Just like that pesky Count Dracula, the Castlevania series refuses to stay dead.

40 years after legendary vampire hunter Simon Belmont’s debut, and 18 (!) after the last original 2D entry, Rose Belmont is here to whip undead ass and show that this portmanteau parent to the “Metroidvania” genre of action-exploration platformers can still throw down with the best of them. Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse is an incredible return to form for the series, standing tall among the many excellent recent games inspired by it.

Set in Paris, 1499, Rose is the daughter of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, whom you may recognize as protagonists of the excellent Netflix animated Castlevania series. Trevor and Rose arrive in Paris, summoned by the Bishop to handle a mysterious evil terrorizing the city, but Trevor is just there to pass the torch (and whip) to his very capable daughter, who’s taking over the family business of carefully exploring a big map full of secrets, accumulating special powers, and murdering a menagerie of mythical monsters.

This theme of a generational hand-off is particularly appropriate because Belmont’s Curse is the first 2D Castlevania developed by KONAMI in partnership with Evil Empire, the studio that spun off to manage Dead Cells updates and DLC from creator Motion Twin, who also advised on this project. 2018’s Dead Cells was itself a slick, randomized, run-based twist on the Castlevania formula from the peak of the action-roguelike genre explosion. What it lost in a sense of exploration from the procedural levels, it more than made up for in lush pixel art animation and lightning-fast, buttery-smooth action.

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