I never was, still am not, a fan of the original Castlevania. It just rubbed me the wrong way on so many levels. I could not get into it. I did get Simon's Quest and thoroughly enjoyed it, I stumbled somehow through the two major sticking points with it's progression, and it is an awesome game in my eyes. Same for Zelda II, I prefer that over the original.

Then came Castlevania III and I tried it at a friends house and liked it a lot, saved up and bought a copy myself. I understand why people love the original but for me, three is much better.

Hindsight being what it is, Konami should have released Simon's Quest as Castlevania Adventures or something. That way fans of the original would know this is a departure of sorts from that one.

Weird how on the NES how the second game often was quite different than the original with the third returning to the franchise successful roots.

Nintendo did it with Zelda 2, Mario 2, Konami did it with Castlevania 2, Super C as well (though the third Contra game on NES was obviously a cash run by Konami).