Dracula's Castle

Dracula's Castle is a starter stage in Super Smash Flash 2 from the  universe. It was first available in demo v0.9a and is based on the same stage from the defunct mod Project M. It is a home stage for.

Layout
Dracula's Castle consists of a large center platform with three soft platforms floating above the center platform. These three platforms gradually shift positions as time goes on.

A bright red moon appears in the background on the right side of the stage, with dark skies with clouds storming across the horizon and a shadowy castle in the center. The stage also has an ominous red glow effect.

Music

 * The main track is Castlevania Retro Medley, a rock medley of three remixed songs from the Castlevania series: Simon's Theme, Vampire Killer, and Bloody Tears from Super Castlevania IV, , and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, respectively.
 * The alternate music track is Proof of Blood, an orchestral symphonic remix of the theme that plays during the battle against Dracula's second form in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon.

Tournament legality
This stage is currently a counterpick in competitive play. Its main platform is long and its three moving platforms continuously alter the layout of the stage, producing at least a few variations that are very strong for camping and particularly circle camping. They are also often too high for many characters to reach with a single full jump, putting them at a heavy disadvantage. Although the stage is considered to be balanced enough to have been made a counterpick, it has often been banned due to its large size and often high moving platforms, giving a large advantage to zoners and defensive characters.

Origin
Dracula's Castle comes from the Castlevania series. It is the lair of Dracula, the main antagonist and sometimes final boss of the series, and it is the place where particularly the whole events of some Castlevania games take place. In said games, it houses an army of Dracula's supernatural minions. The castle tends to collapse when Dracula is defeated but somehow appears completely restored in later games, even the ones where Dracula has not yet revived himself. In SSF2, Dracula's Castle is a gimmick-less stage with no notion of the constant threat it usually represent in the Castlevania games, aside its gloomy atmosphere and the bloody Moon in the background.

This specific instance of Dracula's Castle is itself from a fighting game, Castlevania Judgement. In fact, before it was famously adapted into Project M, the stage started life as a direct 3D model rip from Judgement.

Trivia

 * Prior to Beta 1.1, turning off stage hazards with the hazard switch would prevent the three soft platforms from moving. This was changed due to Dracula's Castle being the only legal stage in tournament play where hazards were turned on.
 * Dracula's Castle was revised in version v3.6β of Project M to look different, now being ambiented as a -themed stage called "Delfino Secret".
 * In Project M, Castlevania ' s series symbol was a whip; in SSF2, this was changed to a cross. Both items are used as weapons in the Castlevania series.