Board Thread:Other games/@comment-3200351-20130227141546

Vampire Killer and Haunted Castle are called the same as Castlevania (Akumajo Dracula) in Japan. This might be weirder than you think because "Akumajo Dracula" was not the definite name of the series back in those days. You also had "Dracula II", "Dracula Densetsu" and "Akumajo Densetsu". Also, these three games have the same protagonist, the same story, use the same logo, and also use the same artwork.

The common assumption is that Vampire Killer and Haunted Castle are "remakes" of the original Castlevania. However, I disagree with this because the two games are very different from Castlevania.

My theory is that Vampire Killer and Haunted Castle were intented to be ports of Castlevania for the MSX and Arcade but due to various reasons (hardware limitations etc) they turned out different.  