Had it on my wishlist in Steam for ages and now as it has grown closer to release they've made it unavailable to us.

Apparently NZ wants it only sold on the two console platforms so they can not only sell the console but charge $120 as well.

Well I've already boycotted shopping NZ retail and both Xbox and PS3 for past instances of this taking place.

So it looks like I'll have to wait a decade for PCSX3

I've got a thousand games for PC already and I've played Castlevania many times before so *whispers* I'm pretty sure I'll live.

You know what console exclusive games motivate? Piracy of console games.

Although XBOX still hasn't been properly reverse engineered. Apparently, it's like a really hard thing to do. You'd need some real pros for that, the usual handful of basement dwelling, batshit crazy nerds just won't cut it for this task.

Strange, hate the whole localisation thing around the world, if something is available rest of the world then it should be available down there.

I pre purchased it on Steam last night, got it for around £13 as I had £4.71 in my wallet from selling all the trading cards that I am not collecting.

Recently been playing Symphony of the Night for PS1 which I bought off PSN a few weeks back, its the first time I have ever played a Castlevania game and I am hooked, decided I am going to buy a NES for my retro collection next so I can play the original titles

I hate regional restrictions. I still cannot buy Drakensang because it's only available to North American users, despite the fact it's a European game :/

Awesome, didn't know about that collection, it is available as NOS on eBay so will grab it next week. Still going to get a NES though as I collect 8 Bit consoles and computers :)

Apropos, in the past, how has GOG handled region exclusion policies of games?

By not carrying region exclusive games. First (and only) game that the region mattered was The Witcher 2. For all other games, it's the RoW version that is sold, or no version if the publisher can't be persuaded to have the game available for all regions.

This is a really crappy set. I own it. The audio sucks a bit and the video emulation is somewhat off.

Also, want to get around the region lock? Easy. Get someone to gift it to you at the American price.

Really? Like, original Xbox, not 360? That surprises me as at the time it was thought of as pretty much a consolised PC...

The earlier Castlevania games are quite different from SOTN. You can see some similarities in CV2, but that game has major issues with not giving you any hints on how to solve some rather obscure "puzzles". The original Japanese version apparently actually told you roughly what to do (though not directly), but due to the horrendous localization, most of the hints just got lost. So you'll have to find out that you need to press down at a certain spot for a few seconds without any hints. The other 8 & 16-bit CV games are linear or semi-linear (in the case of CV3) 2d platformers, like most other 2d platformers from that time.
If you want more SOTN-like games, then get yourself a DS and play the GBA & DS Castlevanias. They are excellent.
Also, if you enjoyed the Castlevania music, see if you can track down Rondo of Blood (PC-engine, available on Wii virtual console), as the PC-engine/TG-16 had an excellent sound chip (the entire soundtrack can also be found on youtube).
Also, the Japanese version of Castlevania 3 had superior sound compared to the western releases, due to an expensive chip in the cartridge. Might have been the same chip that made Mr. Gimmick sound so good (which by the way also is part of the reason why it got such a limited release, as the game was only sold in Japan & Scandinavia). I don't know why I know this, I'm not even a huge fan of the early Castlevania games, I think they got a lot better once they became more like Metroid.

Or effin' Russian price, just to show them. I don't see any lock notification on the page so far.

Huh... I didn't even know it was coming for PC. Oh, shi... Spanish? Studio? With a Steam in the title? Must buy obviously!

I've heard about that bit on Simons Quest, you have to crouch down facing a wall to make a cloud appear to get you across an area but there was no hint as to what you were supposed to do on the English language versions of the game, very surreal!

I think I will take your advice look into a DS for myself and go that route, maybe even go old school and get an Advance and source the cartridges as I am a retro collector after all! Actually, thinking about it I have a Gameboy Pocket (Yellow one) that works great, need to see if any Castlevania games are available on that, from what I remember after watching AVGN Castlavania episodes there are 1 or 2 for the old handheld.

Really? Wow, you can usually count on New Zealand to be the bastion of sanity in the Australian games market.

The standard DS can play GBA games, so if you already have a Gameboy pocket, you won't need a GBA (unless you want to play GBC games, but there were not a whole lot of them released).

There were 3 CV games released for gameboy, Castlevania: The Adventure, Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge & Castlevania Legends. They were not bad, but by today's standards, they feel a bit limited and clunky. The NES (not counting 2) & SNES ones have aged better.