Vlad Voievod Dracula The Crusaders Tomb

While awaiting the sultan's support to take the throne of Wallachia, Vlad Tepes Dracula travels to slave markets, dungeons and prisons recruiting skilled warriors both as a personal guard and to be later send in special missions.

If Vlad Voievod Dracula Episode 1 Manhunt builds the main storyline of the game series, The Crusaders Tomb (just like Dungeons of Edirne and Dungeons of Egrigoz) is a shorter game providing more context on how Vlad Tepes Dracula recruited some of his knights that you get to play as secondary characters in Episode 1 Manhunt.

In Dungeons of Egrigoz the aim was to reduce the complexity as much as possible and create a very short and fun experience true to the Classicvania genera (games inspired mostly by the Castlevania I and III on the NES/Famicom), with a Gameboy aesthetics. Dungeons of Edirne added more complexity, more difficulty and graphically was more inspired by Gameboy Color. The Crusaders Tomb sits somewhere between those two in terms of complexity and difficulty, leans more into the NES aesthetics but, as usual, mechanically it brings some new minor changes to refresh the gameplay experience.

You get the usual "Hearts" as ammo to power the sub-weapons you collect along the way, you still got the "Wall-meat" restoring your health, but what is particular about The Crusaders Tomb is that it's meant to be played in one go, just like inserting a cartridge in your NES/Famicom console - that has no save game function. So the game is short, the difficulty will ramp up significantly in the future levels (so expect a few game over screens before you can finish it), and as usual on the NES/Famicom, the first level leans more on the easy side, letting you get used to the character and core mechanics.

So if you enjoyed NES/Famicom classics as Castlevania I/III, Ninja Gaiden III, Batman the video game, Shatterhand (Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain), Journey to Silius (Raf World) - you might like this game too. Give it a try!