Number 52: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Konami 2005
Intro: A somewhat poor conversion of a short, action packed animation depicting the hero and his enemies. Anime fans will recognize it as a typical adventure intro, based on a formula any TV show or videogame could execute, but all the same it's exciting, informative, and colorful. It's just a shame the first few seconds have such terrible coloring.
Getting Going:
The basics are pretty quick, and use a typical control scheme: the easiet button to reach is jump, and the second easiest is attack. That was nice of them, since this game doesn't bother giving you a tutorial on those sorts of things. It doesn't bother guiding you through a lot, such as equiping items and souls, or the enemy list or library function. I like that: it gives the player more time to play, and if they're adventurous enough they'll figure out the rest on their own. Pause still brings the menu to the player, and they can use the Config option to check out the controls. Special abilities do explain their use, and Magic Seals are explained, with a moment of practice at first and all the practice you want later.
Fun:
This game is all meat, and the fun just never stops. Room after room of diverse monsters and puzzles, and clear rewards as the player gains new abilities for defeating monsters and steadily levels up, making old enemies a piece of cake and new ones a fresh challenge that's not too overwhelming at first, and quickly yesterday's news as the levels keep coming. Boss fights are lots of fun, and their patterns are easy to pick up, so the first third of the battle is getting pounded and the last two thirds are careful, calculated tactics, so bosses don't take more than one or two times through to defeat, depending on your strategy.
Visuals:
These graphics are what I dreamed of when the Super Nintendo was in it's prime. Sharp, colorful, beautiful, smooth... each environment is so unique it almost slaps you in the face. The animation is smooth and enjoyable. The design is consistent and lots of old enemies from the series look just as you'd expect them to, but prettier. And I love Soma's motion trail.
Intelligence:
Enemies all behave in patterns, though some trickier enemies and bosses will mix up their attack pattern randomly, so it's never a matter of timing and fighting the same enemy the same way every time you pass through the same area. Lots of enemies are sensitive to the player's location, too.
Immersion:
Between the engaging music, the gorgeous visuals, the great pace, and rewarding gameplay, I've been sucked in all day. I could play this game to its conclusion in one sitting, if my thumbs had the stamina. The only draw back is that dying takes you to a game over screen, then you might as well have restarted the system as you go through the Nintendo and Konami screens and back to the main menu, left to start from scratch with this frustrating downtime.
Cameras:
This is a 2D platformer, so the camera is simple side-on as far as I've seen.
Control:
This game controls just like it's GBA counterparts, but now with the benefit of a couple extra buttons for new Special Attack and Doppleganger abilities, one of which expends magic points to do extra damage while the other allows the player to switch between two sets of equipment. Everything feels smooth and responsive, and different weapons have different effective ranges that change how you control the action in ways that are organic and sensible. Magic Seals are the major use of the touch screen (besides some puzzles and "wiping" away ice blocks with a special ability), and thank goodness they let you practice all you want: they get pretty complex, and you have a time limit, and failing to draw the Seal means bosses will take even longer to defeat (and none of these bosses are a slouch).
Ideas:
Every enemy gives be a new ability, eh? I love it. Bosses are not only challenging in their own way, but I have to draw occult symbols on my touch screen to defeat them? That, also, recives my love. Rip off Metroid games for years? It works for them, so why not keep going? Synthesizing normal weapons into better weapons by spending the souls I've captured? Neato! There is clear emphasis on exploring every corner of the game, and when the player does, they always see rewards.
Memory:
This game is absolutley fantastic. I'm telling everyone I meet about it, already, and I haven't owned it for more than 6 hours, 2.5 of which have been spent playing C:DoS. The characters are interesting, the plot is good, but king to all that is the gameplay, pace, and pure enjoyment this game produces.
Getting Going:
The basics are pretty quick, and use a typical control scheme: the easiet button to reach is jump, and the second easiest is attack. That was nice of them, since this game doesn't bother giving you a tutorial on those sorts of things. It doesn't bother guiding you through a lot, such as equiping items and souls, or the enemy list or library function. I like that: it gives the player more time to play, and if they're adventurous enough they'll figure out the rest on their own. Pause still brings the menu to the player, and they can use the Config option to check out the controls. Special abilities do explain their use, and Magic Seals are explained, with a moment of practice at first and all the practice you want later.
Fun:
This game is all meat, and the fun just never stops. Room after room of diverse monsters and puzzles, and clear rewards as the player gains new abilities for defeating monsters and steadily levels up, making old enemies a piece of cake and new ones a fresh challenge that's not too overwhelming at first, and quickly yesterday's news as the levels keep coming. Boss fights are lots of fun, and their patterns are easy to pick up, so the first third of the battle is getting pounded and the last two thirds are careful, calculated tactics, so bosses don't take more than one or two times through to defeat, depending on your strategy.
Visuals:
These graphics are what I dreamed of when the Super Nintendo was in it's prime. Sharp, colorful, beautiful, smooth... each environment is so unique it almost slaps you in the face. The animation is smooth and enjoyable. The design is consistent and lots of old enemies from the series look just as you'd expect them to, but prettier. And I love Soma's motion trail.
Intelligence:
Enemies all behave in patterns, though some trickier enemies and bosses will mix up their attack pattern randomly, so it's never a matter of timing and fighting the same enemy the same way every time you pass through the same area. Lots of enemies are sensitive to the player's location, too.
Immersion:
Between the engaging music, the gorgeous visuals, the great pace, and rewarding gameplay, I've been sucked in all day. I could play this game to its conclusion in one sitting, if my thumbs had the stamina. The only draw back is that dying takes you to a game over screen, then you might as well have restarted the system as you go through the Nintendo and Konami screens and back to the main menu, left to start from scratch with this frustrating downtime.
Cameras:
This is a 2D platformer, so the camera is simple side-on as far as I've seen.
Control:
This game controls just like it's GBA counterparts, but now with the benefit of a couple extra buttons for new Special Attack and Doppleganger abilities, one of which expends magic points to do extra damage while the other allows the player to switch between two sets of equipment. Everything feels smooth and responsive, and different weapons have different effective ranges that change how you control the action in ways that are organic and sensible. Magic Seals are the major use of the touch screen (besides some puzzles and "wiping" away ice blocks with a special ability), and thank goodness they let you practice all you want: they get pretty complex, and you have a time limit, and failing to draw the Seal means bosses will take even longer to defeat (and none of these bosses are a slouch).
Ideas:
Every enemy gives be a new ability, eh? I love it. Bosses are not only challenging in their own way, but I have to draw occult symbols on my touch screen to defeat them? That, also, recives my love. Rip off Metroid games for years? It works for them, so why not keep going? Synthesizing normal weapons into better weapons by spending the souls I've captured? Neato! There is clear emphasis on exploring every corner of the game, and when the player does, they always see rewards.
Memory:
This game is absolutley fantastic. I'm telling everyone I meet about it, already, and I haven't owned it for more than 6 hours, 2.5 of which have been spent playing C:DoS. The characters are interesting, the plot is good, but king to all that is the gameplay, pace, and pure enjoyment this game produces.