Few literary characters have enjoyed a stranglehold on pop culture quite like Dracula. The instantly recognizable arch-vampire is one of themost-portrayed characters in film. Every time it seems like he’s about to hang up his cloak, he’s refreshed in the public imagination, be it through his self-titled 1992 Francis Ford Coppola movie, or 2024’s Nosferatu.
It’s a bit different in the gaming sphere. While countless video games have beeninspiredby Dracula, surprisingly few areaboutDracula. If you want to dedicate an evening to gaming with the Count, your selection will be surprisingly thin. Luckily, we’ve handpicked the best ones for you.
8Nosferatu
If you’re a fan of the classic Prince of Persia, you’ll feel right at home with Nosferatu. This little-knownfourth-generation gemwas launched on the SNES to little acknowledgment. It’s a shame, because underneath its flaws it’s a surprisingly solid game.
Despite the title referencing Count Orlok, the opening cutscene of the Japanese version refers to the antagonist as Count Dracula. Much like in Prince of Persia, you work your way through puzzle-platforming segments, so your protagonist can save his beloved from an evil bureaucrat.
Part of the novelty of indie games is that they often wear their influences on their sleeve. Wallachia: Reign of Dracula is no different; the game is filled with Contra and Castlevania’s DNA. It’s a fast-paced, retro-styled action platformer.
While you’d expect Wallachia to be a short game, the campaign is surprisingly substantive, lasting around seven hours on a relaxed playthrough. If theeye-popping art styledoesn’t get you, the hectic combat definitely will. The game is available for PC, Switch and PS4.
If you grew up playing World of Warcraft or Diablo, you’ll feel right at home with V Rising. This open-world survival game has base-building mechanics and online co-op. Though playable alone, the developers themselves recommend playing with a friend.
V Rising features a dark, wintry art style that’s sure to soothe your gothic heart. It’s a very time-consuming game, butwell worth the investment. The game features a collaboration with Castlevania as well, allowing your characters to dress up as protagonists from the classic series.
This game is an underappreciated classic. Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi was experimenting with procedural generation and unusual gaming conventions long before the mechanic became an indie staple. It also did away with the complexities of its contemporaries: it featured no inventory, a small selection of weapons and a modest assortment of enemies.
You have 90 minutes to save a bunch of NPCs in each run, working your way through a randomly generated castle. Nosferatu suffered from some bugs on release due to its experimental nature, but has since then been fixed and made available on Steam and GOG.
4Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood
For better or for worse, tie-in video games released next to big-budget games have largely been phased out. These clunky titles are a sure source of embarrassment for anyone who grew up during the sixth console generation. Whilea few were good, most were mediocre to the point of banality.
Enter Renfield, an indie action-roguelike that knows exactly what its audience wants. Based on the Nicholas Cage film, this game presents itself with style and retro finesse, assuring you it isn’t one of those terrible movie-based games you’d pick out for the PS2 in your youth.
There are games that are underappreciated, and then there are games that are virtually unrecognized. Dracula: Undead Awakening belongs in the latter category. This top-down twin-stick shooter for iOS and PSP never managed to garner much attention.
Given the popularity of Vampire Survivors in the early 2020s, it’s hard not to feel bad for Dracula: Undead Awakening. It’s a similarly compelling game, featuring endless streams of enemies and exciting gameplay. It was simply the wrong game, at the wrong time and on the wrong platforms.
In the early 2020s, Vampire Survivors was a phenomenon. The game cannot lay claim to having invented its genre, as action roguelikes had been dime-a-dozen for a while when it came out. However, Vampire Survivors refined the mechanics to the extent that it has an entire genre named after it.
The prototypical Survivors-like, Vampire Survivors was designed to be played as a game with low investment and high rewards. It is compelling due to its simplicity, and has inspired countless indie imitators. Even Castlevania tipped its hat to the game with a collaborative DLC pack.
1Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
If we wanted, we could fill this entire list with Castlevania games. However, that’s not good for variety. We decided to go with the definitive one: not only is Castlevania SOTN the best Dracula game, but it’s one of the best games on the PS1 overall.
Symphony of the Night was a genre-defining experience that led to the coining of the term Metroidvania. It turned the focus of 2D gaming from linear side-scrollers to open-ended action-platformers, and its influence on indie games is still felt today. It also features the single most recognizable video game depiction of Dracula.
