King of the Castle(s)

The Palace of Azad from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has all the amenities you’d expect from a luxurious castle. It has a massive library, a reception hall, an observatory, a zoo, a harem, and a majestic tower that doubles as a treasure vault! It would be a nice place to visit if it wasn’t for its overblown defense system. The palace represents the most elaborate collection of traps that you’ll find outside of a Home Alone movie. The defense system was designed to destroy entire armies, and there are instruments of death hidden all throughout the castle. As the eponymous Prince works his way through the palace’s labyrinthine corridors, he will have to contend with rotating blades, swinging pendulums, and a metric ton of pointy sticks. The palace is crawling with magical sand monsters, but the defense system is more of a hindrance than the hostile creatures are. Despite everything, the Palace of Azad is an effective playground for the Prince and a great place to practice parkour.

Konami’s Suikoden is based on the classical Chinese novel, Water Margin. The novel told the story of how 108 outlaws banded together to form an army, and the basic idea was that each individual contributed to the group in their own unique way. Suikdoen has the same premise, and it features a staggering 108 playable characters. You’ll be able to recruit knights, magicians, alchemists, hunters, blacksmiths, forgers, shipwrights, smugglers, merchants, chefs, dancers, and other colorful characters from various walks of life. It’s customary for RPG characters to have their own properties in battle, but the characters in Suikoden also impact the development of the group’s headquarters. Toran Castle is an abandoned fortress in the middle of a lake that was once used as a naval base. As you recruit new members into your party, they can use their specific skills to maintain and improve the castle. For instance, if you have an inventor in your ranks, you’ll be able to install an elevator within the castle. Toran Castle serves as a visual representation of your party’s collective abilities, and it’s fun to see how it evolves over time.

Many of the castles on this list are ancient structures with untold histories, but we have the opportunity to visit the Phantasy Star Air Castle in completely different eras. We caught our first glimpse of the Air Castle in the original Phantasy Star. In this outing, it was located in the skies above the planet Palma – where it acted as the home base for an evil dictator named Lashiec. A thousand years later – during the events of Phantasy Star II – Palma was completely destroyed, leaving nothing more than an asteroid belt behind. When Lashiec was revived in Phantasy Star IV, he still resided in his original Air Castle. Against all odds, the fortress had survived Palma’s destruction and was now floating amidst the remains of the planet. The characters in the game were genuinely surprised to find a breathable atmosphere waiting for them, and it was just as shocking for the player. It’s clearly the same castle that was in the first game, and the lower floors of the dungeon have the same layout in both games. (Also, the background music is a remixed version of the main dungeon theme from the first game.) The Air Castle is easily the longest and most complex dungeon in Phantasy Star IV, but I’d expect nothing less from a building that survived the destruction of a planet.

Castle Wolfenstein is a stealth-based game from 1981 that was set against the backdrop of World War II. Its 1984 sequel was cut from the same cloth in most regards, but everything changed when the series made the jump to 3D in 1991. Its predecessors used top-down perspectives and monochrome pallets, but Wolfenstein 3D is a first-person shooter that’s alive with color. The game follows the exploits of an allied soldier named B.J. Blazkowicz as he tries to escape from a Nazi prison known as Castle Wolfenstein. The first-person perspective fits nicely with the “prison break” theme, and the game makes you feel like you’re moving through a maze. Many of the rooms look the same and there is no map to speak of, so players will have to use the bodies of dead Nazis as trailing markers to remind themselves of where they’ve already been. The layout seems simple by today’s standards, but it spans ten floors and the castle is filled with hidden doors and secret passageways. I can’t imagine the building looks very nice from the outside, but the inner walls are unmistakable.

Dr. Wily’s castle is a staple of the Mega Man series. The games all use the same basic formula. After Mega Man beats up a bunch of Robot Masters, Dr. Wily shows up in a flying saucer, waggles his eyebrows, and flies off to an ominous fortress on a hill. The castles vary from one game to the next, but they are almost always based around skull motifs. They kind of remind me of Castle Grayskull from Masters of the Universe, and you can tell how threatening Wily’s castles are just by looking at them. Many presume that Wily had a castle in the first Mega Man, but I’m recognizing Mega Man 2 since it was the first time we saw an exterior shot of the fortress. The castle was split up into six separate stages, and they were among the best in the game. The first stage – which ended with an epic fight against the Mecha Dragon outside the castle walls – was especially memorable. Of all the castles that Wily has had over the years, his first one is the most iconic. Its appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series has only helped strengthen its legacy.

Hyrule Castle is a recurring location in the Zelda series that has been featured in over a dozen games. It was surprisingly easy to single out the Breath of the Wild iteration on this list, however. As one of the few structures that remains of a ruined kingdom, the castle is a prominent fixture on the Hyrule landscape. It’s impossible to miss, and you can literally see it from miles away. Breath of the Wild is known for its non-linear structure, and Hyrule Castle is one of the few destinations that you have to visit in order to finish the game. Even though it serves as the final dungeon, you can venture into the castle almost immediately. It’s heavily fortified and crawling with powerful enemies, but there are multiple points of entry and you can approach from all sides. Once you find a way in, you’ll find a vast fortress that’s loaded with valuable treasure and rare weapons. You can spend hours exploring the castle and still miss entire rooms. The epic background music is also worth mentioning, and I loved all the subtle references to past Zelda games. Most of the tracks in the game are calm and ambient, but you know things are ramping up when the castle music starts to play.

The events of ICO unfold in an ancient fortress that sits atop four rocky islands. This “Castle in the Mist” is comprised of irregular buildings, courtyards, and gardens, and there are also standout landmarks like windmills and waterfalls thrown in for good measure. Despite its immense size, the castle is inhabited only by a malevolent queen, her daughter Yorda, and an army of shadowy minions. When a cursed boy named Ico is banished to the castle, he tries to find away to escape from his makeshift prison. Yorda’s kind of eager to leave too, since her mom is a total bitch. Ico and Yorda speak different languages and cannot understand each other, but they have to work together in order to achieve their common goal. Incidentally, the castle is filled with all sorts of mechanisms and contraptions that can only be powered by Yorda. The ethereal princess can activate everything from staircases to invisible walkways, and it’s Ico’s responsibility to protect her along the way. The castle is an amazing structure with incredible architecture, but its desolate nature serves as a tangible reflection of its dying monarch. Ico and Yorda are trying to escape from the castle, and they are also escaping from the past.

Castles are fortified structures that are usually built in highly-visible areas. They are often seen as symbols of power, so it makes sense for them to have a prominent place on the horizon. It’s apparent from the get-go that there’s something very different about Figaro Castle, however. You might expect to find a castle on the top of a hill or near a body of water, but Figaro Castle is situated in the middle of a desert. Even though it looks like a simple stone fortress in the middle of nowhere, it’s actually one of the most technologically advanced buildings on the planet. Powerful turbines and retractable ramparts allow the castle to burrow underground, and this proves to be an effective way to escape from invading forces. The castle can also move to new locations, and it can even travel under mountain ranges! Final Fantasy VI is filled with airships, mechas, and chocobos, but a castle stands as the most interesting form of transportation in the game. Who would have thunk it?

The Mario games usually revolve around a kidnapped princess, and she’s typically held in a castle. In fact, Mario and Luigi often have to visit multiple castles before finding her. These castles are usually hostile environments that are filled with lava pits, but Super Mario 64 gave us an opportunity to explore Peach’s castle instead of venturing into one of Bowser’s fortresses. The castle acted as a hub world for the game, and it basically felt like a more sophisticated take on the “world map” concept that many 2D games employed. Paintings on the walls acted as gateways to new worlds, but there was plenty of things to do in the castle itself. I have fond memories of chasing rabbits in the basement, draining the moat, and eventually finding a way to get onto the roof. The castle also acted as a training ground of sorts, and it provided a way for players to become accustomed to the game’s mechanics in an organic way. Super Mario 64 was revolutionary in every sense of the word, and analog thumbsticks were not exactly common in 1996. The control scheme was unlike anything we had ever seen before, but the game didn’t hold your hand or bombard you with forced tutorials. Instead, it simply placed you in the castle grounds and let you figure things out on your own. I remember the feeling I had after running around Peach’s castle for the first time. Within seconds, I knew that the gaming world would never be the same.

Castlevania is the iconic home of Count Dracula and a supernatural symbol of his magic. The demonic castle tends to disappear when Dracula is defeated, but it’s somehow restored when its master is inevitably resurrected. Although its appearance changes from one game to the next, it always houses an army of supernatural minions. Dracula spends most of his time sitting in his tower by himself, but the castle is crawling with acolytes and the entire cast of the Monster Mash. You’ll encounter interesting creatures and deadly traps while exploring the castle, and you’ll also find secrets around every corner. For reasons that have never been fully explained, the walls of the castle are lined with pork chops, pot roasts, and other food items. (I guess storing meat products was a serious dilemma before refrigerators were invented.) Dracula’s castle has been the focal point in countless games, but the non-linear layout from Symphony of the Night was the most remarkable. The castle featured a library, a laboratory, a chapel, a clock tower, underground caverns, abandoned mines, and a coliseum! When you finally think you’ve seen everything, an upside-down version of the castle emerges and you’re forced to explore a mirrored version of the normal castle map. This wasn’t even a competition. Castlevania was the only choice for the number one spot.