played that game a lot!
nice!
need to find that disk again
The first version of Castlevania is of course on the NES, mostly because it wasn't called Castlevania on either the Famicom or MSX 
IIRC I read (on the mrc) that the franchise was first published on the famicom and shortly after that on the MSX. But I think the current Konami Castlevania team recognises the MSX version to be at the origin of the game. I base this losely on some links in Lament of Innocence, which IMO is ment as a prequal to the entire series. You can even unlock an arranged version of the vampire killer theme.
I like the MSX version a little better, although it does have its drawbacks. But in my mind an ideal version of Castlevania would be "Vampire Killer meets Maze of Galious": an enormous castle with loads of items, puzzles and perhaps RPG elements (story?). Symphony of the Night was a step in the right direction IMO, but the use of items and RPG elements could have been implemented more thoroughly.
Odd game design elements have been at the core of the series:
- hitting candlesticks to acquire hearts
- (non-msx) breaking down walls to obtain roasted chicken
- crouching on specific points to get hidden treasure (you're not getting any heavier so what's up with that?)
- use of the roman numeral stones in Castlevania IV: what's the logic behind that?
In the end it al comes down to different styles in the game. Castlevania games, up untill the playstation versions, were more action-based. Vampire Killer has some puzzle elements apart from the platform action. It's all a matter of tastes.
