Castlevania/Resaurus

From left to right, clockwise, are "Death" the Grim Reaper, Alucard, Maria Renard, and Richter Belmont.

## Product Information

### Year(s)

2000-01

Before going under, Resaurus had plans on doing a line of action figures based on a video game series that popularized the Metroidvania genre.

## **Summary**

*Castlevania* (known in Japan as *Akumajō Dracula*, is a gothic horror action-adventure video game series and media franchise about vampire hunters, created and developed by Konami. It is largely set in the eponymous castle of Count Dracula, the main antagonist of the Belmont clan of vampire hunters.  The first game in the series debuted on the Nintendo Family Computer Disk System in 1986 where players control Simon Belmont, descendant of a legendary vampire hunter, who enters Dracula's Castle to destroy the Prince of Darkness upon his reawakening after 100 years.  *Castlevania* was positively received and financially successful. It is considered an NES classic by PC World, while Nintendo Power and Game Informer ranked it in their list of best video games ever made. The first entry and a majority of the sequels that followed were side-scrolling action platformers, though the second instalment, *Castlevania II: Simon's Quest*, experimented with a nonlinear form of gameplay that introduced RPG elements and exploration. It was well received for its time, though restrospective reviews are much more critical on it; one of them was the first ever mock review for *The Angry Video Game Nerd* series.  Its worth noting that there was a parallel version of the original *Castlevania* that was released for the MSX2 computer and was named *Vampire Killer*.

The most well known game in the series is *Castlevania: Symphony of the Night*, an action-role playing game that is a direct sequel to *Rondo of Blood* and features Alucard, Dracula's dhamphir son first seen in *Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse*, who takes it upon himself to infiltrate his father's castle after Richter vanishes. SOTN did away with the sidescrolling action platformers and returned to the nonlinear/RPG elements that were first experimented with in *Castlevania II*. Even though it initially sold poorly, it gradually gained sales through word-of-mouth and became a sleeper hit, developing a cult following and selling over 700,000 units in the United States and Japan. The game garnered widespread acclaim, often cited by critics as one of the best video games of all time, praising its gameplay innovations, atmosphere, visuals and soundtrack. It is also considered a pioneer of the Metroidvania genre; inspiring numerous exploration-based action-adventure games. Symphony of the Night would have a lasting impact on the Castlevania series, with numerous subsequent mainline entries adopting its gameplay model.  2010 saw the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a 3D action-adventure reboot of the series developed by MercurySteam and Kojima Productions. Alongside comic books, *Castlevania* also inspired an anime-influence adult animated series of the same name that's been airing on Netflix since July 2017.

## **Action Figures**

Resaurus had plans to do a line of action figures based off the *Castlevania* series and while its unknown how many of the games they would've covered, the ones they chose to do for the first series were all from *Symphony of the Night* and consisted of Alucard, Maria, Death, and Rcichter. The sculpts were made, though they were never finished as Resaurus went bankrupt, though Chris Borman states that it may have been due to the company turning down the licensing contract when their *Duke Nukem* and *Quake* figures put Resaurus underfire by parent groups for selling "violent toys" to children in wake of the Columbine shooting.

## **Final Verdict**

Eventnually, NECA would release an action figure as part of their Player Select line and an amiibo of Richter was made for *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*,   but neither Death or Maria have received an action figure from another company. Since none of the Resaurus *Castlevania* sculpts have been found after cancellation, they will indefinitely remain: **LOST**.

## **External Link**

* Page 3 of the official UNRELEASED PROTOTYPES thread on spawnies.proboards.com

## **References**

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania\_(1986\_video\_game)
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania\_II:\_Simon%27s\_Quest
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire\_Killer
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania:\_Symphony\_of\_the\_Night
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania\_(TV\_series)
7. ↑ http://www.nintendoplayer.com/art/duke-nukem-action-figures/
8. ↑ https://www.amazon.ca/Castlevania-NECA-Action-Figure-Alucard/dp/B000YN76SC
9. ↑ https://www.nintendo.com/amiibo/detail/richter-amiibo-super-smash-bros-series/