Eighteen Years Later, 2D Castlevania Is Finally Coming Back - And Early Impressions Are Good

I still remember the click of a GBA cartridge going in. That specific one. And I remember how, for years, Castlevania was just *there* - a new one arriving like clockwork, each a small gothic world you could fold into a backpack.

Then it stopped. Order of Ecclesia landed in 2008 and that was it for proper 2D Castlevania. Eighteen years. A whole childhood's worth of nothing.

So yes, honestly, this one got me: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is real, it's coming October 15, and the first hands-on impressions out of IGN's three-hour preview are genuinely warm. Their read is that Evil Empire's take looks poised to live up to the standards its predecessors set - which, given those predecessors, is not a small sentence to type.

Why Evil Empire is the right call

This is the Dead Cells studio. That matters more than a logo on a box. Dead Cells was built by people who clearly loved Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow and weren't shy about it - the movement, the weight of a hit, the way a room asks you to come back later with the right tool. Handing them the actual keys to the castle feels less like a licensing deal and more like someone finally noticing who'd been doing the homework.

The hook this time: Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, and a castle that decides to manifest in the middle of Paris. A new Belmont, a city instead of a countryside - that's a series willing to move rather than just re-photograph its own greatest hits.

The bit I quietly appreciate most

Switch gets it on day one. Same date as PS5, Xbox Series and PC.

That sounds small. It isn't. We've all watched the pattern - the Switch version announced later, shipped months behind, treated like an afterthought for the platform where a 2D Castlevania arguably belongs most. Konami didn't do that here. The series that basically raised a generation of handheld kids is going home on time.

I'm not going to pretend a preview is a verdict. Three hours is three hours, and plenty of games have charmed early and wobbled later. But an 18-year wait ending with "this might actually be worth it" is about the best news I could have asked for on a Friday.

I've got a spot on the shelf ready. It's been empty a while.

Image: Evan-Amos / Public domain, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nintendo-Switch-Console-Docked-wJoyConRB.jpg