About This File
Vampire Killer, known as Akumajō Dracula (悪魔城ドラキュラ?, officially translated Devil's Castle Dracula)[1] in Japan, is a platform-adventure game produced by Konami and released in 1986 for the MSX2 computer platform in Japan and Europe.[2] It was in development around the same time as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game Castlevania, which shares the same title in Japan.[3] The MSX2 version of Akumajō Dracula was released in Japan on October 30, 1986,[4] a month following the NES version,[5] making it the second game in the Castlevania series. It was the first Castlevania game released in Europe. It was never released in North America.
In contrast to the more traditional platform gameplay of the NES Castlevania, the MSX Vampire Killer was instead a more open-ended platform game.[3]The game's non-linear design had a similar structure to Metroid released that same year.[6] The game laid the foundations for the open-ended action-adventure platform gameplay later seen in the 1987 title Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, 1997 title Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and most 2D Castlevania games following it.[7]
