Castlevania

At the time Netflix first confirmed an animated Castlevania series on its roster, it was a fair question how the animated venture might handle the video game franchise’s gorier elements. Well, if the first official poster is any indication, things are going to get real red, real fast.

The Castlevania video game series has long been rumored for one adaptation of another, so might an animated series finally be getting off the ground? That’s the rumor du jour, as reports suggest Adventure Time executive producer Fred Seibert is gearing up to announce a new take on the vampire property.

The NES instruction manuals weren't just simple how-to-play diagrams. They were also tasked with telling the story of the game, describing the enemies, and even providing maps to players who could get lost wandering around Hyrule. And today, Nintendo has put 30 classic NES manuals online, including classic titles like the Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda, Mega Man 2, Castlevania, and more.

Gather round, friends, for a story of the distant past. Once upon a time, you could rely on Konami to produce a new Castlevania game almost every year, taking the Belmont clan through the strange, side-scrolling creature of chaos that was Dracula's castle. Sadly, it seems like those days are over. Even with 2014's bizarre Dracula-in-Modern-Times Lords of Shadow 2, we haven't gotten a proper "classic" installment since 2010, and with Konami's move away from console gaming, it doesn't seem like we're going to get one any time soon. If, however, you still have love in your heart for the act of beating the undead into dust with a whip - and who doesn't? - then I have some pretty great news. The folks over at Mondo have apparently decided to expand into the world of video games, and they're doing it with a series of new prints that includes a pair of Konami Classics: Silent Hill by Silent Hill by Sam Wolfe Connelly, and Castlevania by Becky Cloonan.

With the exception of Simon's Quest for the NES, I've been a pretty big fan of the Castlevania games for my entire life. That said, I walked away from 2010's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a reboot of the franchise that involved Metal Gear Solid's Hideo Kojima, thinking that it was one of the dumbest games I'd ever played...

Here's what happens on the very first page of the 1990 "Worlds of Power" novelization of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for the NES: "No, Count Dracula! You will not drink my spirit this day!" he said, snapping his thorn whip with a crack as loud as a gunshot... Read More ...

With this week's release of "Batman: the Brave and the Bold" and "Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions" and the recent success of "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game," it's been a pretty good week for comics making the transition into video games...

While our partner blog TV Squad has John Scott Lewinski fighting his way through hordes of overweight Rorschachs and pre-pubescent Chun Lis we'd also like to highlight that Cinematical is in the house doing a bang-up job. The movie side of the annual pop-culture cavalcade opened with one of the biggest names in the history of film and what could very well be one of the biggest names in the future