Play Akumajou Dracula - Vampire Killer (Japan) Online

You creep through sprawling castle mazes, hunting skeleton keys while dodging cheap enemy spawns—it’s Castlevania’s weird, janky Genesis cousin that plays more like a clunky Metroid. That floaty jump will mess you up, but the soundtrack? Pure 16-bit Konami gold.

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Game Overview

So Vampire Killer is this weird, early Castlevania prototype for the Genesis—except it plays nothing like the later games. Instead of linear stages, you’re running through these maze-like castles, hunting down skeleton keys to unlock new paths. Feels more like an action-adventure game than the classic whip-and-stairs formula.

It’s janky in that 80s Konami way—enemies spawn right on top of you, jumps are weirdly floaty, and good luck figuring out where to go without trial and error. But there’s something cool about how experimental it is. You can tell they were still figuring out what Castlevania should be, and this is one of those lost alternate directions. Definitely more of a curiosity than a must-play, but neat for series die-hards.

Also, the soundtrack slaps. Of course it does—it’s Castlevania.