(concept box by Sam Pettus)

Premise:  For hundreds of years, the legendary Transylvanian vampire known as Dracula has stalked the night, feeding on the life blood of the living and inspiring evil wherever he set foot.  For hundreds of years, it has been the self-appointed job of the Belmont family to seek out the places where Dracula and his followers would dare to abide and free them from the vampire's curse.  Once again, Count Dracula's followers are afoot working evil, and once again, the latest heir of the Belmonts must do battle with the prince of darkness and his minions.

Comments:  This was one of the first third-party titles announced for 32X back at the 1994 Summer CES.  Once Konami got wind of where Sega's 32-bit heart really lay, they dumped the planned 32X port in favor of a Saturn one instead.  No substantial code was developed for 32X insofar as I know.  The Saturn port was eventually released as a Japan market exclusive.

Rating:  N/A

Variants:  This was released for other systems, first for the NEC PC-Engine (aka Turbo Graf/X-16), the Nintendo Super Famicom (aka SNES), and Sega Saturn.  The PC-Engine original is considered the best of all versions.  The original Japanese release title was Akumajo Dracula X.  The European release title would probably have been the same as the SNES release - Dracula X: Rondo of Blood.  The game is also sometimes referenced under the name Vampire Killer.

Sidebars:  Konami's Castlevania franchise is one of the oldest and most revered series of platform games in the history of the videogame industry.  The very first Castlevania game was released back in the mid-1980s for the Nintendo Super Famicom (aka NES), and sequels have appeared on all of the major gaming platforms ever since.  The most recent effort was Castlevania: Resurrection, planned for Dreamcast but later cancelled due to a number of internal issues.  Castlevania 5: Rondo of Blood was the first in the series to employ anime-style cinemas in order to help tell the story behind the game.