Super Castlevania IV is a side-scrolling platform game where the player takes control of Simon through eleven levels.

The player will lose a life if all of Simon's health gauge is depleted, fall into a hole or if they do not finish the level within the time limit.

[5] The health gauge can be restored through food items that can be dropped from candles and breakable blocks, or with the Magic Crystal, which is received after defeating the boss at the end of each level.

[6] Super Castlevania IV was directed by Masahiro Ueno (credited in the game as Jun Furano since Konami did not allow the use of real names at the time), who was also the main programmer.

Ueno liked the original Castlevania for the Nintendo Entertainment System the most and wanted to make a pure action game that was similar to it.

[12] Many features in Super Castlevania IV were introduced to make it a less frustrating game for players, such as giving them more control over Simon when he walked up stairs.

[12] Mitsuru Yaida (credited as Yaipon) programmed Simon and also implemented the game's whip system, which was to introduce some new gameplay that was not possible on the NES.

Earlier bosses were designed to be easier so that players could discover weak points and effective weapons without retrying.

Konami was impressed but ultimately chose to keep all Mega Drive development in-house, and did not pursue porting the game to the system.

Ueno wanted to make the environment of Super Castlevania IV more interactive and was proud of how the game's sound effects and music contributed to the atmosphere.

[24] In 1992, Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Vampire noir: dark, earthy colors; ominous, almost subliminal sound effects — and when your hero swings from chandeliers or dispatches monsters with his iron flail, a spine-tingling sense of impending doom.

[36] Game Informer's review opined that it "perfect[ed] the classic formula" due to its whip and less stiff gameplay.

[37] In a review for the release on the Wii U's eShop, Nintendo Life wrote "Unlike many of the other 16-bit platformers of the era, the game has a mature and distinguished feel to it", and concluded it was the best of the original Castlevania installments.