A playthrough of Konami's 1991 action game for the Super Nintendo, Super Castlevania IV.

Super Castlevania IV was released in December of 1991 - three months after the North American launch of the SNES - and despite its rather lackluster sales, it was one of the brightest highlights of the SNES line-up heading into the holiday season.

According to Konami of Japan, Super Castlevania IV was a remake of the original Castlevania (   • Castlevania (NES) Playthrough  ), but before Igarashi declared himself the lord of Castlevania canon, Konami of America maintained that it was the direct sequel to Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (   • Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest (NES) P...  ). Regardless of which you choose to view it as, the basics are the same: You are Simon Belmont, vampire hunter and wielder of the legendary "Vampire Killer" whip. Dracula has taken it upon himself to raise a ruckus in Transylvania, and since Simon is not okay with that, he sets off on an eleven-stage quest to destroy the prince of darkness.

Moving the series from the aging NES to the 16-bit SNES opened the door to a wide range of new possibilities, and Konami leveraged those possibilities to their fullest in Super Castlevania IV. The game takes full advantage of the power afforded by the new hardware to deliver atmospheric visuals that pop thanks to the increased color depth and the fancy effects (transparencies, object scaling and rotation) that weren't possible on competing machines, and the sample-based soundtrack is moody, understated, and nothing short of amazing.

The gameplay saw some nice upgrades, too. The controls are less rigid than they were in the 8-bit titles, Simon can now whip in all eight directions (or swing the whip about limply at an arm's length), and the difficulty level is far more manageable than Castlevania III's (   • Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (NES...  ).

Super Castlevania IV was an impressive showpiece in 1991 - just as much as Nintendo's own SNES games were - and it aged incredibly well, still being regarded as one of the system's best games at the end of the generation despite being one of its earliest releases.

And that final fight! What an epic finale to an epic game. The way Simon's theme dramatically kicks in for the finish is enough to send a shiver up anyone's spine.

(I actually just did an SNES arrangement of that very theme, too! If you'd be interested in taking a listen, you can find it here:    • ♫THEME of SIMON (Super Castlevania IV...  )
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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