If you've consulted our guide to the best Castlevania games, then you'll know that we don't hold Castlevania: The Adventure in particularly high regard. A very early release for Nintendo's monochrome handheld, it is plagued by sluggish animation, poor controls and some level design which is seriously lacking in flair and imagination.
Thankfully, a patch now exists that massively improves the game by tinkering with its controls (thanks, CD Romance).
Using this patch, you can enable mid-air directional changes, as well as the ability to quickly regain control of Christopher Belmont when he takes a hit. This can be used in conjunction with this patch, which boosts Belmont's walking speed and makes the game slightly less punishing by allowing you to keep your current whip level after being hit.
These patches can also with a hack that adopts the colourised visuals seen in the Konami GB Collection Vol. 1 release, resulting in a much improved visual experience, too.
Similar patches also exist for Belmont's Revenge, but we'd argue they're less necessary with that game, as it's much, much better than Castlevania: The Adventure.
You can see the hacks in action in the video below. Let us know if you'll be checking these out – or if you think they ruin the experience.