Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Brings Castlevania Series To Red Hot Nintendo Switch

When we first wrote about Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night about two years ago, the game had become an instant Kickstarter success. But even at that time, we did not foresee the game's true potential. After funding completed, the project received a staggering $5.5 million, a huge leap over the requested $500,000.

There are a couple of good reasons for why Bloodstained performed so well with crowdsourcing. For starters, it is in effect a spiritual successor to the Castlevania series, and perhaps even more notable is the fact that Koji Igarashi is the man behind it. Igarashi, also known as IGA, first hit the Castlevania scene in a mammoth way with the release of Symphony of the Night on the original PlayStation -- a game that has gained cult status since its release.

To get Bloodstained into the hands of as many people as possible, a huge variety of platforms will be supported, including the PC (Windows, OS X, and Linux), PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, the Xbox One, and now, the Nintendo Switch.

If you backed Bloodstained and originally claimed a Wii U copy, you're going to be left disappointed, as the game has been effectively canceled for that platform. Instead, the game is going to be exclusive to the Switch on the Nintendo side, which makes a bit of sense given the sheer amount of demand for games on the brand new platform.

Originally, the developers expected Bloodstained to be released this month, but the revised target is now Q1 2018. Delays are unfortunate, but hopefully that will mean that a thoroughly polished game will be released with minimal bugs.