The Castlevania series has a rich history on Nintendo consoles ever since the original game came first to the Japanese Famicom Disk System way back in 1986, and then to the NES a year later. There may be a significant release or two from Konami’s vampire-killing catalogue still missing from Nintendo platforms (we’re looking at you, Symphony of the Night), but the vast majority of the series can be found on Nintendo consoles.
But where should you start if you’re new to the Castlevania series? Which Castlevania game is the best? Those are tough questions, but we’ve whipped up a ranked list of the best Castlevania games (on Nintendo consoles) below, as rated by Nintendo Life readers.
The series has many high points, plus a couple of very low ones, and comes in two distinct flavours: the more straightforward right-to-left style of the original games or the more expansive brand of Koji Igarashi-produced games — sometimes referred to as ‘IGAvanias’ — which combined spiritually with Nintendo’s Metroid series to birth an entire genre of ‘Metroidvania‘ video games.
For Switch owners, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection should obviously be your first port of call, with the following Castlevania Advance Collection containing one of the very best games in the series, and, most recently, the Castlevania Dominus Collection bringing the DS trilogy to modern consoles. Those collections themselves don’t feature in this ranking — only the games within — but rest assured that every one’s a winner.
The Castlevania series has a rich history on Nintendo consoles ever since the original game came first to the Japanese Famicom Disk System way back in 1986, and then to the NES a year later. There may be a significant release or two from Konami's vampire-killing catalogue still missing from Nintendo platforms (we're looking at you, Symphony of the Night), but the vast majority of the series can be found on Nintendo consoles.
But where should you start if you're new to the Castlevania series? Which Castlevania game is the best? Those are tough questions, but we've whipped up a ranked list of the best Castlevania games (on Nintendo consoles) below, as rated by Nintendo Life readers.
The series has many high points, plus a couple of very low ones, and comes in two distinct flavours: the more straightforward right-to-left style of the original games or the more expansive brand of Koji Igarashi-produced games — sometimes referred to as 'IGAvanias' — which combined spiritually with Nintendo's Metroid series to birth an entire genre of 'Metroidvania' video games.
For Switch owners, the Castlevania Anniversary Collection should obviously be your first port of call, with the following Castlevania Advance Collection containing one of the very best games in the series, and, most recently, the Castlevania Dominus Collection bringing the DS trilogy to modern consoles. Those collections themselves don't feature in this ranking — only the games within — but rest assured that every one's a winner.
