[Castlevania] [Vampire Killer] [Haunted Castle] [Castlevania II: Simon's Quest] [Castlevania: The Adventure] [Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse] [Super Castlevania IV] [Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge] [Dracula X: Rondo of Blood] [Akumajou Dracula X68000] [Castlevania: Bloodlines] [Castlevania: Dracula X] [Castlevania: Symphony of the Night] [Castlevania Legends] [Castlevania 64] [Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness] [Castlevania: Circle of the Moon] [Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance] [Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow] [Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow] [Castlevania: Curse of Darkness] [Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin] [Castlevania: Order of Shadows] [Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles] [Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia] [Castlevania: The Arcade] [Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth] [Castlevania: Harmony of Despair] [Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate]

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Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth
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If Rebirth is all about bringing the series back to the starting line, it's then appropriate that the initial phase of our introduction to the Dark Lord should be handled as it was back in the original NES classic; this is to say Dracula's first form is a fairly constrained version of the Count, who's capable of only teleporting and releasing a wall of three large, slow-moving fireballs. The catch is that the middle fireball slightly trails the one lowest, with the top fireball doing the same to the one placed middle; this makes leaping over the attack a bit more challenging than usual, and attempting to clear them away, one by one, will give Dracula plenty of time to vanish.

Once things get serious, Dracula uses his sacred power to transform into the usual large winged beast, whose attack-pattern quickly becomes obvious but is even then difficult to manage. He'll first spit out a rapid stream of fireballs, diagonally downward and at short range; he'll then jump straight up, four green rays raining down to accompany his descent and ground-shaking landing; he'll finally leap directly over Christopher's head, causing the same four rays to rain down but exactly the position he was in before leaping. Due to the size of the rays and the propensity to somehow forget the simple pattern (as things are more chaotic than they seem), the real challenge will be successfully landing a shot without getting clipped.

The mere trials finally over, Dracula is granted the power to transform into a giant demonic head, its abilities many. The battle takes place in two stages. First you'll focus on the demon's jaw while the head launches its brand of offense--six red symbols/portals appear at random, three on either side of the screen, before exploding and burning for a few seconds; and a number of yellow portals open up top-screen and fire down parallel blasts of lightning (which we've seen before). After the jaw is destroyed in a relatively easy sequence, the head will lower and introduce newer, nastier symbol-based attacks: Two portals will appear and become large heat-seeking electrical orbs that can be repelled and destroyed with some resistance, blue bubble-like formations will drop from open portals then arc back upward, fireballs will pour down from similarly placed portals, and a number of rolling eyeballs will also drop in to clutter the area; it'll later summon in a wave of portals that cause mini-explosions in several on-screen locations. Dracula isn't limited to launching these attacks one a time, as multiple such strikes can be executed at any point, making the encounter random but in any case completely insane; hurting your effort is that the head becomes more resistant to damage as the fight drags on, soon requiring many hits to deplete a single bar of health. Your only help will be the two-level platforms that occasionally and temporarily rise up on either side of the screen, which gives you a window to score clean hits on the head's weakness--its glowing eyes.

 
 
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