Wallachia: Reign of Dracula

Mar 25, 2021

Wallachia: Reign of Dracula is a solid, old-school experience. The decision to make this more of a shooter than a faithful Castlevania-style clone can be initially jarring, but it feels natural thanks to some excellent arrowplay and good boss fights. The high difficulty level due to some design decisions stretches out the seven-stage experience, but the endless continues make that bearable. While it may not appeal to everyone, those looking for something that mimics a good 16-bit adventure shooter will find this to be an easy recommendation.

Jul 9, 2020

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Nov 13, 2020

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Oct 29, 2020

It might be more old-school than other similar games, but Wallachia: Reign of Dracula still offers rewarding action, skilful level design, and some excellent music. With Konami seemingly content to sleep on its popular Castlevania series for the time being – outside of smartphone games, of course – this (alongside the likes of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and its sequel) might be as close as we're likely to get to a brand-new "old-school" Castlevania outing on Switch. It's a good job, then, that Migami Games knows Konami's franchise so well that it has created a truly convincing imitation – but one which has enough ideas of its own to stand out from its inspiration.

Mar 11, 2020

I don’t remember the last time I liked a game so much even though I really hated its controls. Ironically enough, it must have Castlevania 64, now that I think about it. I really liked almost everything Wallachia: Reign of Dracula had to offer: its visuals, its really good voice acting, its overall gameplay loop, its new take on the whole “Dracula hunting” schtick, and so on. If only its controls weren’t so clunky and the if only the button mapping wasn’t so limited and nonsensical, Wallachia could have ended up being one of the biggest surprises of the year.

Dec 2, 2020

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Nov 30, 2020

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May 13, 2021

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Oct 29, 2020

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Oct 29, 2020

Though I appreciate you can save and quit without losing progress, I do wish stages had more checkpoints. I often would have to start from the very beginning of a stage after dying several sections in, which is irritating. But as an old school gamer, there wasn’t anything game-breaking here. Hell, there’s not even knockback on the easier difficulties. It just might be more of a challenge for those unversed in such adventures. Overall, I’d recommend this to fans of retro games who want something new to check out.