game BUT on easy because it's beyond unfair on hard. All of Konami's arcade on the 80's had this "awesome" limited continues independently of how many coins you deposited on the machine

[@mistersinister2043]

The game's real name: "Castlevania: Nobody Play This"

[@SKotris84]

Love how he goes from wedding suit to old time vampire slaying gear straight away, like the garb was underneath his suit the whole time.

[@wordman3624]

A Belmont's always gotta be prepared.

[@devcrom3]

He just rips it off Yakuza style.

[@EmeraldEyesEsoteric]

He should team up with the hero from ghosts and goblins.

[@179107199999]

He and his bride had "plans" that night

[@axel8728]

​@@179107199999Damn, you beat me to it.

[@DonaldPrevie]

This doesn’t look so bad…first hit takes half his health.

[@RevCode]

That game is like your GM suddenly going "There's a big rock coming out of nowhere; It crushed you. You are dead."

[@eightcoins4401]

To be fair, its an arcade game. Most of those games were made to empty your pockets with cheap difficulty

[@eightcoins4401]

The main issue is more so the poor technical quality even compared to the prior 2 *NES* games

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Hearts fly away from you. Item drops disappear FAST. Movement is SLOW. Whip reach is abysmal. Whip damage dealt is low. Uninspired enemy designs. Berserk enemy patterns. Brute force and "hurry up" are key parts of... the "gameplay". Yes, this is truly award-winning work. 🙄

[@horgh_japan]

In the arcades, you had 3 continues total... Yes, 3! After that, it was back to level 1. However, if you hit start, you'd get extra health at the cost of a continue. Also, I recall there being a sword upgrade at some point and you could get the cross pretty early from a hunchback IIRC. I think I beat the stained glass knight boss with it. Hell the cross and stopwatch are the best items in the game. They make boss fights really easy.

[@jameswoodland2719]

God that's brutal.

[@SirRosser]

Back in the day I was actually able to beat this on one or two credits. Took a lot of practice.

[@jameswoodland2719]

@@SirRosser how? It seems like you have to damage boast through hunch backs plus you don't have your health refilled afterwards.

[@aelinstue9431]

Yeah I was wondering if he just needed to hit the add coin button to get the bonus hp he got once.

[@hommefataltaemin]

@@SirRosser sure ya did, dude

[@moogleboy]

Oh man, you've unlocked a memory of playing this in my local arcade back when I was a kid. The only saving grace is it not being directly named "Castlevania", otherwise I probably never would have touched anything else from the series.

[@dogg-paws]

Consider yourself lucky that you weren't born in Japan, because Haunted Castle had the same Japanese name as the NES game.

[@iami3rian394]

I dunno, I remember how awesome the cabinet art looked, but ya know, it was a million years ago, so maybe in thinking of something else.

[@Azuchilimited]

Maybe they named it separate from the main series to make it a optional continuation? Non canon, a what if?

[@TopShelfTheology]

@@dogg-paws Akumajou Dracula (Devil-castle Dracula), or Vampire Killer?

[@TheOmegaDragon]

The game isn't just poop, it's hilarious. Laughed every time the game suddenly decides to screw you over. Aside from that I'd like to congratulate you for beating this punishing game.

[@OhImKiCkiN]

The way he walks (baby steps with a diaper full of crap) cracks me up so much that's all I can pay attention to.

[@Redgy819]

I shared this to my friends also cracked me up. The more pain he was in, the more i wad laughing. The bridge lenght tho… he got massive patience. Ive called in my head for the bridge to me over with already, like 10-15 WHOLE SECONDS before him 😂

[@supersmashbro596]

the music is literally its only saving grace. a good number of these were re-used for future entries. hell, the final stage theme ended up becoming julius belmonts theme, even. and the clock tower music was re-used in dawn of sorrow as the mine of judgements theme.

[@supersmashbro596]

@@OhImKiCkiN more than any other belmont, this is the one with the stick farthest up his ass.

[@BillyClark_TheDigitalAvatar]

Imagine spending your entire life making a bridge for some funny walking dude to show up and have it slowly collapse

[@pigs18]

What's the point of using quality materials? Even the contractor didn't think anyone would get far enough to use it.

[@crust5909]

Dracula's castle is actually a creature, not just a building ;)

[@tyn5802]

Personally I feel that this is the only game so far where the difficulty has not been debunked. This game looks hard AF.

[@Steve-Fiction]

Remember that one time in the video where he just had extra health? You can do that by inputting start or something if you have enough credits in. With the extra health the game is easy

[@kingstarscream3807]

How was CV3's difficulty debunked? That game is sadistic.

[@Steve-Fiction]

@@kingstarscream3807 The Japanese version is more reasonable

[@Haganeren]

I remember being able to finish it though ! And not MOST of the game ryukhar debunk !

[@matthewmerrill9036]

Every Euro version of Castlevania is easier than the American ports. The PS4 release of this game had the Euro port as well, and you take only one or two units of damage from most enemies unlike half a health bar in the American version.

[@Cheesehead302]

I just wanna say, somewhere in the last few years I have for some reason just started to love the concept of picking some random, obscure old game that is obviously poorly designed and beating my head against it until I get to the end. It's like solving a puzzle or something, and by the end you have a bizarre twisted love for something a ton of people hate. Idk, it's just really fun in some weird twisted way. And not only that, you get kind of an idea or lesson on what ideas/ concepts were done legit well or had a lot of potential, and it's just neat to see some of the uniqueness. All of that to say, if you ever run out of more mainstream super hard/ bad games, there's always a plethora of completely random and 1 off bizarrely hard games on SNES and NES. This type of content is some of my favorite, I just love seeing the entire process of problem solving stuff like this. Keep up the great content.

[@timothykirby4406]

Agreed

[@covereye5731]

I want to know what the lore behind the harpies in this is. It sudden teleports you to an alternate world with them and there's just one chilling in Dracula's room for some reason.

[@Azuchilimited]

I think those are his uh... 🗿 His h*es.

[@KevinVideo]

Mummy: *appears* Ryukahr: Oh, look. A zombie.

[@bobosmith101]

Honestly, it's mostly the NA difficulty that makes it so bad. Having a trap deal half your health instead of 1 unit is crazy.

[@unhappimess]

Losing the weapons upgrade at stage 3 was devastating. 😰

[@hommefataltaemin]

How did he lose it anyway? Just from dying ?

[@valentds]

@@hommefataltaemin i guess finishing the 3 continues

[@EmeraldEyesEsoteric]

I really like this game has more weapons and whips instead of Castlevania where you immediately get two whip upgrades and that's it. Like what is even the point of having the basic whip?

[@frozenburst64]

​@Emerald Eyes Esoteric This games upgrades are honestly worse. You start with a whip, get a mace, then a sword, and that is it and all they do is increase damage (and maybe a slight but of range).

[@DakonsMadhouse]

its like the entire game is a giant troll level.

[@ThEjOkErIsWiLd00]

Arcade games were the OG troll levels.

[@DakonsMadhouse]

@@ThEjOkErIsWiLd00 ya you right

[@themarkandrus]

For the original arcade you only got 3 continues before it started all over, regardless of how many quarters you put in. I love how this game looks, especially for a game made in 1987, but I had never seen the second area until this video.

[@childofcascadia]

That just seems non conductive to the idea of arcades as super cheap death games designed to trick kids into dumping quarters into machines.

[@dogg-paws]

@@childofcascadia I gotta disagree there, it feels like they're doubling down on that idea instead.

[@thenonexistinghero]

I have a hard time imagining anyone having ever beat the arcade original. Or it even being possible.

[@asteria9963]

@@childofcascadia Emphasis on "seems". Arcade games tend to suffer from "one and done" syndrome. Unless they're really good, many are unlikely to replay them - especially this one. Dragging things out appears to be the right move, at least in this particular case

[@childofcascadia]

@Asteria Oh ya. Good point. I was only thinking of the fact that having to restart from the very beginning once continues ran out youd have a higher level of frustration to the point of where many people would say "screw this" and just not play once they ran out of continues even if they had more money. But, for people who were hooked on it, youd end up with a lot more out of them. I wonder if it actually worked? I dont remember as a kid in the 80s many arcade games that didnt let you keep continuing even with money.

[@xealixcrowing7659]

They slapped this game together in 20 mins threw the name castlevania on it and let the suckers at the arcade do the rest.

[@johndouglas3407]

Ryu's determination to stick through the hottest of garbage is commendable.

[@bezoticallyyours83]

He either likes or has a high tolerance for it.

[@lyrand6408]

Imagine someone played this as their first ever Castlevania game, and because of it never touched any other Castlevania game in the entire history of the franchise.

[@scottmpieper]

Yeah, if the only strategy to win is just to keep walking and take damage, that seems pretty unfair...especially if it was actually gobbling up quarters every time you die

[@Animefanboy4life]

My first Castlevania game was Order of Ecclesia cause Goth Mommy Shanoa. I knew what Castlevania was but like that was the first game I played ever xD

[@kingstarscream3807]

Yeah unfortunately Castlevania is one of those series with a lot of shlock or acquired tastes that are liable to leave a bad first impression for newcomers. See CV64, the Lords of Shadow games, Simon's Quest, CV3, or anything that isn't CV4 or a Metroidvania.

[@djpegao]

Either this or Castlevania 64.... yeah those ones are also terrible

[@Knightimex]

I remember playing this at the arcades before playing CV1. God, this game was DOGSHIT. But I still played castlevania because it didn't say Haunted Castle. I really didn't put the 2 together until I was like 18.

[@BdR76]

Just imagine, this game came out a year after Shinobi, R-Type and Operation Wolf. I mean even back then it was just awful

[@downforwardjab5503]

I was hoping the groom would rip off his tuxedo to reveal his Belmont gear underneath.

[@mewthree6586]

Haven't seen a Belmont get ravaged like this since the inquisition

[@Bloodlyshiva]

When did the Belmonts tangle with the Inquisition?

[@Azuchilimited]

​@@Bloodlyshiva💀💀💀

[@ClexYoshi]

So, fun fact about this game: in it's original release, it actually didn't matter how many quarters you put in the machine; if you died 3 times, it sent you back to the beginning of the game. you could, however, put in quarters in the middle of gameplay to get a full life restore.

[@LordThomasPassion]

What bullshit

[@medes5597]

The full life restore stopped working after a certain number of times too. It depended on what the machine was set to, but it could to as low as three.

[@2ndBreakfassst]

That giant normal Castlevania health bar that and you die in a couple hits from the first skeleton. Definitely a quarter thief of an arcade game.

[@2ndBreakfassst]

Wait I thought the turkey leg was supposed to heal not hurt!

[@Cheesehead302]

That fucking killed me lmao, they have the massive standard Castlevania health bar and then you just get 2 tapped right off the bat.

[@Willowisp927]

@@2ndBreakfassst The turkey leg hurt because the main character must be a vegetarian!

[@bigfest6498]

This game is so cheap it should've been illegal. Talk about a coin guzzler. Coin guzzler is a term used for arcades that were ridiculously hard to beat, causing players to throw quarters into the machine to keep playing.

[@xXHerrZockXx]

7:30 that boulder dude 😆😆😆

[@OMGBBQ1ELEVEN]

Ryu 24:48 - "K I got a bat up my ass"

[@NietypowyKurde]

"Why are there no more upgrades" he says as he runs away from literally every enemy. For real tho the game is difficult to a point. If you learn the patterns (Except the big rock boss) you're basically rolling through it free. Also, the portrait crying blood when the song "Bloody tears" plays is an amazing nod.

[@mattb6522]

I've heard this game was terrible, but, man, I had no idea! This looks to be one of the few major blemishes in Castlevania history! I feel like they didn't even properly playtest this one as it seems even more BS than usual arcade standards! Simont Belmont doesn't deserve this kind of treatment! Much respect to Ryu for putting up with playing through this hot mess!

[@marcellachine5718]

Clearly you have never played or seen the amiga castlevania. This game is actually ok for an arcade game of the day.

[@EmeraldEyesEsoteric]

Yeah, but it has more weapons and whips instead of just getting two immediately. Like what is even the point of the basic whip in Castlevania?

[@devcrom3]

I would really like to see more videos like this where Ryu plays quarter munchers and sees how much money it would have taken to beat it in an arcade.

[@sir_smallbladder]

That would be a great concept honestly!

[@nojuanatall3281]

A friend and myself did that with the Simpsons beat em up at a free to play arcade. We just maxed out our continues and subtracted how many we had left. It would've cost us 40 to 50 bucks each to beat the whole game.

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

There are very few arcade games out there that are as blatant as this.

[@hurd136]

This entry should be called Janklevania, love your patience if that was me I would've quit level 1. If I was 6 year old me when this came out I'd be in tears, a little ball of hateful rage.

[@ThEjOkErIsWiLd00]

Oh god, "Jankle" unfortunately reminded me of the vajankle. :(

[@patrickkilduff5272]

The little dudes right before you fought that glass boss (level3) drop swords...the strongest weapon in the game. It one shots almost everything. You never killed them so you never got it.

[@CouchPotator]

He killed them a lot, but he cut out the footage because they didn't drop anything

[@TheKrensada]

So Ryu, how many quarters did you lose? Also I want you to consider the true horror of this game. Imagine this was the first Castlevania game somebody played.

[@Mr_Top_Hat_Jones]

12:43 Oh shit, it’s Bloody Tears! That makes the game slightly more bearable.

[@danlopretto7222]

I salute you for finishing this game. It was at my local arcade and I once dumped a roll of quarters into it and only got to the stained glass boss.

[@zephyr8072]

Ah yes Haunted Castle. A fine classic alongside Contrarian Aliens and Sneaky Serpent.

[@stevieCMA]

Whoa. I was worried. Thank goodness Drac went after a bride who's new groom is the destined vampire killer.

[@phosphorus4]

whose

[@ggmedia]

Hers.

[@ScramblerUSA]

30:00 - is it where the music for Luigi's Mansion comes from? Sounds weirdly similar...

[@brettf5000]

Missed opportunity for "That game is dope, this game is nope."

[@joshuazhao]

James Rolfe should make an episode on this game and rip it apart as AVGN

[@DaveAdams222]

I wonder how many fellow nerds said something along the lines of "Well . .that's Frankenstein's Monster . . not Frankenstein"

[@blipblap614]

CEO: so then he gets extra health Programmer: what if we just -- CEO: HE GETS EXTRA HEALTH

[@jennasloan396]

"It was an arcade game" That's why it's so stupidly difficult.

[@wordman3624]

It's like Waterworld the arcade game from The Simpsons.

[@ItsMrBozToYou]

Please insert 40 quarters.

[@claude122]

lol the beginning reminded me of double dragon - someone get kidnapped then you have start screen lol same idea

[@sammylane21]

I wonder how many loads of laundry washes didn't get washed because people kept pumping coins into this arcade game??😂

[@danflurry]

You’d walk that way too if there wasn’t a toilet to be found in Transylvania.

[@13JackStorm]

What is this game? A miserable hot pile of garbage

[@8bpianoplayer]

Well played, man of culture

[@13JackStorm]

@@8bpianoplayer Cultured or not, I see Castlevania, I can't help myself.

[@nicoloenricorimoldi7425]

Haunted Castle is what people who don’t like the Classicvanias think they are like.

[@8bpianoplayer]

Ryu, your face in the thumbnail is priceless! Very AVGN-like.

[@niemand7811]

I wonder what developer segment at Konami programmed this mess. They tried to get some high resolution stuff going but instead created a game that could be the final boss of an actual Castlevania game. The graphics were kinda interesting. But the animations are not even beginner level stuff, so bad. Like they had no inspiration. Who agreed to publish a game in this unpolished state?

[@teddyboukagain9985]

It would take a kid hundreds in quarters to beat a 15 minute game like this. Good times

[@valentds]

games nowadays are too easy, but this is just stupid. snes era the best

[@Xero_Kaiser]

Oh god, I remember playing this game as a kid. The one I played was set up on those god awful horizontal tables that forced you to play while hunched over AND had a glass cover over the joysticks that would be digging into your wrists the entire time.

[@Azuchilimited]

Those little table types? They did that into the early 2000s I believe as well, had a little stool style chair at times as well

[@Xero_Kaiser]

@@Azuchilimited Yeah, those were the ones. Most of the time it felt like the chairs only made things worse.

[@amberhamlin9695]

"I don't even care that I am getting decimated by these old dudes" 😂😂 Dance party in level 3!!

[@ThEjOkErIsWiLd00]

God damn, Drac's face melting into the floor @34:49 looks SO bad!

[@nsnick199]

Yo, that Level 3 stained glass boss is totally straight from Young Sherlock Holmes, that's wild

[@jay_cee583]

Wait how do you have infinite credits? When i played this it forced me back to level 1 no matter how many credits I put in.

[@phorchybug3286]

This is just Castlevania in a nutshell.

[@mikestockman951]

The grunt sound effect at 1:39, what’s that from? It sounds very familiar.

[@phosphorus4]

It’s a thwomp, I think from Mario 64

[@overlordalfredo]

Fun Fact the original boss for this game was called Ridicula. And the final stage was called Ridiculas Castle. (Obviously a joke)

[@davemitchell6967]

That Cathedral stain glass boss was inspired by the first ever fully CGI character in a movie: Young Sherlock Jones.

[@Derivshx4]

I was crying laughing at this, not at you but in shared pain. The Castlevania Experience.

[@thegsk]

16:55 totally blew right past the BLOODY TEARS reference. fail.

[@MajinVegeta1983]

Did a quick search there seems to be different versions of the game (possibly based on arcade settings: Ive seen Version M and Version K) that could explain why you lost the morningstar havent gotten a the sworrd,,,, it might be more playable if you can change versions or get a less punishing one

[@krisfrederick5001]

Somehow we never played Castelvania as kids, but we did have 8Eyes. Which I later noticed looks practically the same 👀

[@blipblap614]

28:05 new series: Guess What? It Sucks 😂

[@zax2004]

The internal rage instead of yelling at the screen when you didn't kill the ghost at the top of the stairs in stage 3 that drops the holy sword... ugh. lol I know from the arcade that you get extra hp if you put in more coins. Up to 4 I think.

[@ImaFnT-Rex]

The watch works on bosses LOL

[@aghasaad2962]

It would be cool if you have quarter counter so we can count how much money it takes to beat this game in arcade.

[@TheCow-j1l]

22:10 love how it makes a fart sound effect as it kills you LOL

[@BladedrunnerX1]

The only thing i like about Haunted Castle is the 6th stage music named Don't Wait Until Night, which translated over to Aria of Sorrow as Julius' battle then dubbed Heart of Fire, despite being a song from the original Castlevania

[@sparkledog2631]

There needs to be a mod that replaces all those running little guys with boom booms.

[@chrisandrew7577]

Ryu: I'm alive!! Game: hold my controller

[@dreamlandnightmare]

Actually, this was the first Castlevania ever played. I was 7 years old and played it at a Kroger. I noticed the similarities to Castlevania when I played it on the NES, but I wasn't sure until years later the games were related to one another.

[@SuperNintendies]

I think if you gave it a couple more playthroughs you could do a debunking the difficulty on this one. A no death run is not very difficult once you have some experience with the game and takes less than 20 mins.

[@frozenburst64]

And if you play version E or K instead of M

[@arthursnyder6935]

​@@frozenburst64like most games, some people might even be good enough to beat this on the highest difficulty

[@ashleighnew1119]

“Am I on the floor” had me laughing hard

[@MountainHomeJerrel]

Your video is making me scream, "Nooo!! NOO!" when the bats surround you.

[@Saborlas]

"Who cares, I'm being decimated by these little dudes BUT THE MUSIC IS ROCKIN'!" My dude, that tune is called Bloody Tears and it's largely considered to be one of the best Castlevania songs of all time.

[@illusorywall]

6:28 I had to pause because I couldn't stop laughing. That's the hottest of garbage.

[@timmymeredith7499]

Back in the day I saw a dude put $50 worth of quarters in the arcade machine and he got to the second stage they designed this game to eat money

[@Cheesehead302]

Holy shit no way lmfaooo that's insane

[@timmymeredith7499]

@@Cheesehead302 fifty bucks worth 🤣

[@JediMindG]

Ive realized all games are designed to eat money, sad but true

[@PhantomBlackStar]

7:21 What the jump scare flying crap , did that came from? Lol.

[@jdspencer60]

This reminds me of Waynes World when Noah Vanderhoff is explaining the Gelatinous cube game that you can't beat "so the kids keep pumpin' in quarters."

[@wordman3624]

And the collision detection in this game sucks too.

[@daithiocinnsealach1982]

Why were you not picking up the hearts they dropped for the stop watch?

[@sammylane21]

This game deserves a remake that makes it more playable and enjoyable to play.

[@Datboyjc81]

Castlevania 101: if you NEED a Turkey leg behind the wall, chances are it’s not there. Good luck with your heart 😂

[@marcosviniciusferreira6453]

You need to upgrade your whip twice before you can take the third stage on because with that you can actually kill those jumping strange little guys

[@sabo-vf3xj]

According to the wiki, this one wasn't even supposed to be a Castlevania entry. Supposedly this was meant to be an original horror-themed game before it got retooled into a Castlevania title midway through development. Dunno if that's true, tho.

[@genyakozlov1316]

If that's true then Castlevania wouldn't have Bloody Tears in it, as it's originally from this game, kinda like Shy Guys not being made for Mario.

[@sabo-vf3xj]

@@genyakozlov1316 Bloody Tears debuted on Simon's Quest, which came out in 1987 in Japan. Around 6 months before Haunted Castle was released. Both games actually share the same composer, Kenichi Matsubara (which is credited as the composer of Bloody Tears).

[@bigfreeman18]

"Where the hell did that boulder come from?!?!" LOL

[@dreamlandnightmare]

The stained-glass window knight boss was directly stolen from the movie Young Sherlock Holmes (which, incidentally, was the first CGI character in a movie). In the age of the internet, there's no way they'd be able to get away with that without a copyright suit.

[@legionbeast]

I think this game was parodied on an early Simpsons episode. Milhouse put 4 dollars worth of quarters into an arcade machine and says "This better be worth it." His well animated character takes two steps and he instantly gets a game over, yells "What a rip!", then proceeds to dig out more coins to put in the machine.

[@englishislit7720]

Longest bridge in history! I died laughing at the dang bridge. It just keeps going! Ha, ha, ha.

[@TopShelfTheology]

Holy shit, I never saw this game! You can REALLY see where this informed Super CV4. -Simon's armor design, color, headband -Statues that roll into the foreground as traps -(sidenote: hilarious that he has bombs rather than holy water) -Obligatory underground waterway short corridor with mermen then come back up, lol -Coming up the green staircase in the mist actually reminds me more of that CV3 level -Rockmen -Falling chandeliers -The getting hit sound effect is really similar -(sidenote: Interesting that the axemen's boomerangs are actually still attached by chains, and that the dragons are still meaty, and the detailed flea men) -Haunted/animated tables -Giant golem boss -Speedy vertical tunnel up (this was an elevator, as opposed to racing up staircases to avoid a spiked gear saw across the bottom, but... I knew as soon as you walked in, that you'd be heading up, it looked just like that tower) -Breaking bridge escape Kudos to them for having a stopwatch that's actually worth something. And there's definitely been other arcade games with pay-for-more-life-whenever mechanics, I just can't think of any off the top of my head. I think Gauntlet did that, and maybe a Capcom D&D game. 1943 might have. The cross was *bad ass,* sweet animation there! And honestly, great background art, particularly those lv1 mountains. Also, joke's on you Ryu bc you def complained in the NES CV1 debunking the difficulty vid about how cheesy it is that there's even a whip upgrade at all, when you pretty much get 2 upgrades in your first 2 candles every time you die, and you were all "Why even bother having upgrades?" Missing that feature now? haha That giant morningstar looks really cool though, huge hit box. Bet it feels real satisfying now, huh? ha

[@markula_4040]

Most arcade games let you cheese your way through if you were willing to put in more quarters/tokens as when you died, you just dropped back in immediately. This is one of those less common ones where a death has you restart at a checkpoint. I remember another game like that being the original Gradius, another Konami title. Actually it was worst because it was 1 hit deaths.

[@childofcascadia]

In this game you could see the future of Konami as a producer solely of microtransaction and paywall ridden mobile games.

[@dogg-paws]

Arcade games in general were designed to be difficult so that players would often fail and thus put more quarters to tray again. This isn't unique to Haunted Castle.

[@childofcascadia]

@Doggy Went right over your head there what I was actually saying, didnt it?

[@Willowisp927]

@@childofcascadia It's almost like he is saying that all arcade games were supposed to be difficult and this have nothing to do with Konami. Mindless hater much?

[@alanknotts5975]

*brick to the face takes half his health Me who's been hit in the face with a brick before: Yeah. That checks out.

[@SolitaireZeta]

If you change the region of this game to the Japanese version, it's significantly easier than the North American release.

[@albertwayne2323]

Yes, Japanese and even European version is easier than the American one. Also there was one thing we called in Spain "difficulty switch", it was a physical configuration mode, generally a physical switch that the arcade owner uses to adjust different difficulty modes (it was located inside the machine so only the owner had access to it). Here in Spain arcade owners were famous for turning on max difficulty in every single machine to eat our coins xD But the base difficulty still varies between regions, like European max difficult is like the American normal one and such.

[@ThEjOkErIsWiLd00]

@@albertwayne2323 Just FYI, those are called dip switches.

[@albertwayne2323]

@@ThEjOkErIsWiLd00 thank you!! One more thing to know :P