Kid Dracula (NES)

Kid Dracula
Also known as: Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun (JP) Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Platform: NES Released internationally: May 16, 2019 (Castlevania Anniversary Collection) Released in JP: October 19, 1990 This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features.

Kid Dracula is a wacky Castlevania spin-off that stayed exclusive to Japan until being officially translated and released as part of Castlevania Anniversary Collection in 2019, inheriting the name and logo of its Game Boy pseudo-sequel.

Anti-Piracy

As with most games Konami published since 1990, this game features a copy-protection routine. It checks for the presence and integrity of the CHR bank containing the copyright and "KONAMI" tiles, the packed tilemap containing the string "© KONAMI 1990", the first byte of the JMP opcode that calls the routine that displays the copyright information on the screen, and the first byte of the JSR opcode that calls the protection routine itself.

If any test fails, the game removes all non-player sprites starting from Level 2. This renders Level 2 itself impossible to complete, due to the removal of several rotating sprite platforms.

Easter Egg

At the title screen, entering the Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A) will give a tone for correct code entry. Pressing Start, however, gives you nothing more than a mocking message.

Japanese	English
ざんねんでした。 なにもないよ~ん!	SORRY! NOTHING THIS TIME!

The program code may have been intended to have more than one cheat code at once, but there is only one entry left in the pointer table for the cheats. However, some coding for at least one more additional cheat flag exists in the game: Game Genie code PAVLSYAA will replace the hidden message cheat effect with this unused cheat, which will grant 50 extra lives at the start of a new game, much more in line with standard Konami Code effects.

Stage Select

Game Genie codes ZZSKYGSZ NLVGAGEU ZASKZKZA will replace the main menu with a stage select screen.

Build Date

Present at the end of the PRG ROM:

V0.0890810

The date here seems to be August 10, 1989, over a year before the original Japanese release. Given that and the "V0.0" portion, this may denote when development began rather than ended.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japanese	English

The Japanese logo was replaced with a colorized variant of the Game Boy game's logo.

Stage 1 Boss

	Famicom	Anniversary Collection
Phase 1
Phase 2

A sprite change practically lifted from the Game Boy game for Castlevania Anniversary Collection, both phases of the first boss had the symbol removed from their caps. This is mainly because whenever the second phase faces right, the manji very much resembles a swastika (not helped by the fact that it first enters the room facing right).

Interestingly, this change was made in all versions of Collection, including the Japanese release.