History YMMV / HauntedCastle

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Let's be honest, the tracks in this game were worth your quarters.

* ContestedSequel: Generally considered to be among the very worst games ever to bear the ''Castlevania'' name.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 PS4]] rerelease of the game does away with the infamous three continue limit of the original arcade release and gives the player infinite continues while also allowing one to play the game in its original, easier Japanese version.

* BreatherBoss: Frankenstein's Monster, the boss of the penultimate stage, is perhaps the easiest boss in the whole game.
* GameBreaker: The watch, which is all but useless in later stages of the console games, is able to stop bosses (including the last form of Dracula) at only two hearts per use.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: The pocketwatch, which unlike in other games uses only ''two'' hearts instead of five and can stop most enemies.

** Who at Konami got the bright idea to impose a strict three-continue limit on an '''arcade game''', when the whole point of coin-op machines is to encourage players to feed in lots of coins to keep the game going?! In a way, it's less insidious compared to the more common strategy of [[PointOfNoContinues cutting players off at the final stage]], but it's worse for revenue generation since a novice player learns much sooner not to spend any more quarters on it. Note that this isn't actually unique, as some of Konami's other games from this period -- ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'' in particular -- also have a three-continue limit, but in addition to the operator being able to disable continues altogether if they're ''really'' sadistic (something that wasn't the case with ''Contra''), here it's compounded by another issue...

* SnarkBait: Simon's walking posture in this game. You have to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKyIqeefNw see]] it to believe it. Notice how every single gameplay video's top comments mention it.

** The game only gives you one life per credit. That's it. You can't earn any extra lives at ''any'' point in the game, and falling into a BottomlessPit will still give you an instant game over. You can quite easily add in extra money to get a longer life bar, which counts as using up part of your extra continues, only to end up back at the title screen through one mistimed jump. For perspective, ''Contra'', itself notoriously difficult, gives you three lives per credit, and lets you earn more via the point system, meaning that the absolute minimum number of lives you can get is twelve. With ''Haunted Castle'', you're looking at between one and four lives (depending on whether or not you buy extra health) throughout the ''entire game''.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The PS4 rerelease of the game does away with the infamous three continue limit of the original arcade release and gives the player infinite continues while also allowing one to play the game in its original, easier Japanese version.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Let's be honest, the tracks in this game were worth your quarters.

* ScrappyMechanic: Who at Konami got the bright idea to impose a strict three-continue limit on an '''arcade game''', when the whole point of coin-op machines is to encourage players to feed in lots of coins to keep the game going?! In a way, it's less insidious compared to the more common strategy of [[PointOfNoContinues cutting players off at the final stage]], but it's worse for revenue generation since a novice player learns much sooner not to spend any more quarters on it.[[note]]It should be noted however that several of Konami's other arcade games from this time period, notably VideoGame/{{Contra}}, also have limited continues, but ''Haunted Castle'' takes it UpToEleven by only giving you one life per credit, with no opportunities to earn extra lives. Oh, and if the arcade owner is ''really'' sadistic then they can disable the ability to continue altogether, which wasn't possible on ''Contra''.[[/note]]

* ScrappyMechanic: Who at Konami got the bright idea to impose a strict three-continue limit on an '''arcade game''', when the whole point of coin-op machines is to encourage players to feed in lots of coins to keep the game going?! In a way, it's less insidious compared to the more common strategy of [[PointOfNoContinues cutting players off at the final stage]], but it's worse for revenue generation since a novice player learns much sooner not to spend any more quarters on it.[[note]]It should be noted however, that VideoGame/{{Contra}} also has limited continues.[[/note]]

* ScrappyMechanic: Who at Konami got the bright idea to impose a strict three-continue limit on an '''arcade game''', when the whole point of coin-op machines is to encourage players to feed in lots of coins to keep the game going?! In a way, it's less insidious compared to the more common strategy of [[PointOfNoContinues cutting players off at the final stage]], but it's worse for revenue generation since a novice player learns much sooner not to spend any more quarters on it.

* SnarkBait: Simon's walking posture in this game. You have to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKyIqeefNw see]] it to believe it. Notice how every single gameplay video's top comments mention it.
* JustForFun/XMeetsY: More than a few fans have likened this game to "''Castlevania'' meets ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins''".

* SnarkBait: Simon's walking posture in this game. You have to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKyIqeefNw see]] it to believe it. Notice how every single gameplay video's top comments mention it.

* ScrappyMechanic: The three continue limit is, for many gamers, what pushes this game from being a decent-ish ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins''-alike to being just too frustrating to be worth bothering with.

* SnarkBait: Simon's walking posture in this game. You have to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKyIqeefNw see]] it to believe it. Notice how every single gameplay video's top comments mention it.
* WhatAnIdiot: Whichever nitwits at Konami got the bright idea to impose a strict continue limit on an '''arcade game''', when the whole point of coin-op machines is to encourage players to feed in lots of coins to keep the game going. In a way, it's less insidious compared to the more common strategy of [[PointOfNoContinues cutting players off at the final stage]], but it's worse for revenue generation since a novice player learns much sooner not to spend any more quarters on it.

* WhatAnIdiot: Whichever nitwits at Konami got the bright idea to impose a strict continue limit on an '''arcade game''', when the whole point of coin-op machines is to encourage players to feed in lots of coins to keep the game going.

* WhatAnIdiot: Whichever nitwits at Konami got the bright idea to impose a strict continue limit on an '''arcade game''', when the whole point of coin-op games is to encourage players to feed in lots of coins to keep the game going.

* ScrappyMechanic: The three continue limit is, for many gamers, what pushes this game from being a decentish ''VideoGame/GhostsNGoblins''-like to being just too frustrating to be worth bothering with.
* SnarkBait: Simon's walking posture in this game. You have to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKyIqeefNw see]] it to believe it. Notice how every single gameplay video's top comments mention it.

* ExcusePlot: Why the DistressedDamsel is there.

* SnarkBait: Simon's walking posture in this game. You have to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKyIqeefNw see]] it to believe it.