Vampire Killer

While Vampire Killer shares the same premise, background music, characters and locations as the original Castlevania, the structure of the game and its play mechanics differ significantly from its NES counterpart. Like Castlevania, Vampire Killer consists of 18 stages, with a boss encounter at the end of every third stage. But in contrast to the linear level designs in Castlevania, Vampire Killer features more labyrinth-like stages, requiring the player to seek out the exit to the next stage and find the skeleton key required to unlock it. Due to the hardware limitations of the MSX2, Vampire Killer uses flip screens instead of scrolling. The game can be played with a keyboard or a game controller.

Items and weapons can be obtained by breaking through candle stands and certain walls like in the NES version, and by purchasing them from merchants hidden throughout the castle or by unlocking treasure chests using keys. Simon's default whip can be replaced with one of four weapons: a chain whip, throwing daggers, a battle ax, and a battle cross - the latter two function both like a boomerang and must be retrieved on their return path if the player wishes to preserve them.

Time Extension placed Vampire Killer fourth last on its list of ranked Castlevania games. It was described that it "is a rather unusual attempt to expand the original game in new and interesting ways, and proves that right from the beginning, Konami was clearly aware that Castlevania was a franchise which could easily evolve beyond its action-platforming origins. The problem is that this attempt to create a sort of action-RPG hybrid is badly undone by its non-linear structure (which involves searching looping levels in order to find keys) and the MSX2's infamous inability to handle smooth scrolling – screens 'flip' from one to the other when you reach the edge of a room. It's an interesting historical footnote, but beyond that, Vampire Killer isn't worth the eye-watering price the original version now changes hands for."