Castlevania Anniversary Collection (悪魔城ドラキュラ アニバーサリーコレクション Akumajō Dorakyura Anibāsarī Korekushon?) is a compilation package that includes eight selected classic titles from the Castlevania franchise. It was released on May 16, 2019 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam and Nintendo Switch and on October 21, 2020 on Amazon Luna.
The product is part of Konami's "Anniversary Collection" series, celebrating the company's 50th anniversary, with the other two compilations being Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection and Contra Anniversary Collection.
Features[]
The collection provides several modern features and additional content for all games, including:
- Option to select from a number of display settings:
- Original
- Pixel perfect
- 16:9
- 4:3 scanlines
- Pixel perfect scanlines
- 16:9 scanlines
- Option of picking from three different border frames to use during gameplay.
- Achievements/Trophies (except for Switch)
- Bonus e-book titled "The History of Castlevania: Book of the Crescent Moon" packed with new information about the titles, including interviews with the development staff, behind-the-scenes insights, and sketches and design documents never before revealed to the public.
- Bonus Japanese versions of the games (except for Simon's Quest).
List of games[]
The compilation includes eight selected classic titles from the Castlevania series:
- Castlevania (originally released on NES/Famicom in 1986-87)
- Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (originally released on NES/Famicom in 1987)
- Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (originally released on NES/Famicom in 1989-90)
- Super Castlevania IV (originally released on SNES/SFC in 1991)
- Castlevania: The Adventure (originally released on Game Boy in 1989)
- Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge (originally released on Game Boy in 1991)
- Castlevania: Bloodlines (originally released on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1994)
- Kid Dracula (originally released exclusively on Famicom as Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun in 1990)
Development[]
On March 12, 2019 the AustralianClassification published a rating for an application made by Konami Digital Entertainment titled "Castlevania Anniversary Collection" (classification number #283605). The product was rated "PG" and intended to be cross-platform.
On March 19, 2019 Konami announced via its official site the upcoming release of three compilation titles celebrating its 50th anniversary; these include: Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, Castlevania Anniversary Collection and Contra Anniversary Collection.
On April 18, 2019, coinciding with the worldwide release of Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, the four remaining titles in the lineup were revealed and a release date was announced for May 16 of the same year.
The initial release of the collection only included the localized versions of the games. The original Japanese versions (which are usually known for having more content and being uncensored) for almost all games (with Simon's Quest being the only exception) were released in a post-launch update on June 19, 2019.