Play Haunted Castle (version M) Online

Haunted Castle, originally a 1988 arcade game by Konami and now playable through MAME, is a side-scrolling action title from the era when developers were still figuring out how to translate gothic horror into a challenging, quarter-munching experience. It doesn't have the polish of later Castlevania titles, but it presents a raw, almost mean-spirited version of the castle that would become so familiar.

You control a knight, Simon Belmont in all but name, who must fight through six stages to rescue his bride from Dracula. Your primary tools are a whip that can be powered up and a selection of sub-weapons like axes and holy water, found by breaking candles. The level design is full of instant-death traps, from sudden spike pits to chandeliers that drop without warning, and enemy placements feel deliberately cruel. The pacing is relentless, and the difficulty is notoriously unforgiving, making every screen a tense calculation of risk. It feels like a brutal, slightly unrefined test of patience and memorization.