The graphics of Castlevania are eerie and rightfully so. From the broken down walls of inside the Count's mansion to underneath the ground into the caves, each place was designed taking advantage of every last bit of graphics it could use in 1987! One of my favorite stages is the 3rd stage where your on the tower/balcony and you can see other towers in the background and forests and the night sky. It definitely pays attention exactly to the detail of the real Count Dracula from "Bram Stoker's Dracula", the novel.

The enemies were flawlessly done and without question (maybe an exception would be the zombies with the purple rags) done right. The enemies in the game were all taken from historical movies, novels, and stories and were all designed to be exactly like their counterparts. For example; the monster of Frankenstein moved slow and wandered aimlessly like he would and the Grim Reaper floated and disappeared like he would if one were to encounter him (God forbid!). The candles which harbor items are easy to see and the whip Simon uses was nicely designed and looks to have the texture of an actual real life whip.

Castlevania has some of the best NES adventure music to offer anywhere. The opening theme to the game (Vampire Killer) is one of the most awesome tunes ever and it sets the tune for the whole game; as a warrior braves the dangerous castle in search of the wicked count (take that grade 4 English!). The music keeps on getting better throughout the game, the 3rd stages music is poetry for the ears and Dracula's theme kicks ass!

The sound effects are pretty much average, with the real effects coming from small explosions of your enemies as you whip them or the overall sound of your whip as you throw it around! The sound from Simon when he gets hurt can be heard in the other Castlevania games as well as in Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link when Link gets hurt.

There are of course other weapons. These sub-weapons include: a cross-boomerang, an axe, a stop watch, a cross, dagger, and some holy water. The boomerang shaped like a cross will come back to you once thrown, the axe is thrown upward and can hurt enemies to far to reach, the stop watch will freeze all enemies on the screen for 5 seconds, the cross will kill all enemies on the screen, the dagger can be thrown straight at an enemy from a long distance, and the holy water hurts anything it touches and creates fire on the ground. These sub-weapons run on the hearts you collect and cannot be used without the right amount.

You can jump with A, whip with B, and you press up on the d-pad + B and you can use a weapon which Simon has. As for moving the udde... well... like many Castlevania games that would come later on, the Belmont clan suffers a lot from stiff jumping and slow walking. Basically, Simon can't change direction in mid-air which makes it hard to dodge attacks from enemies. Also, almost any enemy can outrun Simon; zombies, flea men, bats, etc. 

Oh, we can't forget about the drunken paralysis Simon comes into when he climbs a staircase can we? You can climb the staircase by pressing up on the d-pad, however you can't jump on the stairs as easy as you would like to believe. Also, when you want to climb down a staircase you must press down and if there is a pit below (which happens near the end of the game) you, might just fall straight down by mistake!