The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest is a sly tribute to one of the worst Castlevania games

Retroware has officially announced the Programancer developed The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest, a side-scrolling action game based on the questionable Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. It’s coming to PC, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox sometime in 2025.

Some people like the game and that’s okay, but Simon’s Quest is the sort of game I put up on the autopsy table to dissect it to find what went wrong. There’s definitely worse on the NES, but it’s pretty difficult to find a worse game in the Castlevania series. Uh, hmm… Let’s try. Maybe one of the early computer ports. How’s the DOS version?

Anyway, it had some good ideas mixed in there, and that seems to be what The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest seems to look to evoke. It has an “optional” nonlinear progression and a day/night cycle. The graphics take a similar (but less drab) aesthetic, with the main character in particular being extremely reminiscent of Simon Belmont.

But this isn’t Simon Belmont; it’s legally distinct Simon Belmont named Simon Quest. There are minigames, customizable difficulty, and “Richter slide kicking.” Technically, I think he got the sliding thing from Maria Renard, but I’m being pedantic. Mr. Quest is jealous that his rival, Stan Helsing, defeated legally disti… oh, no, it’s just Dracula. So, he travels around trying to revive Dracula so he can beat him, too. Sounds like a great idea.

Looks great. Castlevania is one of my favorite game series, and I feel like we haven’t gotten the stiff, stompy, classic style of the series for a long time. Maybe Konami will hand the license to someone who will do it justice, but for now, we can drown our sorrows in The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest.

Or, we can when The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest launches in 2025 to PC, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox.