Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse review - a fantastic action game, a less than stellar Metroidvania

Writing about new 2D timeloop metroidvania Echo Weaver is tricky because most - possibly all - of what you need to complete it is available to you the very second you first wake up, deep in the charnelpools of an ethereal and shattered lunar civilisation. The plot in brief: you are a perpetually rewinding robot boy on a mission to work out what the hell happened. You'll explore overgrown biomes, investigate busted machines, run errands for a handful of scrappy, splashy-hued aliens, and conjure holographic flashbacks that cover the circumstances of your own creation. Developers Moonlight Kids stress that the only thing you really gain in the course of all this is knowledge. There are a few upgrades to gather, but no core skills to unlock. Instead, it's all there for you to learn, whether by reaching a tutorial area or just by hitting buttons at random and messing with terrain fixtures.

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.

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.

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.

Castlevania is one of the most beloved franchises in video game history, despite a period of 13 years when we didn’t see a new installment until the launch of Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse earlier this week. Over the years, the games have provided a variety of experiences, mixed with rich lore built on the vampire myth. With so many games available to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to begin if you haven’t touched the series in a while. Accordingly, here is our ranked list of the 8 best Castlevania games. It should make an excellent starting point. Released: Oct. 31, 1991 When Castlevania came to the Super Nintendo, it needed to impress players who were still deciding whether they wanted to spend money on a new generation of Nintendo hardware. Fortunately for everyone involved, the team at Konami was up to the task. Super Castlevania 4 features beautiful environments, as well as a hero who can now whip in eight directions, even while jumping. It’s also possible to grapple to distant points, or to wield the whip as a shield. Early use of Mode 7 rotation provided some visual showpieces to go along with parallax depth that brought static environments to life.