Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

"As of March 2007, this is the best game for the XBLA"

The Xbox Live arcade has been really taking off lately, with awesome games like Alien Hominid HD, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and now, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. This game takes the theme and atmosphere of the Castlevania games, and adds the exploration aspects common to the Metroid series. What you get is the best game currently available for the Xbox Live Arcade.

Story
The objective of this game is to kill Dracula (surprise surprise). You play as Alucard, Dracula's son, whom has sworn to end his family's evil bloodline. However, the game starts you off as a Richter Belmont. The beginning of the game seems more like the end of a game. Here, you play as Richter about to defeat Dracula. This is a kind of prologue, to set up the story. Afterwards, you play as Alucard, but Richter's fight with Dracula becomes integral to the plot, and you'll have to unravel its mystery.

Gameplay
The game is side-scrolling, but definitely not typical. Instead of many small levels, the game is one gigantic level. There are many different paths to take, and many abilities to learn. Most of these abilities will allow you to progress further into the castle. You can spend hours simply exploring the castle, looking for secrets. For example, once you obtain the double-jump ability, new areas that were previously out of reach are now within your grasp. This makes travelling around the castle so much fun.

Additionally, there's a action-RPG element added to the game. Each enemy killed nets you experience points, and you can level up and reap the standard benefits of doing so. Unfortunately, the game gets a little easy near the end, especially after you get certain weapons and armour. But it's still pretty satisfying to slash through everything. One gripe I have with the game is its cluttered inventory system, but that is easily overlooked in view of the game's strengths.

Graphics
The graphics are pretty much completely sprite based, with a bit of 3D. To be honest, this was a good decision. Good 2D trumps bad 3D any day of the week. There is an added feature which lets you "enhance" the graphics, but to be honest, it hardly makes any difference.

Sound
The music is quite fantastic, and really sets the mood of the castle. Unfortunately, the voice acting is...abysmal, but there's little of it, so that's okay.

Conclusion
If you have any interest in the Metroid series, or the Castlevania series, then you'd love this one. Plus, it's only 800 MS Points, which makes it a huge steal. Basically, if you have a 360, you should have this game. End of story.

The Good:
-Great Metroid-style gameplay
-Lots of exploration
-RPG Elements
-Added achievements

The Bad:
-Game gets easy near the end.
-Bad voice acting
-Cluttered inventory

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/07, Updated 03/29/07