I took advantage of the Boxing Day shopping frenzy over the weekend and picked up an XBox 360 Pro Holiday Bundle at a discount that was hard to ignore. This is a purchase I had been deeply considering since my life-altering experience with Gears of War 2’s Horde mode. My familiarity with the console was mostly limited to some time with it shortly after launch, so I’ve been relatively out of touch with what has been released for the console since then. I was also a bit disappointed at the lack of hardware upgrades: the Elite is still hoarding the 120 GB hard drive, and there is still no Wi-Fi out of the box even after three years. Though I guess I should be thankful that the power supply hasn’t burst into flame yet.

Since getting back into gaming this past summer, I’ve tried to keep myself aware of the titles capturing the most buzz on all of the next generation consoles. Over the past few days I familiarized myself with the new XBox dashboard and downloaded a grab-bag of demos: the critically acclaimed and a few others that I was interested in. I’m still looking for a good RPG other than the obvious selections of Mass Effect, Fable 2, or Fallout 3. Feel free to add any other recommendations in the comments; this is my second leap into the console world since the Gamecube in 2003.

Braid (demo)

I went to this game immediately. Not only was it the most talked about title on XBox LIVE Arcade for 2008, it was the most talked about game, period. Fiery debates raged between those that thought it was overwrought twaddle and those that believed it would change your life. Skeptical as always, I went in expecting twaddle.

After being available for four months and topping many year-end lists, Braid carries with it the burden of enormous expectations. This isn’t usually how I like to approach a game, but I just couldn’t wait to try it for myself to have some snide comments for my own year-end wrap up to fuel the continuing debate. But after completing the meager demo levels, my initial reaction was a feeling of emptiness. That’s it? Super Mario Bros. meets Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time?

The loosely strung together story, which amounts to a bunch of text that can optionally be read at the beginning of each level, is a collection of the most purple prose I have ever read in a game. If this is the reason reviews like Dan Whitehead’s famous wank-session at Eurogamer are produced, I want no part of the future of games criticism.

When the Barney look-alike says “I’m sorry, but the Princess is in another castle”, the reference might have actually been funny if Braid wasn’t so busy taking itself too seriously. And I don’t want to hear another drone telling me I’m “missing the point entirely” or “don’t get it”. The point of any game is to be entertaining, and if a player must peel back the disguises of obscure cultural references behind some interchangable protagonist’s life story to “get it”, I think the game’s designers are the ones missing the point (the atomic bomb? Seriously?). The in-game art is exceptional, but the game itself is not art. It is a platformer.

Dead Rising (demo)

Dead Rising is one of the games I regretted missing in 2006. It certainly feels like a Resident Evil game in the way it over-dramatizes the laughable storyline, but it does away with things like atmosphere and contrived suspense in favour of what people really want to do in a Resident Evil game: kill lots and lots of zombies.

The slow moving zombies practically allow themselves to be destroyed with all manner of weapons provided by the game’s environment. This is a definite change of pace from the chaotic action of Left 4 Dead as the massive, undulating crowds are rarely overwhelming. Weapons are also breakable, and this provides a bit of tension when that bat you were swinging has suddenly turned to splinters in your hands.

Based on what I was able to play in the demo, the action in Dead Rising seems pretty superficial, but I’ve read that there’s a lot more to do in the game than just kill zombies. I’m trying to track down a copy of the full version so I can make a better assessment.

Mirror’s Edge (demo)

If I could get every minute back spent reading self-appointed game criticism pundits fiddling with this game…Oh, forget it. The aesthetic of Mirror’s Edge is breathtakingly original, and I have to give DICE credit for creating something that isn’t another war-themed first-person shooter. These sterile environments are host to what is essentially an expansive jumping puzzle in a first person shooter. Except I can’t see my feet. It’s been a thorn in the side of any first person shooter player (even for Metroid Prime!) So why are these complaints absent from every review? Easy. They are too busy praising its originality.

I don’t care about the trend of “parkour” or “freerunning” or whatever the hell they are calling it now, but I will certainly give DICE their due for attempting such a game. But let’s be totally honest here: if you’re going to focus on jumping, let the player see their environment from a reasonable perspective. You know, like Brad Borne did with Mirror’s Edge 2D. Hopefully this is being created for XBox Live Arcade, because I will be getting it. As it stands, for washed out parkour fun I’d rather be playing Assassin’s Creed.

Castle Crashers (demo)

This shameless throwback to medieval beat ‘em ups like Golden Axe is a fucking revelation, brought to you by the creators of Alien Hominid. The visual comedy and overt references to its influences are hilarious to behold. After playing this game it becomes perfectly clear why XBox LIVE Arcade succeeds on the backs of these no-frills action games. I will be getting the full version.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Since its release on XBox LIVE Arcade last year, there have been a lot of people waxing poetic about its greatness in the pantheon of 2D platformers. But does anyone really know why this game is a 2D classic, and one of the best games of all time? Or do game reviewers and journalists just keep citing it because they know that’s what they’re supposed to say? (I also see this a lot with Gunstar Heroes – note to Microsoft, toss this one on XBL Arcade, too!).

The game is a curiosity for the Playstation generation, bravely released in an era that advanced 3D graphics for non-computer users. It is also difficult in an old-school platformer kind of way, from the days where it actually took patience and skill to run through a sequence instead of relying on auto-saves or save points that pop up like weeds all over a level. It was a refreshingly original take on the Castlevania universe by not giving you a whip, but arming you with other weapons, allowing the use of armour and providing a set of unique spells. It was before the series got unnecessarily complicated with 3D iterations and the convoluted magic systems of the portable series. This was the last great Castlevania, and for a while, the last great 2D platformer. I’m going to have to a write a full god damned review, aren’t I?

Though it is labelled as HD I probably could have played this on my PC with a decent emulator, as the sprites and animations feel like they were just bumped up to 1080i. Otherwise, the game plays like I remember it.

Kung Fu Panda

The first of the bundled titles that came with the console. Incredibly, this is a licensed game that doesn’t make me want to jump out of a window. Kung Fu Panda smartly focuses on straightforward action, fluid controls, and (thankfully) professional voice acting including Jack Black himself. It integrates well with the storyline of the movie, without veering too far off to make it seem that missions were thrown in to make the whole thing a game. My daughter also enjoys the cartoon violence and sound effects. This might actually be worth finishing.

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

The second of the bundled titles that came with the console. This is the first I’ve played of the Lego series of games that seem to be all the rage lately. Its cute factor is frequently nauseating, but it is fun to play. I can’t see myself spending too much time with it, though. Well, except when the little one asks for it by name (Indiana Jones bricks?)

Ninja Gaiden II (demo)

After playing the family-friendly Kung Fu Panda for close to two hours while my daughter watched in excitement, this was a welcome bloodbath. Atrocious cutscenes and polished spandex abound in the sequel to one of the original XBox’s premier titles, a game I always wanted to play for myself. The new Ninja Gaiden may be set in the same universe as Tecmo’s Dead or Alive, but do we really have to continue to watch Ryu hopping around in plastic pants through carefully constructed environments almost entirely devoid of character and substance? Is that really the best Team Ninja can do with the 360?

However, pushing graphical boundaries is not what this game is about. The combat is fast and merciless and aggressive. The mutated ninja sent to kill Ryu have no tactics, except to close in and repeatedly cut him with swords and beat with fists and throw shuriken.

With only the first level included in the demo, it’s tough to make a call on the difficulty. It’s challenging, but not impossible. It also doesn’t lend itself well to button mashing as some might have us believe. It’s no Assassin’s Creed, but the combat requires a bit of timing and proper use of blocking techniques. There is a new regenerative health system that rewards the calculated assault. There is also Ninja Magic.

There is so much blood in this game, I actually wondered if I was getting sensitive to the violence. But then I realized that the people who I was cutting up were actually coming back for more without any arms, or hopping on one leg, to finish the job. It was both ridiculous and satisfying to put the sad bastards out of their misery. I miss Shinobi, and for twenty minutes this game filled that void. I want to play more.

Devil May Cry 4 (demo)

This list is getting long, so I’ll mix it up with a Haiku to express my feelings for Devil May Cry 4.

Fancy pants wields sword
and glowing devil gauntlet
wind sighs through white hair

Wow, even writing that poem makes me want to go back and slice off bulging mutant limbs in Ninja Gaiden II.

Fracture (demo)

Maybe I’ve been too much into Gears of War lately, but Fracture seems like such a poseur in the latest deluge of third person shooters set in an embattled future.The big problem with this game is wasted potential. The ability to harness the earth itself to create cover and move through obstacles seems like a great concept gone to shit in the designers’ efforts to capitalize on the angry, futuristic shooter market. I don’t care that there’s a civil war – make a game that is fun to play!

The controls are passable, but the combat is not nearly as satisfying as Gears. And the earth shaping dynamic seems limited to certain areas of each level, which makes it completely useless as player advantage. If I can only use the ability when the game tells me to, what’s the point of introducing it in the first place? Also, game reviewers: please stop using the word “romp” when reviewing this type of game. It undermines their grittiness.

Gears of War 2

Now that I’m over how great the controls are and how enjoyable this series is to play, I can pay attention to the reasons why I’m supposed to be killing things. I had no idea it would be so disappointing. The story is a crippled mess of wartime cliché and forced emotion, and the dialogue seems less snappy and immediate this time around. Maybe it was bad in Gears of War and I just didn’t notice.

There are many notable additions to the game’s combat dynamic, and they only serve to further substantiate a solid formula. It is action all the time; it is shameless bravado; it is endlessly appealing. The Gears of War games are slowly becoming some of the greatest I have ever played. It continues to amaze me.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin feels like desperation. It is Konami’s attempt at reinventing the portable Castlevania series and expand it beyond the walls of Dracula’s castle. Where Dawn of Sorrow was more of a refinement of Aria of Sorrow with the features of the DS clumsily added in, Portrait of Ruin is content to step backwards into what could be considered a more traditional Castlevania experience. For someone who prefers the shift towards the fighter/mage character class that Soma has become, playing Portrait of Ruin is like reverting to Harmony of Dissonance. The Metroidvania formula and item collect-a-thon established by Symphony of the Night is untouched, and the addition of another playable character creates an unnecessary dimension to the game that can mostly be ignored. Instead of creating a fighter/mage character, you use two characters – one for brute force, the other for fireballs. Except that for the most part, this only serves to benefit the player in solving the occasional puzzle or overpowering a boss monster with horribly unbalanced combo attacks. Upon close inspection, Portrait of Ruin turns into a mediocre action game, an unfinished experiment in trying to make this series more interesting.

In the game’s introduction, you learn that the game takes place during World War 2, but aside from the vaguely German-sounding “bad guy” that must be defeated at the end of the game there isn’t much of an indication that you are fighting in this time period. This was also true in the introduction to Aria of Sorrow, which was set some time in the future but contained no evidence to support the statement. Which means that either someone not involved with the game is writing these introductions, or Konami figures we won’t notice. In either case it’s a real shame, because if someone was paying attention during the development of this game they could actually use this information to change the game’s appearance, and stop relying on shameless fanboyism to justify the reuse of the same old level design we’ve been living with for the past five years of 2D Castlevania.

Portrait of Ruin gets its name from the collection of paintings that can be found around the castle, which must be entered to gain the requisite powers to proceed through the remainder of the castle. In theory, this allowed the level designers a hell of a lot more freedom in the way they can present each few area instead of relying on the limited tilesets of creepy dungeon, chapel, disused laboratory, gore-soaked dungeon, sewers, etc. Instead, we simply get stand-alone levels that might as well have been designed around this exact collection of artwork. Sandy Grave is an Egyptian-like setting, but that’s as exotic as it gets. And for some reason, the level artists decided to use 3D elements for the backgrounds in these worlds within the paintings. It looks out of place, and doesn’t add anything to the level’s appearance. So what was the point? The Forest of Doom sounds ominous, but as it stands it’s merely a collection of barren trees before you enter some generic building with a lot of pointless, empty rooms. The most inspired design was the Nation of Fools, which is a Circus-like setting in a kind of gravity-defying pinwheel structure that must be navigated around by jumping on walls that become ceilings that become floors. It comes together nicely, though it is the shortest of all the Painting sub-levels.

With these new avenues available to change the game’s settings, Portrait of Ruin tries to distance itself further from the other Castlevania titles by introducing a second playable character that is set up to be an integral part of the adventure to come. Charlotte, the girl spellcaster, tags along with Jonathan “I Hate My Dad” Morris to explore Dracula’s castle and bring down the vampire Brauner. There are puzzles that require the use of both characters, but they are spread too far apart to make it feel like this mechanic is actually necessary for success. Sure, you gain the ability to jump off of the shoulders of your partner early on, but once you get the double-jump the shoulder-jump becomes completely useless. I spent most of my time using Jonathan in the game, dragging Charlotte out whenever I needed to complete one of these tedious puzzles.

Of course, Portrait of Ruin finds another use for this two-character dynamic: combo attacks. These spells are hidden in the Castle and in the Paintings, and can often be obtained after gaining some new special ability like the double jump or the spell that can change you into a frog to work your way through some tiny passage. With both characters on-screen, casting the combo attack spell results in a flashy animation and massive damage output. This turns out to be really handy in a boss fight. So handy, in fact, that the only tactic you need to beat them is to spam Tonics and wait for your mana to recharge to unleash another combo attack.

Portrait of Ruin also offers some minor variations in the subweapons and spell system from its predecessors, though it feels like a mismanaged jumble of Harmony of Dissonanceand the Sorrow games. Monsters will randomly drop special abilities that can be used by Jonathan as a subweapon, which is similar to the way Souls were collected. Levelling up these abilities is through use instead of collecting more instances of it. Charlotte will collect new spells scattered throughout the castle, but they are often more powerful than the subweapons, so your mana pool will almost always be used for those. There isn’t much of an incentive for Jonathan to actively pursue levelling his subweapons – once they are obtained, that’s good enough to do any required ranged damage. When compared with the spells and even some of the base melee weapons, the secondary attacks don’t add much depth or variety to the overall system. Spells will be given to you as long as you can find them in the castle, so acquiring new subweapons can almost be entirely ignored.

Which prompts the essential question: is having the control of two characters really necessary in this game? Both characters share a health and mana pool, and hearts replenish mana – mana does not automaically regenerate. There is no separate heart pool like the Sorrow games. This forces you to conserve spells and combo attacks for boss encounters, because there’s really no point in using Charlotte for melee. So, in effect, you are summoning Charlotte simply to cast a spell or a combo attack, then putting her back in your pocket for future use. In boss fights, Charlotte was often used as a distraction while I pummelled them from behind. If both characters are on screen during a fight, and one of them “dies”, they will simply disappear and can be summoned again. There is no penalty, which makes the disposable nature of this secondary character all the more apparent. Charlotte becomes Jonathan’s special attack.

Castlevania: Bloodlines is a curiosity in the Castlevania canon. It starred two characters that had no immediate relationship to the Belmont family, yet one of them wielded Vampire Killer. How was this possible? Portrait of Ruin’s storyline explains this anomaly. At the beginning of the game Jonathan has Vampire Killer in his possession but can’t use it’s “full power” right away. Different whips in the game are obtained, but this is no better than the whip add-ons that were available in Harmony of Dissonance. Why not level up Vampire Killer like the subweapons, through use? The “potential” of the whip isn’t actually unlocked until a seemingly arbitrary battle with Richter Belmont at the end of the game. But by then, you will have picked your favorite weapon, and the extra effort hardly seems worth it.

Portrait of Ruin is criminally short, but tries to make up for it by adding in a new Quest system to provide some additional incentive to backtrack through the castle and the Painting worlds. Except you don’t really get to see the game world, because there are enough portal stones scattered around the castle that make it so easy to get around, you won’t want to backtrack. Completed quests will unlock some new ability, but they aren’t needed to finish the game. I completed maybe five of the 1st tier quests, because after that the locations became too vague and there was no indication of the reward I would receive. I doubt any of them could have made the game any easier than it already was. Gold is readily available, so building up a stockpile of health and mana tonics is extremely easy to do. This makes beating the game’s bosses easier than past Castlevania games, which actually took a bit of skill. There is also a surplus of save points. When there’s no worry of dying after acquiring that exciting new ability, it takes away the feeling of urgency in exploration.

Though the ultimate indignity in this game’s design is the endgame sequence. After getting past Brauner’s vampire daughters you enter a room with five paintings – four of them must be completed to unlock the final painting to face Brauner. However, these four paintings simply re-use previous worlds and give them a different color scheme or bad weather. When taken alongside the overall shortness of the game, it just feels incredibly lazy and uninspired. The endgame is hastily compiled, like the designers didn’t know what to do with it. The final boss is some mutant Death/Dracula creature that puts a face to the designer’s lack of creativity in creating something new. It all makes the castle itself – the buildup to this encounter – seem all the more inadequate, as if the designers thought these Portraits to new worlds were perfectly sufficient in making the game world larger than it really is. But they aren’t.

Portrait of Ruin shows no evidence of wasted potential, because in most respects it falls in line with the rest of the portable Castlevania series up to this point: reproductions of past successes decorated in some new gimmick to apparent blind praise from the gaming media. There is just too much going on this game with no real direction and no incentive for the player to continue to play this game apart from some obsessive need to collect everything in sight. The story is laughable, the artwork shows a marked decrease in quality, and the sprite design is suprisingly bad for the fifth game in this portable series. Once you take out all of the unnecessary complications behind the two-player system and inconsequential item acquisition, Portrait of Ruin is actually pretty dull. There is nothing in this game that hasn’t been done before – and better – by its predecessors. For some fans of the series, this may be enough. However, the shortcomings of this game allow the shortcomings of the current state of the series to be readily apparent, and hearken the time for Castlevania to head in a new direction.

Afterword

Even though I’ve had almost two years (!) to write this review, I made sure I was not influenced by my impressions of the recent Order of Ecclesia. Believe me, it was hard – Ecclesia is exactly the new direction I was hoping for, and is shaping up to be one of my favorite releases of 2008.

The Gameboy Advance saw three Castlevania adventures in as many years after its release: Circle of the Moon (2001), Harmony of Dissonance (2002), and Aria of Sorrow (2003). Aria of Sorrow was my first experience with the remodeled portable Castlevania series, and still remains the finest (excluding last year’s fantastic Dawn of Sorrow on the DS, of course). At the time of Harmony of Dissonance’s release, the step up in visuals combined with a simpler brand of gameplay made it stand out as a worthy successor to the two-dimensional masterpiece Symphony of the Night. The RPG/Castleroid adventure style it adopted and familiar main character made for an easy comparison; whether it deserved the subsequent praise it received is debatable.

Dissonance sees you in the fancy vestments of Juste Belmont, the latest in the famed bloodline to take Vampire Killer in hand and explore Dracula’s castle. The adventure begins when Juste and companion Maxim have stumbled upon a mysterious castle while looking for mutual friend Lydie. Maxim is wounded, and Juste must proceed alone. Such is the life of a vampire hunter.

It’s easy to fault this game in hindsight, because Konami really accelerated the quality of the series with Aria of Sorrow. Though at the time its simple blend of action and upgraded powers was a throwback to the Castlevania games of old. Though this simplicity is the reason why Harmony of Dissonance is the weakest in the portable Castlevania series.

Most of the shortcomings in Dissonance are revealed through comparisons to Aria of Sorrow, and make it stand out as a transition between what the series used to be, and what the portable Castlevania series is today. The last portable adventure before Circle of the Moon � the much maligned Castlevania Legends for the Gameboy in 1998 � was definitely a recipient of the design traditions from the NES and SNES Castlevania adventures. There were no experience points, and no additional weapons � simply a series of power ups to be collected, and a life meter to maintain. The popularity of the gameplay model used by Symphony of the Night made Konami reconsider the direction of the series. Where Circle of the Moon may have confused matters with the innovative card-collecting DSS (Dual Set-Up System), Dissonance went back to being an action game first and foremost.

Special abilities in Dissonance are made up by the traditional sub-weapons (such as the Axe, Holy Water, etc.) and spellbooks that can be found around the castle. The spell book system in Dissonance is an add-on to the sub-weapons that can be picked up. Equipping a Fire spellbook, for example, will create brand new fire attacks that are different for whatever sub-weapon you’re holding at the time. The limitation in this approach is that the spells available are directly related to how many spellbooks you happen to be carrying, since you can never hold more than one sub-weapon. Using these spells depletes your mana pool, not your heart pool. This results in a balancing act between hearts for using the sub-weapon, and mana for using the associated spellbook attack. By including two different systems for special attacks, the game ends up feeling very inconsistent. Was this a traditional Castlevania adventure, or was it pushing the series forward with a complex spell system?

There are a limited number of spellbooks to collect, and it doesn’t approach the same amount of possibilities as Circle of the Moon’s DSS based on randomly dropped cards or Aria of Sorrow’s soul collecting system. I found myself listless in most parts of the game, because there was no real overarching goal pushing me forward beyond the token experience points to level up. Knowing that there was always another special ability to obtain, at least made wandering through Dracula’s castle a little more rewarding in Aria of Sorrow.

As a melee weapon, Juste will only be using Vampire Killer. There are a series of whip upgrades to collect that add types of elemental damage or alternate attacks to the whip. It would be tough to expect the same variety as the weapons in Symphony of the Night or Aria of Sorrow because of the weapon limitation, but the whip power ups were disappointing in their lack of variety and uniqueness: elemental damage and some base damage modifiers are all you have to look forward to. Relics are mostly passive abilities, or enhance existing abilities like Double Jump and Slide to gain access to new parts of the castle.

The Boss battles don’t pose much of a challenge, and simply act as roadblocks to new areas of the castle (sometimes literally). Beating a boss will only occasionally yield a Relic, and as such the sense of real reward wasn’t there as it was in Aria of Sorrow. Overall I didn’t find the game very difficult; it was the save points spread far apart that artificially extended the challenge.

I’ve said previously that this is the only portable series that has real, noticeable enhancements to the visuals through each new game. An addition to Dissonance worth mentioning is the ghostly blue trail that Juste leaves behind while jumping and moving. The original Gameboy Advance didn’t have an integral lamp, and Circle of the Moon was a very er�brown game. To alleviate this, the developers enshrouded the hero character of Dissonance in a blue aura, to make him more visible in low light conditions. Because I only ever played this game on a Gameboy Advance SP, I thought the blue aura was some kind of power-up. It’s distracting for the first 3 minutes of playing the game.

Nevertheless, the environments lack variety in colour, and appear to be constructed of overly repetitive tilesets. There are also many rooms that don’t serve any purpose, or are wide open with only a few monsters wandering inside. To its credit, exploration is stressed in Dissonance, as it was a lot less linear in the way the castle unfolded. About a third of the way into the game, you will find a portal that seemingly only transports you to another part of the castle. But this is a mirror image of the castle you were in – with a number of subtle differences that open up more avenues of exploration, while increasing confusion. I’ve never used the automap so much in playing either Metroid or Castlevania. Incidentally, the music gets irritatingly loopy when you’re lost.

Probably the strangest additions to the game are “collectibles”: pieces of furniture scattered around that can be gathered to decorate a room on one of the lower levels of the Castle. I couldn’t figure out the purpose of this exercise; I’d almost consider it a mini-game for the completist. Actually, I think it makes a perfect metaphor for the entire game: wandering Dracula’s castle searching for items of no consequence in an attempt to fill the voids of wasted potential in this adventure.

I see Harmony of Dissonance as more of a turning point for the series than a fully realized Castlevania game. It was clear where Konami wanted the portable series to go, but they had a hard time leaving the traditions established by the previous eight years of similar games. Additionally, Dissonance provides an excellent foil for Aria of Sorrow, entrenching it as one of the best games to be released for the Gameboy Advance. Though it also serves as a reminder of the towering achievements of Symphony of the Night in the Castlevania lineage; it just took Konami a few years to reach a new equilibrium in design.

Dawn of Sorrow’s “Julius Mode” is unlocked by completing the ending where Soma (the character in the main game) assumes the mantle of Dracula. As Julius Belmont, you must go through the same castle to fulfill the destiny of the Belmonts. Subtracting the details of spell and inventory management, what remains is a veritable tribute to the Castlevania games of old. In fact, this same premise was used for Julius Mode in 2003’s Aria of Sorrow. Only this time you have friends.

Dawn of Sorrow’s Julius Mode gives you a team of three characters. Aside from the whip, Julius comes with a solid collection of traditional Castlevania powers like holy water, axes, and a cross boomerang. Yoko Belnades, who was a character from the main game, adds fire, ice and lightning spells into your repertoire of powers. Last, but certainly not least, as Julius you run into Genya Arikado (a returning character from Aria of Sorrow), who reveals himself to be none other than Alucard. While not having as many powers as the other two, he can change into a bat which allows entrance into some of the castle’s otherwise inaccessible areas. The current character is switched at the press of the “X” button.

As such, balancing the use of these three characters becomes an entirely new game that focuses on the straight ahead side-scrolling action of Castlevania before it had been fused with Metroid. The game even allows you to level up the characters. Aria’s Julius mode simply gave a full powered static character to plow through the game with, which was no easy feat during the last third of the game. My only criticism for this experience system is that the levelled-up life and mana pools are shared among the three characters, so the weaker Yoko will tend to drain the health pool faster than say, Alucard. Yoko’s mana will recharge a lot faster, though. With regard to castle exploration, there are quite a few dead ends such as the “Ice Blocks” area that is extremely time consuming to clear with the whip, only to find that there’s nothing at the other end worth pursuing. Though I’d hardly fault Konami for these shortcomings – they’ve essentially turned a bonus for completing the main game into a completely separate adventure.

I find Castlevania in its current form irresistible.

As much as I love to complain about a lack of exciting new concepts in games, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow continues to refine the formula that makes the portable version of this series so appealing. When you aren’t mentally replacing the main character with one that wears bionic armour, the gameplay remains gripping. The need to collect better armour, weapons and more powerful spells (the souls that first appeared in Aria of Sorrow) drives the game forward. Ever since Symphony of the Night, Castlevania has turned into a kind of “Castleroid”, adopting the exploration to acquire new power to unlock new areas methodology. Though what Castlevania adds is experience points. It gives purpose to repeatedly visiting the same rooms during those long sessions of trying to figure out where to go next. Except this is not really an RPG, because the player has no control over the main character’s stat progression. And yet somehow the entire system manages to work.

Though we are now on the DS, and Dawn of Sorrow upsets the balance by adding some features that are intended to take advantage of the DS’ touch screen. Frankly, these additions are weak and do more to soil the purity of the experience than actually enhance the gameplay. I am of the mindset that if the stylus must be used, it should be directly integrated with the game’s mechanics and not used intermittently – Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Meteos and even Metroid Prime: Hunters do this well.

The first instance of this breach in gameplay are the ice blocks. After killing the second boss in the game, you gain the ability to break these blocks that are either preventing entrance into rooms or require modification to ascend a height before getting the double-jump. Something that I thought would be a lynchpin of the gameworld – this manipulation of the game’s environment using the touch screen – amounts to little more than a parlour trick, as these obstacles are rarely encountered. By the time I reached the endgame sequence, I wondered if it was necessary to include it at all.

The next offender is the Seal system. These are patterns that must be traced on screen in a single stroke once a boss monster has been defeated to banish them forever. With only five seals to learn and roughly 14 bosses over the course of the game, the difficulty ramps up gradually. They can be practiced at any time, but after experiencing this system first-hand I can only describe it as self-sabotage waiting to happen. As if boss battles weren’t already hard enough, they can be undone by a slip of the stylus or simply forgetting part of a stroke. Furthermore, fumbling for the stylus after I’ve just worked my thumbs raw and have only 30 health points to spare tends to build a kind of insurmountable pressure to perform. You will fight bosses multiple times, but not because they are difficult. No. It will be because of these invasive seals, brutally justifying the stylus’ use with this game.

However these intermissions and the brief emotional outbursts that followed seemed to fade into the background of Dawn of Sorrow’s main purpose: to provide a two-dimensional platformer. In this regard the game excels; everything about the gameplay exudes familiarity, and yet the DS’ capabilities for rendering my adventures as Soma Cruz surprised me at every turn, proving once again that a third dimension is not always necessary. Furthermore, what has been impressive about the Castlevania series for Nintendo’s portable platforms is that there has been a noticeable evolution in the game’s visuals. I thought Aria of Sorrow was an incredible advance over Harmony of Dissonance – but l look back now and see a game that looks a lot older than it actually is. Dawn of Sorrow makes me want to see more 2D games on the DS.

Aside from the obvious concessions made for the touch screen, some additions were made to improve on the Castlevania experience last seen in Aria of Sorrow. The Doppelganger ability allows the creation of two sets of armour, weapons and souls to be equipped by Soma, switchable by the press of a single button. This is unbelievably convenient during boss battles, where a heavy weapon and quick weapon would often be required. Also included is a kind of weapon customization feature, which was created with the best of intentions I’m sure. You can fuse souls with weapons, removing them from your inventory of equippable souls. However, this is all limited by the weapons and souls you happen to have – you can only fuse a prescribed soul to a weapon, leaving these “customization” options not very customizable at all.

In a an homage to classic Castlevania, completing one of the three possible endings where Soma becomes Dracula unlocks “Julius Mode”, which allows you to play through the game as Julius Belmont and ultimately take on Soma. There are no souls, no magic seals, weapons or special powers – just Vampire Killer and an amazing remix of the original Castlevania soundtrack.

After finishing the fourth portable iteration of Castlevania The Quasi-RPG, it became clear that the games are directly tapping into the Pokémon subconscious. They are games for the completist: obtain the perfect set of gear, complete 100% of the map, get every soul in the game. I always found it amazing that absolutely every enemy I fought had the potential to give an ability once, or many times over through levelling up an existing soul in my repertoire. It meant when I passed through that corridor for the 20th time, I might get something in return. Killing a lowly skeleton does not encourage an automated response; instead, it maintains interest. I wouldn’t call it infinite replayability, but it comes close. Even after beating the game you can go back to your save game and explore the castle for secret areas and a full set of souls. In the realm of 2D adventures, I get the feeling that Samus Aran has just been overtaken.

i saw them all inside a sheet of flame