The appeal of Konami’s recently released Castlevania collection is, in theory, that it’s a new way to play three meaty Castlevania adventures from the Nintendo DS era (Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia). But the highlight for me, an avowed and longtime hater of the 1987 game Haunted Castle, is something new: Haunted Castle Revisited, a remake of Konami’s awful attempt to bring Simon Belmont’s battle against Dracula to arcades.

Konami released the original Haunted Castle about a year after the original Castlevania came to Nintendo’s Famicom Disk System in 1986. A reimagining of Simon’s original adventure, Haunted Castle sends our hero on a mission to rescue his new bride Selena from her kidnapper Dracula. Armed with a whip and other collectible weapons, Simon faces familiar threats like Medusa, Frankenstein’s monster, and a giant rock golem.

The original Haunted Castle did have a few things going for it — namely large sprites and catchy music. But Haunted Castle was punishingly difficult, awkward to control, and poorly animated. The original Castlevania was challenging, too, but Haunted Castle’s difficulty spikes were brutal and often unfair, seemingly designed to steal quarters from innocent young players who loved the NES original and were lured in by fancy graphics. (This innocent young player is me.)

Haunted Castle Revisited takes the basic framework of the original Haunted Castle and transforms it into a classic Castlevania action side-scroller. Developer M2 and Keisuke Koga, who designed Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth, a slick remake of the first Game Boy Castlevania game, are responsible for turning Haunted Castle around in 2024. The developer has streamlined the difficulty, redesigned levels and enemy encounters, and given Haunted Castle a major graphical glow-up with Revisited. Simon is now nicely animated and much easier to control.

On the game’s normal difficulty setting, Haunted Castle Revisited is reasonably easy to complete, in part thanks to generous checkpoints, continues, and an option to select levels from the main menu. There’s a hard difficulty setting, too, which remixes enemy layouts and introduces new enemy variants that aren’t in the normal setting. The hard version is incredibly fun — challenging, but not punitively difficult.

The biggest upgrade in Haunted Castle Revisited is the game’s bosses. They’ve all been reimagined in some way, but two of the (six) boss fights stand out among the rest: the Stained Glass Knight and the final battle against Dracula himself. I won’t spoil them, because they’re worth experiencing for yourself, but they’re now inventive and exciting spectacles.

M2 has even given Simon’s whip an upgrade. Like other classic Castlevania games, Simon can power up his iconic weapon from standard leather bull whip to morning star by collecting orbs. Haunted Castle Revisited adds an extra layer to this; Once Simon’s whip is upgraded, any orbs he collects will give him a temporary power up, giving it greater reach and a wider hurtbox. It’s a small detail, but it adds a sense of urgency to play — you’ll want to get the most out of your super-charged whip while you can.

Haunted Castle Revisited may not be the biggest draw in Konami’s new Castlevania Dominus Collection, but for fellow Castlevania lovers who played and despised the original Haunted Castle, the remake is worth playing. It has transformed a blight on the franchise into a fresh-feeling, classic Castlevania game, the likes of which we haven’t seen in many years.

Castlevania Dominus Collection was released Aug. 27 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.