Haunted Castle, the terrible arcade rendition of Castlevania for NES, has inexplicably been republished a few times. Akumajou Dracula for the obscure Japanese X68000 computer was remade on PlayStation as Castlevania Chronicles. Dracula X, the mediocre Super NES conversion of Rondo of Blood, has made its way to Virtual Console several times over.

Nearly every other Castlevania game has seen a reissue of some sort over the past 20 years, even the oddball obscurities.

Bloodlines, however, does not number among these prolific reissues. You can find Castlevania games on every iteration of Virtual Console, on Nintendo’s recent retro NES and Super NES mini-consoles, and even in Hamster’s Arcade Archives series for PlayStation 4. The company doesn’t have any compunctions about cashing in on Castlevania’s history, though.

The only thing happening with the brand in general these days is decidedly violent Netflix cartoon, which will launch a second micro-season later this year. Granted, publisher Konami doesn’t currently appear to have much interest in doing much of anything involving Castlevania. Oh, and there’s one other thing: Bloodlines remains, quite arguably, the most unfairly forgotten Castlevania game ever made. ( Symphony of the Night was ported from PlayStation to Saturn in Japan, but Bloodlines was designed exclusively for Genesis.) The soundtrack saw Michiru Yamane make her debut with the series before going on to become its regular composer. Being a Genesis/Mega Drive game, it was the only Castlevania to have been designed for a Sega platform. Within the expansive Castlevania series, 1994’s Castlevania: Bloodlines stands apart.

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