Castlevania Turns 40, And Konami Might Have Simply Teased A 3D Assortment

Castlevania celebrated its fortieth anniversary this week–an spectacular milestone in video video games and a terrifying pair of numbers for anybody who was born in 1987. Konami marked the event with a brand new video paying tribute to the unique whip-slinging hero of the 1986 Famicom sport, in addition to all the different influential entries within the Castlevania collection during the last 4 a long time. It is a cute little retrospective, and it may also be teasing one thing else from Konami, if our tinfoil-hat-speculation is true.

Proper close to the tip of the video, Castlevania’s first protagonist, Simon Belmont, takes a fast stroll previous a collection of non-ruined portraits in Dracula’s fortress. Eagle-eyed observers will observe that these characteristic cowl artwork from three of the 3D-era games–Lament of Innocence, Curse of Darkness, and Lords of Shadow. The fourth one is for Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, which launches in October 2026. May Konami be teeing up a brand new compilation that bundles collectively the PS2 and Xbox 360/PS3-era 3D Castlevania video games?

The corporate is not saying something, and there is a good likelihood that the video games had been chosen purely as a result of they nonetheless have a few of the finest cowl artwork within the franchise. They’re fairly neat, artistically! However a Castlevania assortment is not unusual, as Konami has launched just a few of those up to now. The Castlevania Anniversary Assortment from 2019 collected eight video games spanning the primary 10 years of the collection, and the Castlevania: Dominus Assortment bundled all three DS-era video games alongside the 1988 Haunted Fortress arcade sport.

What Konami did verify is that it’s going to maintain gross sales for choose Castlevania titles, new vinyl document soundtracks for traditional video games can be found to preorder, and Castlevania on cell can also be free for a restricted time via the iOS and Android shops.

For Castlevania followers, subsequent month’s launch of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse marks a serious second for the collection. Following the discharge of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 in 2014, the online game collection went on hiatus, apart from the 2 compilations launched. The Castlevania animated diversifications launched for Netflix proved that there was nonetheless an urge for food for the IP, and final 12 months, it was introduced that the developer of The Rogue Prince of Persia–Evil Empire–was reviving castlevania for PC and console.

Thus far, Belmont’s Curse seems like a return to the collection’ roots, because it follows Rose Belmont via the ruined streets of Paris on her quest to cease Dracula. The sport will allow you to flip powerful bosses into highly effective allies, and a demo for it can go reside on October 1 forward of its October 15 launch date. Past that, there’s hope that we may see extra Castlevania sooner or later, as Konami’s resolution to outsource growth to studios like Bloober Group and Display Burn has led to a number of wonderful new entries which have redefined what Silent Hill may be.

It seems prefer it’s repeating this strategy with Castlevania, and a compilation of the cult-classic 3D video games sandwiched between new releases could be a enjoyable method to kickstart a Castlevania renaissance.