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DEVELOPER
Konami
PUBLISHER
Konami
AVAILABLE
Now
MEDIUM
CD-Rom
PLAYERS
One
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 here
are precious few classic game series that have survived the test of time.
Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Sega's Shining Series and Sonic the Hedgehog immediately
spring to mind. However, while those series have had their ups and downs,
one franchise has managed to deliver a rock solid game each and every time.
Obviously, I'm speaking of Konami's definitive action platform series,
Castlevania.
Yet again Konami has delivered the goods. Castlevania: Symphony of the
Night is about as good as it gets. While maintaining the traditional, side
scrolling 2D graphics, this is the first Castlevania since Simon's Quest
that is based more on exploration than simply reaching one objective after
another. Think of it as Super
Metroid meets Dracula X on steroids.
As the game opens, you see the final battle between Richter Belmont
and Dracula ( Dracula X on the TurboDuo ). As the curtain falls, it's explained
that mere years afterward, Richter has disappeared. Even more disturbing
is the fact that Dracula's castle, which only appears every hundred years,
has suddenly materialized over ninety-five years early. As Maria, whom
Richter saved in Dracula X, enters the castle in search of answers, Alucard
awakens from his eternal sleep. Fans of the series will remember Alucard
as the rebel son of the Dark Prince, who joined forces with Ralph C. Belmont
years earlier in order to rid the land of his father's foul presence. As
Alucard, the player must enter Castlevania and solve its many mysteries,
in the hope of averting catastrophe yet again. Whew, that was a mouthful...
You have never seen 32-bit special effects like this, ever. It's just
that simple. So much time and effort has been spent to get the visuals
just right, it gives me newfound hope for this industry. Alucard sports
an almost scary amount of animation, and the character design is the stuff
legends are made of. With spectacular lighting effects and huge, imposing
bosses at every turn, Castlevania pushes the envelope far beyond anything
the PlayStation is supposed to be capable
of.
When you have great visuals there's always the danger of a bad soundtrack
ruining the mood. Of course, Konami has this covered, too. Mostly comprised
of variations on the original Castlevania soundtrack, the music is simply
awe-inspiring. My personal favorite is the electric guitar rendition of
the original theme song. The voice actors are also superb. The complete
presentation of this project is second to none.
I know what you're saying, "What good are great graphics and sound
if the game is short and boring?" Of course, with Konami of Japan,
this is almost never a worry. As I previously mentioned, the game plays
very much like Super Metroid. The castle is a vast building with many unique
areas in it. Each one presents a new challenge, and there's a staggering
amount of items and secrets to be uncovered. One thing that really shows
just how important this game is to the developers are the nice little extra
scenes, such as Alucard's playable dream sequence, or the confessional
that can be found in the cathedral.
The control is airtight, and quite interesting. Along with the standard
action/platform motions, Alucard can use a variety of magic by inputting
certain"SF2 style" commands. As you uncover these special motions, they're
saved in a sub-menu for reference purposes. Each weapon and armor usually
endows him with a new skill, and the ability to transform into various
entities also makes the gameplay very interesting.
While many will tell you that games just aren't as good as they used
to be, the PlayStation incarnation of Castlevania goes a long way in proving
that theory wrong. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is simply the best
2D action/platformer to be released, period. It's also the only title that,
in my opinion, gives Final Fantasy 7 a run for its money as the best game
of 1997, if not of all time. This is the whole reason we started playing
video games in the first place.
-- Greg Sewart
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