The 3D step

When the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation came out, a new era of games emereged. These systems had to power to display 3D graphical games, far superior to the previous generation concoles which could only display 2D as the limit. The Kobe branch under Konami believed it was possible for Castlevania, normally a 2D side scroller, could work in 3D. Production of the game began in summer 1997 and eventually saw became playable once the Tokyo Game Show of October 1998. The fans were impressed with what they were able to play. The Castlevania 64 was set to release in the U.S. on January 26, 1999. When released, two characters were dropped from the game (which would later be released on the expanson pack version later that year along with improved graphics and enemies). The game received solid ratings and popular reception, showing Castlevania was possible in 3D. When the time line was released in 2002, the Nintendo 64 Castlevania games were removed from it because they were only considered side projects of the creators. Today, these games have been criticized as being the worst of the series, but I beg to differ. It gave gamers the chance to see some of their favorite monsters come to life on 3D, revealed what could be added to enhance the overall experience, and demonstrated that Castlevania can keep up the current generation of consoles.

because of this..

we now have this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania_(Nintendo_64_video_game)