Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon does a lot to remind players of Castlevania.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is authentic (frustrating) Castlevania action

In a surprise May 12 announcement, former Castlevania director Koji Igarashi announced the imminent release of an 8-bit-style prequel to his crowdfunded Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. This separate game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, is out now for PC and consoles (including 3DS and Vita) for $10. Where Ritual of the Night is a spiritual successor to the PlayStation’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Curse of the Moon takes on the style of the Nintendo Entertainment System’s Castlevania and Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. Developer Inti Creates produced this spinoff for Igarashi, and the studio maintained as much of the look and feel those classics — and this includes some of the more unforgiving mechanics.

I’ve played through the first six stages of Curse of the Moon, and I think I’m getting near the end of this compact experience. After a handful of hours, however, I already considered it a success at what Inti Creates set out to do. This is like a light version of Shovel Knight by way of the Castlevania series, which is a compliment for a game that only exists because it was a bonus goal in a Kickstarter campaign.

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