You start outside the castle, where you'll be presented with torches to whip and and an opportunity to power up and grab your first sub-weapon. You'll then enter the long main hall seen right, where you'll be attacked by zombies, bats and leopards. Entering into the next area, you'll come to an unpassable wall; you'll have to descend down into the water-filled area inhabited by fishmen. This gets you to the other side of the wall. Finally, you'll enter another long hall not unlike the first part of the stage, with more of the same enemies.

Stage Track: Vampire Killer
Boss Track: Poison Mind

End Boss: Phantom Bat

Zombie | Bat | Leopard | Fishman

The initial part of the stage requires some jumps made difficult by the knights and bats positioned all over the place. This all leads to a long hall where you'll first run into the pesky Medusa Heads. What follows is a tricky area where you'll have to make many jumps--some via moving platforms--while Medusa Heads continue coming your way. In the next room, three crushing, piston-like beds of spikes stand in your way. By stage's end, you'll meet the annoying Pillar of Bones, needing only to cross another long Medusa-Head-filled hall.

Stage Track: Stalker
Boss Track: Poison Mind

End Boss: Medusa

Knight | Bat | Medusa Head | Ghost | Bone Pillar

This upper section of the castle is notoriously ugly. The agitating hunchbacks make their appearance here, bugging you in the initial portion of the stage. What follows is platform-filled areas where ravens and skeletons will form obstacles for your jumps. In other areas, ravens and bone pillars will form similar obstacles, with some skeletons thrown in. On the final part of the stage, you'll have to dodge Medusa Heads while trying to defeat more bone pillars. If you get by all the madness, the boss awaits you.

Stage Track: Wicked Child
Boss Track: Poison Mind

End Boss: The Mummies

Ghost | Hunchback | Skeleton | Raven | Bone Pillar | Medusa Head

After a really long fall down an abyss, you'll wind up here. You'll have to cross waters using the floating platforms, but bats and fishmen will come at you, nonstop, trying to prevent you from making it over. You'll also be obstructed by the cave ceiling, which dips low in some areas. You'll ascend from the caves to an outside part of the castle where you'll be attacked by eagles dropping hunchbacks onto you; if you don't move fast, they can pile up on you. You'll reenter the castle basement and run into a couple of skeledragons before reaching the bosses.

Stage Track: Walking on the Edge
Second Half: Stalker
Boss Track: Poison Mind

End Boss: Frankenstein and Igor

Bat | Fishman | Eagle | Hunchback | Skeledragon

If the visuals of bone bushels and skeletons chained to walls don't get you, the hordes of enemies will. Hunchbacks and bone-throwing skeletons swarm you in the stage's opening, but upon ascending upward, you'll soon run into a combo attack of blood skeletons and hunchbacks. In the next room you'll meet the powerful axe knights. You then enter the torture area--with several torture devices seen in the background--where blood skeletons and axe knights will be all around. In the next area, it'll be more blood skeletons combined with bone pillars. In the final hall, you'll face an onslaught of both Medusa Heads and axe knights; this is where most quick deaths occur.

Stage Track: Heart of Fire
Boss Track: Poison Mind

End Boss: The Grim Reaper

Hunchback | Skeleton | Red Skeleton | Axe Knight | Bone Pillar | Medusa Head

The game's final stage starts with a long bridge guarded by five Phantom Bats--the enemy that acted as the boss on the first stage. Trying to fight them all is not wise. The next couple of screens comprise a clock tower initially inhabited by skeletons. Deeper in, you'll have to climb across several gears while hunchback-carrying eagles annoy you. If you manage to not get knocked in a pit, you'll exit to the tower and find yourself near a staircase. The eerie music of the castle keep will tell you that Dracula is not far beyond. A battle with the Count will be at hand.

Stage Track: Out of Time
Keep Track: Nothing to Lose
Boss Track: Black Knight

End Boss: (1) Dracula, (2) Dracula's Ghost

Phantom Bat | Skeleton | Eagle | Hunchback