The story is set 26 years after the events that would take place in Castlevania Legends for the Game Boy (Simon isn't born yet), as the new Belmont, Trevor, is called upon by the people of Warakiya to help destroy Dracula, even though the Belmont's were banished after Sonia fought him, due to the fear of their powers. Not showing any hard feelings, Trevor heeds the call and enters Warakiya to begin his adventure to stop Dracula. Though, unlike with Simon (his great great grandson I believe), he is not starting at Castlevania and instead has to deal with Dracula's Army all around Transylvania. Due to this, he will need some help and the help comes in the form of three people: Grant DaNasty, a Pirate who's family was killed by Dracula and who fought Dracula, but was beaten and transformed into a monster and forced to guard the Clock Tower. Sypha Belnades, a magician with great powers, she became a Vampire Hunter after having a bad life and wishing to fight the forces of evil, but she was turned to stone by the Cyclopes.

Then, there is Alucard (also Kid Dracula), the son of Dracula. He was awakened by Dracula to help fight Trevor, but Alucard, seeing his father's evil ways and more or less being 1/2 Human himself and being like his mother, didn't wish to and instead decided to rebel against his father and stop his act. Previously he helped Sonia Belmont (Trevor's mother) fight Dracula and afterwards, hid himself away from the world to submerge his cursed bloodline. With these three people willing to help Trevor, only one of them can fully join him and that's your choice to who. If you wish, Trevor may go alone, but it'll be a long and hard battle... and so, there you have it. The story's actually the best story for a Castlevania game this far and I really liked it. With more than just a Belmont this time and the choice of using characters other than someone with a whip, there's definitely room for tons of fun here.

This is perhaps the category which immortalizes CV3 the most... the look of the game. The backgrounds are very impressive and they give the game its spookiness/anything-can-happen feel. The marsh was one stage that had this; you'd go onto a cliff and see foggy mists and thunder and lightning... shit... there's places where I live that have identical stuff like that. That's how realistic-looking it appeared!

One of the stages that I enjoyed the most was the Clock Tower. The animation in the gears and the pendulums were wickedly done. The enemies were made a tad bit better, but basically familiar and similar to the other two games. Trevor and the gang look great enough; Trevor by the way has his pixilated face like Simon had in the other two CV games and the dudes from Contra had. The thing about this game though was that things happen quicker and a lot more things happen; things such as blocks falling from ceilings, bridges breaking, and all sorts or background animation like the gears in the Clock Tower.

The music in Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is awesome. The music sounds more gothic and freaky than ever and is addictive... a NES trademark if there ever was. Listen to the opening music (which rules), and then the first stage music (which is the best track in the game called, "Beginning"). Better yet, go to the main select screen and do the Sound Test trick (A, B and Start at the same time) to have your choice of listening to any track your little heart desires. Trust me... after hearing some of the music this game has to offer, you're going to want to do just that. The music is one of the best parts of the game, in my opinion, and makes the game that much more fun to play, as if it couldn't be any more fun to begin with.

Castlevania 3, plays very similarly to Castlevania. It's a 2D side-scroller. Your main weapon is your upgradeable whip which we all know is the almighty, legendary Vampire Killer. You can have any number of special weapons in your arsenal which use Hearts that you gain from enemies and candles.

The weapons in which Trevor Belmont uses are: Daggers, Stop Watch, Holy Water, Axe, and Boomerang. The other three players have their own unique array of weapons:

Sypha Belnades: Has her magic spells to use (a fireball I think).

Grant DaNasty: Can only use a Dagger and axe. 

Alucard: Can transform into a bat which uses hearts per second. 

Should I mention that you can switch characters (after meeting them of course) by pressing Select. One more extra that makes it's debute in this Castlevania is the fact that at times you can change paths while playing. This game is actually non-linear, meaning that you can choose to go to another stage over another one; thus changing meeting with other characters, and missing out on certain bosses, etc. The game begins very nicely to have you get used to how it works but slowly and steadily becomes very difficult.

Control in this game could have been better, but as you know from the last two NES games, the classic control scheme you expect will not be changed no matter how bad it is! One button is for jump, one button is for attacking, and holding up and the attack button enables you to throw a special weapon. This is the nice part of the control. The downside is when it comes to controlling the special helpers, especially Alucard. It becomes extremely frustrating to control Alucard when he is a bat. You will also die a lot when trying to walk around upside down with Grant, because the control becomes a little slippery. For the most part, however, the control in this game is really solid.

The game begins easy but then gets very hard very quick just after the first 4 stages or so. There's plenty of enemies who crowd the screen and then there's those cursed Medusa heads, there's always a couple of pits somewhere and Death, after being a pussy in CV2, comes back stronger than ever this time around (he has 2 forms to defeat!). Not to mention that Dracula himself has 3 forms... if you ever get to him. They throw everything at you in the last stage... crumbling platforms, dragon heads, medusa heads, or any combination of the three.

Like I said earlier,  starts pretty simple, but it gets insane towards the end. Some of the later bosses are just reprisals of earlier ones though which helps a bit. In addition, passwords help a LOT. Let's not forget the "HELP ME" code. Now, put all that in mind and remember the fact that you can't jump or move very well. It's gonna be very hard to dodge stuff especially when you can't run that fast either!

Overall, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse is not only the best NES Castlevania game, but easily one of the top ten NES games ever created. Non-linear gameplay, multiple characters, challenging play (even though a bit TOO challenging sometimes), multiple paths to take in the game, and four different endings have you play this game over and over again until you find and experience everything. 

The minute you play this game, you won't mind playing it again and again to see all Konami put in the game for you to see. Not pricey at all on E-Bay, any serious gamer should have this game in his/her collection. It's a must have for sure. One play through and you'll see why.