In Rondo of Blood, Dracula has returned and captured a young woman who is close to you, Richter Belmont. As a vampire hunter this really gets under your skin so it’s payback time. You will make your way past various monsters and super baddies in order to have one final showdown against the one who sucks the most….blood that is…Dracula.

Visually the game looks wonderful and the high quality PSP screen does a lot to help bring out the gorgeous details found throughout the game. The layout of the original vs. the remake is identical, but the visual differences are great. Everything from the newly designed character models, to the animations, the enemies and bosses; to even the backdrops themselves are unmistakably gorgeous in comparison to the original. Oddly, while the remake looks understandably better, the cut scenes for the original are done with beautiful artwork while the remake is done with in game models. I personally think they should have used the artwork scenes in both, but to each his own I guess. What’s great is that you can in fact; unlock the original in this game for your own comparison work. The only real downer is that the game is cropped off and never allows you to stretch the screen out to full screen display, so you will always have sidebars to look at. At least you can customize them.

Audio is exactly what you would expect from this series, over exaggerated voice acting accompanied by an incredible score. Even pleasing to the ears of long time fans of the series, is remixed version of some of the classic Castlevania songs.

Game play for Rondo of Blood will either make or break this title for some gamers. This game is old school and hardcore, not for the weak at heart. The game is extremely challenging from beginning to end. The boss weak spots are precise so you must be at the top of your game to be successful. Lastly, the game offers no checkpoints between the levels, so you must complete each level from beginning to end, including the boss, in one span of 3 lives. This is a formula used in the original game, and for better or worse for some gamers, returns in this version as well. Did the developers do this because the game is short? Did they do this to keep the translation as faithful as possible? Or did they do this because they want to see us suffer at the wake of many PSP’s smashed on the ground in frustration? For many of us old timers this will re-awaken your senses and remind you how well you have it now and how good we were at being gamers 20 years ago.

Now if playing Castlevania in 3D or playing through the prequel to Symphony of the Night wasn’t enough for you to rush out to your game store and pick this one up, maybe noting that in fact the entire Symphony of the Night game is also included in this package. Granted, like the original Rondo of Blood, you must unlock it, but it is there and a perfect translation too boot. You also may go through the game with Maria, an unlockable female character. Lastly the game offers a cool 2 player boss rush battle mode that allows you to take on the game’s big baddies solo or with a friend.

Honestly there’s not much more to say here. If you are a fan of the series, you own this already before I even said a word. For anyone else who may wonder what the hubbub is all about, if you have the patience to endure many levels repeatedly in an old school side scrolling fashion, then this is a great start for you. Nevertheless, this game fills in the gaps and tells the tale before the greatest Castlevania title of all time, and includes it in the package to boot.