Lost Dreamcast game Castlevania: Resurrection has been restored and released online

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We should have expected a vampire game to come back from the dead

Castlevania
(Image credit: Sega)

Infamous cancelled Dreamcast title Castlevania: Resurrection has been brought back to life and released online after being thought lost to the ravages of time.

Castlevania: Resurrection was cancelled over 20 years ago and never released to the public. At this point, most people would just accept that the game isn’t coming out and move on. But not Comby Laurent, a Dreamcast preservationist who specialises in saving old games. Laurent has actually managed to salvage a pre-E3 demo version of the game and has now released the files to the public to play. You simply need to download the files and either load them up on a Dreamcast emulator, or burn them onto a CD and run it on your own Dreamcast (if you've still got one kicking around).

Castlevania: Resurrection was a prequel to the original Castlevania and centered around Sonia Belmont, ancestor to traditional Castlevania protagonist Simon Belmont. It was intended as a Dreamcast exclusive but was cancelled in March 2000. The cancelation was blamed on a number of factors, chief among them being the Dreamcast getting eclipsed by the release of the PlayStation 2.

Ahead of that eventual cancellation, however, Castlevania: Resurrection was quite far along into development and was shown off to journalists behind closed doors at E3 1999. This early version featured five playable stages. It’s certainly not finished though, and there are numerous bugs and unfinished features

You can download this playable version of Castlevania: Resurrection over at the Sega Dreamcast Info website, a site owned by Laurent which is dedicated to the storage and distribution of Dreamcast games. There are files for loads of unreleased Dreamcast titles over there including a complete and working Dreamcast version of Half Life.

Got a hankering for some more classic Castlevania-style action? Then check out our list of the best Metroidvania games. 

Ian Stokes
Ian Stokes
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Ian Stokes is an experienced writer and journalist. You'll see his words on GamesRadar+ from time to time, and he works as Entertainment Editor at our sister site Space.com.