The Castlevania Anniversary Collection isn't perfect, but it shows there are signs of life within Konami

Castlevania Anniversary Collection

Konami's Castlevania Anniversary Collection traces the origins of the historic vampire franchise. Included is a unique eBook with details provided by developers, artists and others inspired by the Castlevania legacy which sheds a fresh light into the world of Castlevania.

Undead, with a dark soul and a penchant for sucking the blood from the young - but hey, that's enough about Konami, because we're here to talk about one of the series that made this once-great company's name.

I'm talking about Castlevania, of course, which, as part of a run of releases as Konami celebrates its 50th anniversary, saw a compilation release last week on Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. And it's a decent one, at that - a sizeable step forward from the merely adequate Arcade Classics Collection that launched last month.

You can put part of that down to M2's involvement this time out, which isn't so much a slight on Hamster's ports in the Arcade Classics Collection and more an acknowledgement that M2 remain the masters at this line of work. The Castlevania Anniversary Collection isn't quite the measure of M2's very best work - it lacks the detailing seen in the Sega Ages games, and feels relatively functional - but these are excellent versions of exquisite games.

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