Konami released Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse in Japan in December 1989 and in North America the following year. It is a prequel set centuries before the first game, starring Trevor Belmont, an ancestor of Simon, who is called upon to stop Dracula when the count’s forces overrun Wallachia. Where Castlevania II had experimented with open exploration, the third game returned to tightly designed action stages while adding two major ideas of its own. The first is branching routes: at several points the player chooses between paths, changing the stages, bosses and difficulty along the way. The second is a cast of allies – the sorceress Sypha Belnades, the wall-climbing pirate Grant DaNasty and Dracula’s son Alucard – any one of whom can join Trevor and be swapped in at will. The Japanese cartridge used Konami’s VRC6 chip for extra sound channels, but even the western version’s soundtrack is regarded as one of the finest on the NES.