I really don't remember my first experience. Growing up, I know I saw a family member play Castlevania 1-4, and I remember dabbling with them all myself, especially 2-4. I thought they were interesting, but I sort of took them for granted as big titles. I don't remember the order of events of when I became a big fan, but I know that Dracula X SNES, Castlevania 64, The Adventure, and Legends played significant roles, IIRC. Dracula X SNES was a revelation, because it had the over-the-top item crashes and a very creative art style different than 4. Castlevania 64 was the series graduating and going toe-to-toe with its NES breathern, Mario 64 and Zelda: OoT, and while not perfect, it did a lot better than people give it credit for and made an impact on me. (In retrospect, it at LoD are the best 3D efforts by a large margin). The Adventure was a portable title with a different direction in its set of enemies and such that felt like it was expanding the lore. Legends was exciting at the time because it was a new Castlevania coming out after becoming more self-aware of the series. I went on to have a fun time with LoD; very memorable experiences with CoM, SotN, and LoI; a middling experience with HoD; an exciting experience with AoS, Belmont's Revenge, and Bloodlines...and after that, it was more or less middling (outside of The Adventure Rebirth, which was excellent for a small download title).