For some people the best Castlevania game is Symphony of the Night, which is indeed a masterpiece of gaming. But for me the first SNES-outing of the Castlevania-series is still the best one. This is partly because it’s one of the first games I played on my SNES ages ago (when the world was young, yadda, yadda,…) and which seriously impressed me.
It’s not just an excellent Castlevania game, it’s one of the best platformers I’ve played. It’s rather big and long, yet each stage has it’s own theme and style, there’s no repetition or boring parts, making this one of the most varied Castlevania games.
Your whip allows you to do more than just a simple strike in one direction, you can whip in eight directions, you can let the whip go limp and spin, using it as a shield. There are plenty of boss sprites and excellent sound. This one is really perfect, at least for me. Ah, the memories. And I still have fun replaying it from time to time.
The Entropy Pump 