It goes without saying that, here at Retro Dodo, we’re huge Castlevania fans. Having been there from the humble beginnings of the series on the NES, through to its stunning reinvention in PS1 title Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (helping to co-spawn an entire genre: Metroidvania) and way beyond, it’s been fascinating to see the series evolve and even expand into the world of anime, with its own highly regarded Netflix series.
The Castlevania titles have quite a history, and most of its titles have been collected and made available on modern consoles by publisher, Konami. With Castlevania: Anniversary Collection, which was released alongside two other Anniversary Collections (Contra and Arcade Classics) to celebrate Konami’s 50th anniversary, having launched in 2019, and Castlevania: Advance Collection (which released in 2021) covering 11 Castlevania titles between them (and cutesy NES platformer Kid Dracula, unrelated to Castlevania except for its vampiric theme), you’d think that there may not be many more titles to be brought back from the dead.
Yet if you know your Castlevania, you know that there are a lot more than 11 games in the series; just check out our list of the best Castlevania games for an idea of how many there are!
With less than a third of the games in the series having been re-released on modern consoles, it’s no surprise that Konami are arming players with whips, crosses and holy water once more, as they’ve announced Castlevania: Dominus Collection, and it’s being released today!
Though announced as part of today’s Nintendo Direct showcase, Castlevania: Dominus Collection is actually being released on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation consoles, as well as PC via Steam. So what’s included in the collection?
Castlevania: Dominus Collection brings together a trilogy of highly regarded Nintendo DS games for the first time on home consoles. Previously DS exclusive games, the collection contains Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. All three are fantastic, varied experiences with some absolutely beautiful pixel art, along with each of them having unique elements that set them apart from other games in the series.
As an added bonus, the Castlevania: Dominus Collection also contains 1987 title, Haunted Castle, which brought the Castlevania series to arcades for the first time, in a newly updated edition: Haunted Castle Revisited. This redesigned version of the game is new, having never been released before; however, for proper, old school Castlevania fans, the original Haunted Castle is also included.
A gallery of artwork relating to each game, along with save states and rewind for all included titles, makes this a collection that no Castlevania fan will want to miss out on, especially as it’ll mark the first time that these games (Haunted Castle aside, the original version of which was included on Konami’s Arcade Classics: Anniversary Collection) will have been made available to play beyond the confines of Nintendo’s classic, dual screen handheld.
As Dawn of Sorrow was released in 2005, Portrait of Ruin in 2006 and Order of Ecclesia in 2008, it’s been quite some time since they were last officially available too, so this is one more Castlevania collection that’s absolutely essential.
Though there’s still a few notable omissions in the Castlevania back catalogue on the Switch, such as Symphony of the Night, the most highly regarded title of all in the series (which you can play on PlayStation and Xbox consoles), the Dominus Collection will certainly keep fans busy until Konami eventually plug in the gaps and make every Castlevania title officially playable on all modern consoles. Are you listening, Konami?
