Why are Castlevania's credits full of fake names?
The team credited the 1986 game as if it were a film. Konami did not print staff's real names in this era, so the ending rolls a fake cast of pun names honouring the classic horror cinema the game was built to feel like.
The cast
Name by nameChristopher Bee plays Dracula, for Christopher Lee. Belo Lugosi plays Death, for Bela Lugosi. Boris Karloffice plays Frankenstein's monster, for Boris Karloff. Love Chaney and Love Chaney Jr. cover Lon Chaney and his son. Max Schrecks, Green Stranger and Cafebar Read stand in for Max Schreck, Glenn Strange and Oliver Reed. Barber Sherry is Barbara Shelley, Andre Moral is Andre Morell, and James Banana is James Bernard, Hammer's composer. The director is Trans Fishers, for Hammer director Terence Fisher, a credit that doubles as one of director Hitoshi Akamatsu's own pseudonyms. John Candy is John Carradine, the joke being the near-collision with the then-living comedian. And the hero is played by Simon Belmondo, Simon Belmont under his Japanese name.
Why it fits
The intention, signedThe credits are not a random gag. Akamatsu directed Castlevania to feel like a classic horror film, and the fake cast is that intention signed at the end. One name's exact in-game spelling is transcribed two ways across sources, so we have not sworn to it here. The Classic NES Series re-release on Game Boy Advance later removed the joke credits entirely.
AN EARLY GAME
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest