An avowed Castlevania clone that genuinely holds its own. Van Helsing versus Dracula in Victorian London is a perfect pitch and the gothic action delivers. A must in the catalogue.
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Category
Action Adventure1 player12+
Description
Gothic action platformer featuring a vampire hunter exploring cursed castles, a survival horror precursor. Published by Sega, released in Europe and Brazil in 1992. Hunter in side-scrolling view with cane, knife and other weapons in dark castles and imposing bosses. A little-known Master System masterpiece inspired by Castlevania.
Master of Darkness review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
The setting is a Victorian London of fog and gaslight: cobbled alleys, a tiled morgue, a waxworks, a manor of portraits, with a palette dominated by browns and muted greens that installs the atmosphere of a gothic novel. The opponents borrow from the bestiary of literary fantasy, animated mannequins, mummies, spectres, rather than from the genre's usual monsters.
The score favours imitated organ and strings in sustained chords, a writing of church and crypt that pushes the sound chip towards low registers rarely used on this console. The themes progress slowly, with no marked rhythm, and the rare accelerations are reserved for chases, which makes their arrival genuinely alarming.
Complete: box, manual and disc/cart very clean. Lightly handled.
Q1 damagedQ6 completeQ10 new
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Collector interest
SIMS reply to Konami's Castlevania, kept exclusively on Master System and developed entirely in house, which makes it the official goth landmark inside Sega's 8 bit ecosystem. PAL and Brazilian release with no official Japanese counterpart, the Victorian London mood gives it a visual identity of its own that Castlevania fans recognise as a legitimate cousin. Sega Europe run was short, and clean complete copies are clearly sought after.
An underrated gem
It's hard not to think of Castlevania faced with this gothic platformer, where a hunter stalks vampires through fog-shrouded castles. Released late and only in Europe and Brazil, it passed by almost unnoticed. Far from a pale imitation, its polished Victorian atmosphere is worth the detour for fans of dark, old-school action.
Is Master of Darkness still worth playing in 2026?
An openly Castlevania-inspired effort, Master of Darkness still earns its place on Master System. The pitch, a Van Helsing descendant fighting Dracula across Victorian London, gives the game real visual identity. The gothic action is polished, the pacing well calibrated, the sub-weapons borrowed with intelligence and the soundtrack honours its model. For anyone who loves Castlevania and wants to extend the experience on Sega hardware, it is a genuinely satisfying detour, one of the best 8-bit gothic action games on the console and still very playable.
