Castlevania Dominus Collection - Review

When Konami brought the Castlevania Anniversary Collection and then the Castlevania Advance Collection to gamers, the assumption from many was that the next group of games to be brought across would be the games from the PlayStation consoles, but nope. In a surprising move the next release would be the trifecta of Nintendo DS games, which were always thought of being the ones unlikely to get the treatment, thus the surprise. Was it worth the time or did their efforts result in nothing but a dubious solution?

This is not a review on the games themselves as they have been done before, but rather a review on how well Konami managed to bring three great games that were built for a unique platform to modern platforms. As with most of the collections from Konami, booting into it gives you the option to play the games, or navigate through additional menus for the extras, but we will get to that in a bit. While the collection contains three DS games and one Arcade game, it actually contains 12 games in total, once you bring all the regional variants into the fold. The arcade game in question is Haunted Castle, which you can play in its original form, which is entirely in Japanese, or you can enjoy it in the Revisited form, which is how I suggest you play it. While Haunted Castle Revisited is a strong game, given it was designed around a regular screen, it plays just like most other Castlevania games.

The three DS games will take a bit to adjust to their layout and control scheme, as they were built around the features of the DS, which modern platforms do not have. So, by default the game will present the main screen in a large format to the left of the screen, while the map screen is presented in the top right. Given the extra screen real estate, the game presents the character info screen in the bottom right, giving gamers three screens at once, whereas in the original release, you would have to swap between the map and info screens. In the settings though, you can opt for a number of layouts, including the stacked layout that the DS presented, so purists can relax on that front. Honestly, I didn’t know what to think of all the options, some of them feel good, others not so much, but given the range there should be one to fit your preference. The only thing I wish that I had on the Switch version, was a stacked version that if I rotated my Switch 90 degrees would fill the screen, I feel it was a missed chance.

Speaking of playing on Switch, as the console does support touch screen, you can enjoy all the touch screen interactions, the only real issue is that when you are playing in stacked mode, there is not a lot of space to see where you are touching. It was something I did not think to check until I got annoyed at playing the game on my TV and thought, I will do handheld for a bit. Once I realised I could touch the screen and the game would reflect my input, I preferred to play that way, as the games other touch screen option felt wrong. If you are playing docked on Switch or on any other platform, the touch screen is done via the right stick and then pulling the Right trigger to touch the screen. While it works in menus, unless you speed it up, in games it feels a little slow and while it is functional, it isn’t as fun, but your mileage may vary there. Don’t let the weird touch screen control input turn you away though, as the games have also been updated to allow you to use buttons at times, in place of touch. As far as the remaining controls options go, there isn’t a lot to worry about, you can move via the d-pad or left stick, jump and attack with the face buttons, just like you could do on the DS.

As this is a collection from Konami, you had better believe that it was loaded with bonus content and its fairly easy to get through. For those who care about the game breakdown, two of the DS games have their European, American and Japanese releases, with Order of Ecclesia also providing its Korean release. In the menu you can access an insane amount of art from the four games, I personally loved looking at the character art, as sometimes the smaller screen or larger pixelated versions made it hard to see the details. If you are a music fan, then you can rejoice here as all five games have their music ready to listen to. Yes all five, as the Haunted Castle as both its original music and the Revisited version, which sound incredible. For the songs that you like, you can add them to the playlist and listen to them anytime you want, but on Switch you can’t dim the screen and just enjoy the music.

For those Castlevania fans, the Dominus Collection is yet another great release, not only does it offer three great DS games, it includes an arcade release in two forms. The amount of art and music from all the games will give you even more to look at and listen to, with the playlist being a welcome inclusion. While their version of a touch screen input works well enough with a controller, it just misses out on being great, thankfully Switch owners can enjoy actual touch. I do wish that the Switch release supported a tate mode display option, but the available ones still get the job done. If you have been a fan of the series, this will be another great addition and if you are coming in for the first time, you picked a great time to do so, as this is one fantastic collection.

The Score

8.5

Review code provided by Konami

The Pros

The three DS games are still as enjoyable now as they were upon their original release

The games many view options means that it should have one to suit your display…

The Cons

… but a vertical option on Switch would have been incredible

The touch screen input is perhaps not the best, but is still a workable solution