Castlevania is a video game series created and developed by Konami. The series debuted in Japan on September 26, 1986 with the release of Akumajo Dracula (???????? ,Akumajo Dorakyura?, lit. "Devil's Castle Dracula") for the Famicom Disk System (FDS), followed by an alternate version for the MSX 2 platform on October 30. Although the MSX 2 port (localized in Europe and Brazil as Vampire Killer) was released first outside of Japan, the series did not receive wide attention outside of Japan until the FDS version was ported to cartridge format for the Nintendo Entertainment System and localized for North American and European releases of Castlevania in 1987. The series soon became a recognized landmark in the design of action platforming games.[citation needed]
The Castlevania series is one of Konami's most famous franchises[citation needed], and has seen titles released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Wii, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, PC Engine, Commodore 64, Sharp X68000, Commodore Amiga, PC MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. It has also been released for Pocket PCs, and mobile phones.