Castlevania DS Review

Developer/Publisher: Konami

ESRB Rating: T for Teen

Reviewed by: Doctor Gonzo

Disclaimer:

I’m biased. There, I said it. I love the Castlevania series, all with the exception of the two Nintendo 64 blunders, and I will purchase them all as soon as they are released. With that said I will do my best to explain why you should abandon your family, friends, work and school to devote your life to this series.

Story as Old as Time

Anyone who’s played a Castlevania game remembers the Belmont, the cursed blood-lineage that has the power to hunt and defeat Dracula even though the pesky bugger keeps on reappearing throughout history. Well, as with Dawn of Sorrow’s story line prequel, this features a Belmont but has little to do with him in terms of story. This game focuses on a character introduced in Aria of Sorrow for the Game Boy Advance SP, Soma Cruz.

In that game, you spend most of your time trying to figure out why he should be included in a game about Dracula and the Belmont clan. As the story comes to a twisting peak, all is revealed about Soma’s own mysterious lineage, throwing a new twist on an old story. If you don’t want to ruin the once in a lifetime experience of figuring out for yourself what it is that makes Soma so special, play Aria of Sorrow before Dawn of Sorrow. Suffice to say that in the latter, Soma is back and this time somebody is dead set on using his lineage against him as part of a plot to form a balance between good and evil.

What’s a Side-scroller?

I’m sure that most of you know the answer to that. Like the old school Castlevania games, the Mega Man series, Strider and such of the NES, this game is in fact a side-scroller. Part of a lost generation’s past that rarely surfaces and even more rarely is done well. This side scrolling RPG (a brand of game that was created with the PS one hit Symphony of the Night) takes you through the bad guy’s castle at a sideways glance.

The true beauty of the game is the complete customization of your own character’s fighting style. You choose from huge Great Swords that swoop overhead, spears that reach out directly in front of you, axes, and even guns. Then you have a combination of three souls can be equipped at once -- souls you earn by defeating monsters that plague the castle grounds. The system is nearly identical to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, but there are some minor improvements. Like Grandpa said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The one complaint I had about the previous game was that you end up with so many weapon and soul choices, but you only end up using one set that you get used to and rarely have the need to diversify your tactics. In this game, they made a system that changes between two equipment and soul set types on the fly, so you get twice as much play with your equipment.

Wi-Fi Features

One of the DS’s major selling points is that it has the Wi-Fi functionality, the ability to wirelessly connect to nearby DS units. This game offers up a killer new twist on multiplayer abilities, a facet that was never a strong point of the series.

First of all, you can wirelessly trade souls with a buddy to help fill in your list of acquired abilities. Then, create your own mini-map and go head-to-head with a friend to see who can complete the maze first. Two words: Freakin’ awesome.

Play It Again?

After playing through the game once, you unlock several features that make it worth another trip through. First, you unlock the ability to play through the map you just beat as Julius Belmont, a secondary character to the story. It adds a new twist to the game, as you have to find different ways to overcome obstacles that stand in your way.

Next is a harder difficulty level. It’s evened out slightly because you have the use of your old equipment and souls that carry over from your last romp through the castle, but many sections will still unexpectedly tear you up due to the overpopulated areas featuring an insane amount of monsters compared to last time.

In Boss Rush Mode you will can time yourself as you run through each of the bosses you bested through your first run through the castle. You select which data you want to use and have limited healing abilities, but based on your time you will gain new equipment to help you with your next journey through the game. If you plan on doing this, I recommend you do it before you start hard mode or close to the end of your second time through You will lose certain transportation souls so that you have limited access to the castle and have to progress normally. You will also start from level one, which would make it impossible to beat all of the bosses.

Doctor's Orders: More More MORE!

Not only should you rush out to buy this game because I hail it as the best Nintendo DS game in existence, but be on the lookout for the 3D Castlevania game in the style of Lament of Innocence on the PlayStation 2.