The second Castlevania game for Game Boy. You play as Christopher Belmont again, but this time, Dracula has kidnapped his son, Soleil... er, Soleiyu Belmont. Has smoother gameplay than the first GB Castlevania, and also (uniquely for the series) has a level select feature at the beginning, reminiscent of the Mega Man series (so the first four levels can be played in any order).
After this game, Christopher Belmont would disappear from Castlevania canon, save being brought back for Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, a remake of his first outing, almost 20 years later.
Not to be confused with Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
Belmont's Revenge provides examples of:
- Auto-Scrolling Level: The bossfight against the Skeledragon. Because of Christopher's slow walking speed,
this battle easily becomes a slugfest. In particular, it's not too difficult to get stuck behind it without enough room for it to get out of the way, leaving the player to wait for an unavoidable hit. - Blackout Basement: One level contains a scene in which the lights go out constantly. The quickest way to keep the lights on is to throw holy water on the ground... Or do not whip any candles in the room, keeping the room lit.
- Bowdlerise: The English version replaced the song names to generic BGM # names because of Nintendo of America's censorship against religion.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Soleiyu Belmont
- Degraded Boss: The Undermole boss from the first game returns as a continuously respawning minor enemy in the Rock Castle.
- Difficulty by Region:
- The Boomerang Cross is only in the Japanese and European Konami GB Collection versions while the Axe is only in the American version. Which version is easier may therefore be a matter of opinion.
- Additionally, some of the items hidden in walls are different depending on the region.
- Dual Boss: The Plant Castle bosses, Kumulo and Nimbler. The Cloud Castle boss Angel Mummy seems to be, but only has one health bar and the two skulls that are the actual weak points are connected to a face in the wall, which is implied to be the real boss.
- Dub Name Change: Many of the monsters were given new names in the English translation of the game. Most of the changes make some sense (Bat instead of Dark Bat, Evil Knight instead of Metal Ghost, Beetle instead of Cave Snail) but a few stand out from the rest.
- Lightning, the thunder wizard, became Dark Side.
- Twin Tridents became Kumulo and Nimbler, named for the Cloud Castle. Unfortunately, this is due to a mix-up - they're actually the boss of Plant Castle.
- Ground Serpent became Bone Dragon. Both are equally accurate descriptions.
- Like the previous game, Bunaguchi became Punaguchi due to a misread diacritic.
- Hailfire Peaks: A couple of the Castles mix and match level settings.
- Rock Castle mixes Temple of Doom and Underground Level.
- Crystal Castle is your run of the mill over water level with a crystal city.
- Plant Castle mixes Jungle Japes and Underground Level.
- Easy Levels, Hard Bosses: Unlike the predecessor, bosses are typically harder than the levels themselves. That said, all of them have relatively predictable and avoidable patterns except Soleiyu.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Soleiyu's Japanese name, ソレイユ, would be better translated as "Soleil", though it's hard to blame them for not picking up on the French, considering it's a 1991 game.
- Kaizo Trap: In the Plant Castle, standing under the defeated bosses for too long results in the only obstacle in the game to One-Hit Kill you.
- Left-Handed Mirror: Like other Game Boy Belmonts, Christopher whips with his background hand while turning toward the player. In contrast, Soleiyu whips with his foreground hand and turns his back to the screen in a more similar style to the NES Belmonts.
- Man on Fire: Flame Knights walk back and forth.
- Meaningful Name: Soleil is the French word for "sun." Becomes a clever Mythology Gag when you remember the famous line from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest: "The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night."
- One-Winged Angel: Averted; there's only one form for Dracula — perhaps because he comes right after the fight with Soleil.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: In Dracula Castle 2, the opening portions of "Passepied" from Debussy's "Suite Bergamasque" for the stage and Bach's "Chromatic Fantasia" at the battle with Soleiyu.
- Puzzle Boss: Dracula is kinda this in this game; because all of his movements are predetermined, the battle will always play out the same, and the player only has to seek out the safe spots where he can't be hit by Dracula's Sphere of Destruction move.
- Revenge of the Sequel: Belmont's Revenge.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: The Rat enemies are half the Belmonts's height.
- Sequel Number Snarl: This is actually the fifth Castlevania game released (seventh if you count Vampire Killer and Haunted Castle as separate games from the original Castlevania). The "II" in the title refers to it being the second Castlevania game released on the Game Boy, the first being Castlevania: The Adventure.
- Shed Armor, Gain Speed: The Iron Doll boss does this when damaged enough.
- Shock and Awe: The boss of Crystal Castle, Dark Side, can summon lightning that produces a shockwave on the ground afterward.
- Spike Balls of Doom: In Cloud Castle, there are a couple Spike Ball traps that hurt Christopher.
- Temporary Platform: Some portions of the game have platforms that deteriorate for every moment Christopher stands on it. Take too long and it collapses.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Christopher no longer loses his power ups when hit (Except by the Punaguchi's projectiles)note , can move at a brisk jog instead of a constipated shuffle, can use a secondary weapon, and takes less damage from many hazards than he did in the first game.
- Mud Men can now regenerate after being taken out. At least, if they hit the ground - taking them out in mid-air seems to stop them from regrowing.
- Ravens no longer take a predictable path of flying over Christopher's head and then circling back at whip-level. They fly is somewhat unpredictable swooping arcs.
- Inverted with the Punaguchi enemies. Their attacks are much slower and easier to dodge than before, especially when taking the game's improved movement into account. That said, they retain the unique ability of downgrading the Belmonts's weapons similar to the previous game.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The final boss against Dracula looks impossible at first. However, he only has one attack - a ring of orbs that always move the same way. There is always at least one place where you can duck and avoid damage. Dracula always teleports in the same places in the same order as well, making it fairly easy to get one hit in before moving to a safe spot each time he moves. While this does require the player to basically memorize the fight, it isn't particularly difficult.
