Castlevania: Belmont's Curse resurrects the classic vampire hunting game in bold, bloody fashion - CBC

Entertainment·ReviewBelmont's Curse is mostly a roaring resurrection for the 40-year-old series — but its punishing difficulty could make it hard to recommend to newcomers to the genre. It's an old-school adventure with flair, but difficulty spikes and backtracking may irk playersJonathan Ore · CBC News · Posted: Oct 13, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: October 15Listen to this articleEstimated 7 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results. Rose Belmont is the new main character in Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, the latest in the long-running Castlevania series of video games. (Motion Twin & Evil Empire/Konami)With its monster-fighting action, punishing difficulty and boppy soundtrack, 1986's Castlevania was a standout title on the Nintendo Entertainment System. In the nearly 40 years since, the series has spawned dozens of sequels, spinoffs and crossover media. But the publisher, Japan's Konami, has let it slumber like a vampire in a coffin; its last new instalment came out in 2014.

Updated: Oct 16, 2026 9:03pm UTCThe developers behind Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse are enthusiastic about all the “horny” fanart they’ve seen of the game’s characters, saying they specifically made them "hot" to appeal to fans. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse released on October 15, and you’ve no doubt already seen the wealth of wild reactions to the title from players online — particularly in regards to its character designs. Yes, it’s true; players are thirsty for Trevor Belmont and the various monsters they must fight as they navigate the chaotic streets of Paris, but they shouldn’t feel embarrassed about it. In fact, the devs were counting on this to happen. Speaking with Fall Damage, marketing director and lead designer Bérenger Dupré and Sandro Bordier revealed that they are absolutely loving the thirsty reactions to the game’s characters — and that includes the “horny” fanart that they’ve seen on social media. “Oh, it has started already. Like, man, have we seen some things,” Bordier joked. “Trevor, especially,” Dupré added.

Ambitious, aggressive, and accomplished, Belmont's Curse whips out some of the best Castlevania highs you can experience - but technical issues and some awkward controls means it can all end in bloody tears if you're not careful. In my office, I have a collage of Ordnance Survey maps plastered across my wall. They're from places I've lived - Derbyshire, East London, Bournemouth, Bristol - with cycle routes, country roads, and parks highlighted and circled. It's an atlas of my experiences, a living memoir of the places I've been and the things I've seen. There's magic in a map, its ability to remind you of the paths you've trodden and where you've yet to go.

Image: Nintendo LifeIf you're keeping an eye out for our Castlevania: Belmont's Curse review, we're working on it. In the meantime, Ollie recently had the chance to speak to the voice of Rose herself... Since entering the voice acting scene in 2015, Abby Trott has been making huge waves in the animation and video game industries.

Here’s your NYT Strands hint for today, plus the spangram and all of today’s Strands answers for puzzle No. 959 on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. Today’s Strands theme was tricky. It helps to be a runner. Read on for all the answers.

A supply-chain attack involving ConnectWise’s cloud services has exposed Microsoft 365 customers to unauthorized application access, with researchers reporting successful sign-ins across 173 partner and customer tenants. The incident centres on credentials associated with ConnectWise Cloud Backup, formerly SkyKick, and raises concerns about attackers exploiting permissions already entrusted to business software. ConnectWise has confirmed unauthorized access to application identities within its Cloud Backup environment. In an October 17 update on its service-status page, the company said it was shutting off application access, interrupting customer backups while investigation and remediation continued.