Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a Castlevania-inspired, retro adventure hitting later this month

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is the closest thing we'll ever get to a new 8-bit Castlevania and I can't wait to get my hands on this thing!

For those of you who remember, Bloodstained was a huge Kickstarter project from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (and every great Castlevania game since) director Koji Igarashi. With Konami shunning the video game market because they're too busy making pachinko machines, Igarashi decided to take matters into his own hands and create a game in the spirit of the later 2D Castlevania games, but with a new franchise that wasn't tied up by a company who refuses to do anything good with it anymore.

The Kickstarter for the game was massively successful, having reached over 10 times the original goal of $500,000. The $4.5 million stretch goal was a brand new 8-bit styled prequel to Bloodstained, which would be a separate title but Kickstarter backers would get a code to download the game for free. Well, that time has come!

This game will be available on May 24th for the following platforms: Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Steam, 3DS, and Vita for $9.99. It seems that the original Wii U platform target for all versions of the game have been switched (pun intended) to the Nintendo Switch. This isn't surprising, since when this game was first announced the Wii U was still a viable platform.

Anyone familiar with Castlevania III will be right at home with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, which puts you in control of four distinct characters, each with their own weapons, attacks and abilities, that you can swap instantly and at will. You'll be playing as Zangetsu the swordsman, Miriam the ranged fighter, Alfred the alchemist and Gebel the vampire.

The visuals are beautiful in that "this could almost have been an actual NES game" style that Shovel Knight nailed so well and should be very much welcomed for any fans of the Castlevania series and retro gamers alike. The soundtrack hits all the right notes (pun intended) to mimic the soundtrack of a lost NES-era Castlevania game.

Hopefully this bonus game is bundled with some versions of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night when it finally releases later this year. I'd happily pay for a deluxe edition of that game with this adventure included. As a collector, it pains me to see amazing games like this trapped on digital distribution services without receiving the physical releases they deserve, so hopefully it manages to get bundled with the full game.

Check out the full trailer here:

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_{^{Images: INTI Creates on YouTube}}