Topic: Your very first Castlevania experience

[Thunderbrand]

Christmas, 1988. I was 8 years old and under the tree were 3 games: Mike Tyson's Punch Out, Contra, and CV1. I was into monsters and all that as a kid and apparently my Mom thought the pic of Drac & the castle on the box art was cool so she bought it for me. Several months later, I got CV2 for my birthday, so at a young age I was totally occupied with the fist 2 games in the series. Needless to say I was hooked from that point on and still very much am. In fact, I was just recently playing my original copy of CV2...still plays flawlessly after all these years.

[DingusBelmondo]

I was a big monster fanatic at the time as well, but Castlevania sent me spiraling into a vampire obsession (not a twilight kind, a badass monster kind) and i picked up Bram Stoker's Dracula and read it from front to back.

[Abnormal Freak]

Castlevania IV. '91. Played it at a cousin's house. I was five.

Yup.

[yunrocks123]

my first castlevani game was dawn of sorrow, back then i was only 10
now i am 14 and have every castlevania game,
castlevania was the reason for me to read Bram Stokers Dracula
....

[PFG9000]

Woah! Wait, WHAT?! Gamestop is Funcoland!??

Yup.  Gamestop bought out Funcoland, Babbages, Software Etc, and Electronics Boutique, and combined them all into one big corporate pile of suckitude.

[Aridale]

I miss funcoland too... that place was a fuckin treasure trove of classic stuff on the cheap

[Notreve Belmont]

The first time I saw a castlevania was when I went to buy an SNES control and saw the salesman playing a game with a guy holding a whip cracking candles and passing through a bridge that fell! Was Super Castlevania 4! After never I found the game to sell up to that with my Playstation 1 bought Castlevania Symphony of the Night and like 99% of people I know who played this game when I defeated Richter Belmont thought it was over! Until a friend of mine said that was not was the very end and I kept the game to finish! After that I tried to learn more about Castlevania and play other games!

[The Silverlord]

1988 or 1989 I think in my case, I'd read up on Treasure of Usas and Vampire Killer in the Konami Software Club (KSC) newsletter but didn't have an MSX2.  I dearly would have liked an MSX2 but they were too expensive, so the family got a NES one Christmas.  Probably for the best.

Remember going into a Boots store some time later and wondering whether to buy Kid Icarus or Castlevania.  Castlevania it was, and at that age I couldn't really wait to get it back home and into the cartridge slot.  I still remember that first level for the first time, whipping away, smashing secret blocks, and going down into the mermen section.  Majestic it was.

[narkolepsi]

When I was about 7, I was at a big family gathering. I was a reclusive child, and liked to sit inside with my games and books. (I haven't changed much.) My cousin had a bag of his gameboy games and I decided to take a look. Inside was Castlevania the Adventure, among others. I remember playing it and falling in love, especially with the music.

Now, Circle of the Moon was just coming out then. Nintendo Power released a special edition, Nintendo Power Advance, to celebrate the release of the GBA. I had that with me, too, and as always it was opened up to the DSS card chart, which I always looked at, in awe of the artwork and references to mythology. But as a prudish 7-year-old girl, a T-rated game was six years ahead of me, and I looked at the guide in total envy and with no small amount of wistfulness.

After this, I didn't pay much mind to Castlevania (egad!) until a trip to NYC in 2008, where we visited Nintendo World. It was there that I found Order of Ecclesia. I saw it, thought "ah, what the heck, it'll be something to take home," and got it. Although Christmas was close at hand, I was allowed to play the game instead of storing it away. My mind was completely and utterly blown. The ending stirred me to tears, partly because I was sad it was over. It was absolutely amazing. I wanted more!

I worked backwards, getting the other two DS games, CV64, the GBA installments, Judgment, LoI, and the Virtual Console titles. I have a pretty big Genesis collection, but I'm still looking for Bloodlines. My focus now is finding CoD. Put simply, I am obsessed.

Funny thing is, my younger sister is a Twilight fanatic. We exchange some pretty nasty words when I bring up the topic: would Edward get past a Belmont? (Helpful hint: no.) Funny how my sister loves vampires, and I kill them.

[Felix]

Back to the year 2000, when I was 6. At a game store, I found a cartidge with the name "Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness". Sure, it was 13+, but in Britain, it's not legally enforceable. Sure, there is a LAW, but, as far as I know, it's just discouraging to sell, not forbbiding. Well, i got that game. Got in love with it, and with the series. And here I am, owning alll of the games.

[Thunderbrand]

I miss funcoland too... that place was a fuckin treasure trove of classic stuff on the cheap

I worked at a local Funcoland for over a year. Needless to say my game collection grew massively during that time 

[Lumas]

Very very very first Castlevania Experience? Well techincally I didn't experience castlevania the game until after a family reunion of mine (My dad side of the family is about the same size as the Belmonts) and I was probably about 7 at the time cause i believe it was 1994 and Bloodlines had just released a few months prior. (I also was a genesis fan) Anyway he came up to me with a bull whip his granddad gave him and said "Hey we are gonna play Castlevania" and I was like "okay cool" even though as a kid I didn't know what the hell he was talkin about. I managed to (well he sort of made it I just kinda watched lol) make a spear out of the wooden handle of a shovel and a really big piece of slate rock and duck tape (which didn't work well if I recall) and play as Eric Lecarde. Soon afterwards I got the game and played the hell out of it and since then I have loved Castlevania.

[Lumas]

When I was about 7, I was at a big family gathering. I was a reclusive child, and liked to sit inside with my games and books. (I haven't changed much.) My cousin had a bag of his gameboy games and I decided to take a look. Inside was Castlevania the Adventure, among others. I remember playing it and falling in love, especially with the music.

Now, Circle of the Moon was just coming out then. Nintendo Power released a special edition, Nintendo Power Advance, to celebrate the release of the GBA. I had that with me, too, and as always it was opened up to the DSS card chart, which I always looked at, in awe of the artwork and references to mythology. But as a prudish 7-year-old girl, a T-rated game was six years ahead of me, and I looked at the guide in total envy and with no small amount of wistfulness.

After this, I didn't pay much mind to Castlevania (egad!) until a trip to NYC in 2008, where we visited Nintendo World. It was there that I found Order of Ecclesia. I saw it, thought "ah, what the heck, it'll be something to take home," and got it. Although Christmas was close at hand, I was allowed to play the game instead of storing it away. My mind was completely and utterly blown. The ending stirred me to tears, partly because I was sad it was over. It was absolutely amazing. I wanted more!

I worked backwards, getting the other two DS games, CV64, the GBA installments, Judgment, LoI, and the Virtual Console titles. I have a pretty big Genesis collection, but I'm still looking for Bloodlines. My focus now is finding CoD. Put simply, I am obsessed.

Funny thing is, my younger sister is a Twilight fanatic. We exchange some pretty nasty words when I bring up the topic: would Edward get past a Belmont? (Helpful hint: no.) Funny how my sister loves vampires, and I kill them.

Also to note, your posts are wonderfully well written.

[DarkPrinceAlucard]

my very first would have to have been Castlevania 64.
but the Castlevania that got me into the series and inspired me to go and play older CV titles is Castlevania Symphony of the Night

[Gunlord]

I don't remember the exact year, but not long after the SNES came out I remember playing SCIV with my best friend