(My first Xbox Live Arcade Game Review; expect more of these, I have quite a few XBLA games, and I’ve been meaning to do some shortish reviews of them, as well as of some downloadable content for other games)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is pretty much a straight port of the original Playstation version of the game to the Xbox Live Arcade; a couple of improvements have been made to the graphics, and the FMVs were removed to make the download friendlier, but otherwise this is still an 11 year old game.
Thank the dark priest Shaft (he’s a bad mother…shut your mouth!) then that the original game still stands up as not just the best of the Castlevania series (no small claim), but also as pretty much the pinnacle of the 2D platformer and action genres; this classic has not aged badly at all, and in fact the art style looks better and has more character than many current 3D releases.
Dracula’s magic castle has reappeared in Romania after many years, and his dhampir (wiki it) son Alucard has come back to find out why the castle is back, and kick daddy’s arse if necessary. Honestly the story is pretty irrelevant, although occasionally interesting and always amusing in an Engrish kind of way (“Have at you!”), although SotN receives bonus marks for having full voiceovers (as well as good music and monster sounds). Still, the story takes a back seat in this one; the focus of this game is very much on the exploration and the action.
Dracula’s castle is a monstrously (ha!) huge building, populated by numerous monsters and tough bosses; even better, many of these look awesome and/or have hilarious names. As you explore and level up (the game has a fairly comprehensive RPG mechanic, with level grinding and equipment drops) more of the castle becomes available as your powers grow, including the ability to transform into various other forms, cast spells, super jump, and generally be all scary and vampiric.
Combat is a little bit deeper than your typical old school side-scroller, with the ability to wield different one or two handed weapons, as well as choosing whether to dual-wield or use a shield. Spells require Street Fighter-like button combinations, and must be discovered by the player through experimentation. You also have special weapons which are discovered throughout the game, one shot super weapons, and the various forms and familiars you acquire; there’s plenty of room to tailor the game to a certain fighting style which you enjoy, and things are made even more interesting by different weapons causing different types of damage, making them more useful in certain situations.
A love of exploration and freedom is the key to enjoying the SotN experience; there are no real indicators of what you are meant to do next, and some of the power ups you need to locate to progress through certain areas are fiendishly hidden or protected by very tough bosses. Those who like a linear experience replete with deep story will be tearing their hair out trying to just finish the game; in fact, it’s possible to miss out on a full half of the game by not finding an obscure item before you fight a specific boss! Now THAT’s hardcore.
Another hardcore aspect of the game is the difficulty level; while the first half isn’t too bad, the difficulty level rapidly escalates, and if you’ve had bad luck with finding decent equipment, or haven’t fully explored to grind up to a higher level, you will be dominated by some of the basic enemies later in the game, never mind the bosses. However this difficulty level is all a part of what makes this such a great experience; it’s an old school 2D game the way they are meant to be: long, challenging, occasionally frustrating, but hugely entertaining.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a bit of a rare beast on XBLA; an incredibly strong singleplayer game which still looks and plays beautifully despite its age and status as a port from an inferior system. Unlike a lot of the throwaway games from the 360’s store, this really does deliver a brilliant experience provided you are willing to invest the time and the elevated stress levels. Plus Alucard is one of the coolest characters you will ever play as in a game, even if his name is kind of lame.
Rating: 9/10
-Tim Sweeney
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