Dracula's Castle

Dracula's Castle (ドラキュラ城) is a starter stage in Super Smash Flash 2 hailing from the Castlevania series. It is based on the stage of the same name from the Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Project M.

Layout[]

Dracula's Castle consists of a large main platform with three soft platforms floating above it in a horizontal formation. Visually, the stage has a slightly dark lighting filter, and the background periodically flashes with lightning.

With hazards turned on, the three soft platforms move to a new formation approximately every twelve seconds. There are five unique formations that the platforms change to in a set order, after which they return to their default positions and the order repeats. These formations include the following, relative to their respective previous formations:

The three platforms slowly rise in height, with the left and right platforms moving to the edges of the middle platform, acting as one connected platform.
The left and right platforms rise toward their respective edges of the stage while the middle platform moves low to the main platform, forming a reverse pyramid formation.
The left platform falls, the middle platform rises, and the right platform slightly rises, with the three platforms evenly ascending in height from left to right.
The left platform falls right while the middle platform rises left, becoming vertically aligned on the left side of the stage, while the right platform falls to be centered in height with the two platforms on the right side of the stage.
The left platform falls slightly left, the middle platform falls to the center of the stage, and the right platform falls slightly right, forming a pyramid formation.

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, Castlevania, and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, respectively.
One of the alternate music tracks 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.
The other alternate music track is Bloody Tears / Vampire Killer, an electronic rock remix of the daytime theme from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and the first level theme from Castlevania.

Tournament legality[]

This stage is currently a counterpick in competitive play. Its main platform is long, and with hazards turned on, 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. The stage has changed between being a counterpick or banned several times, with it currently being a counterpick following an update to prevent its platforms from moving with hazards turned off.

Origin[]

Dracula's Castle is a central location throughout the Castlevania series, originating from its debut game. It is the lair of Count Dracula, the main antagonist of the series, and houses his army of minions. Most Castlevania games primarily take place in the castle or lead up to it, and Dracula is typically fought as the final boss at the top of the castle. The castle tends to collapse when Dracula is defeated but somehow appears completely restored in subsequent games, often in different places.

The stage in SSF2 is based on the castle's appearance in Castlevania Judgment, where it is a stage in the game's single-player modes taking place at the top of the castle. The layout of the stage is based on that of the stage of the same name from Project M (prior to version 3.6 beta, where it was replaced with Delfino's Secret), which itself is based on a model rip of the stage from Castlevania Judgment by Robzdablade. The SSF2 stage carries over features such as the lightning strikes and moving platforms, though the specific platform formations differ from those in the Project M stage.

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Early designs[]

Trivia[]

In Beta 1.1, the three soft platforms would move regardless of whether stage hazards would turned on, which was due to Dracula's Castle being the only legal stage in tournament play where hazards were turned on. This was reverted with the release of Beta 1.4.