Contra X Castlevania Bundle

Genre: Compilation / Action-Platformer

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Contra x Castlevania Bundle, released in 2024 on Nintendo Switch, is a Compilation containing Contra: Operation Galuga, an Action-Platformer released earlier in 2024, and Castlevania Dominus Collection, a Compilation of Metroidvania games released on its own in 2024.

I have separately reviewed these games. Here is what I thought of all of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Castlevania Dominus Collection	Compilation / Metroidvania / Action-Platformer	1	A-
tl;dr Castlevania Dominus Collection is a Compilation containing three Metroidvania-style games in the Castlevania series from Nintendo DS, along with the arcade Action-Platformer Haunted Castle and a brand new remake of that game, Haunted Castle Revisited. The original Haunted Castle is clunky and dated, but everything else here ranges from good to outstanding, with Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow being one of the best games in the franchise. This collection does a good job with the dual-screen and touchscreen elements of the original games, and adds a bunch of features and bonus content, overall making for a great package that’s a must-have for any fans of Metroidvania games and the Castlevania series specifically.
Contra: Operation Galuga	Action-Platformer	1-4 Co-Op (Local)	B-
tl;dr Contra Contra: Operation Galuga is a re-imagining of the first game in the Action-Platformer series, and while it stumbles in many areas (nasty load times, terrible story, disposable new gameplay elements), the core gameplay is still solid. Fans of the genre and the Contra series specifically will want to play this game, though I doubt they’ll find it to be among their favorites in the genre.

In short, I think that while Contra: Operation Galuga is a decent Action-Platformer, it’s the Compilation of Castlevania games that’s the real star of the show here, particularly Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Still, apart from the original Haunted Castle in the Castlevania collection, there aren’t really any stinkers here.

I do feel like overall this is an odd pairing of games. It definitely feels to me like Castlevania Anniversary Collection and Contra Anniversary Collection would make far more sense as a bundle of one release from each franchise, as both are collections of games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras of those franchises, containing formative classics of each series. But that’s not what we got here, for whatever reason.

Anyway, regardless of whether it makes much sense, we need to address the question of value in this bundle, and at $58, this cuts about $7 off the price it would cost to get both games separately. I should note that all of these releases are new to 2024, so I can’t really comment on sale prices at the moment. I suppose with what little I can see, this bundle’s value is… fine. It’s nothing truly extraordinary, but it’s a decent enough savings, it seems.

Overall, that puts me in an odd spot when trying to judge if I would recommend the Contra x Castlevania Bundle. I suppose if you’ve gotten all the earlier Castlevania and Contra games but haven’t yet gotten around to picking up this year’s releases, this is a decent way to do so. However, if you’re looking for a comprehensive collection, or a highlight of the best each series has to offer, this bundle doesn’t really manage that. And the savings this bundle presents are pretty modest too. Not bad, but not great.

tl;dr – Contra x Castlevania Bundle includes the Action-Platformer Contra: Operation Galuga, as well as the Compilation of Metroidvania games, Castlevania Dominus Collection. This is an odd pairing, but the games contained within this bundle are mostly all good and well worth playing. This bundle only represents a modest savings over buying the individual games, but if you’re looking to catch up on 2024’s Castlevania/Contra releases, this is a good way to do it.

Grade: B

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