The 8 best Castlevania games of all time, ranked
Following a 13-year hiatus broken by the launch of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse earlier this year, Polygon has ranked the eight best installments in Konami’s vampire-themed franchise. The curated list explores how multiple decades defined the series, providing newcomers and returning fans with an ideal starting point.
The ranking highlights standout 16-bit entries, beginning with Super Castlevania 4 on the Super Nintendo. Featuring Simon's versatile eight-directional whipping, grappling abilities, and early Mode 7 graphical effects, it remains widely accessible through the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. On the Genesis, Castlevania: Bloodlines offered an unusually modern World War I setting across international locations like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, introducing a spear-wielding hero alongside traditional whip combat, paired with a score by composer Michiru Yamane.
The overview also spotlights rarer classics. Castlevania Chronicles, a challenging 1993 Sharp X68000 remake of the 1986 original, modernized the series' foundational design. Meanwhile, the acclaimed Castlevania: Rondo of Blood suffered years of obscurity on the PC Engine CD before later PSP and Virtual Console releases, vastly outperforming Dracula X, an inferior Super Nintendo conversion that stripped away its signature branching stages.
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