Castlevania: Aria Of Sorrow (Game Boy Advance)
Developed by: Konami

As much as I enjoy the immersive 3D graphics of today’s video game world, sometimes you just can’t beat the feel of a good ol’ side scrolling 2D action game. This is what I like about the Gameboy Advance. It’s the only game system on the market nowadays where 3D graphics are not an unspoken prerequisite for a game, and although there are far too many generic GBA side-scrollers out there, it is the only place that you can hope to find a game like Castlevania: Aria Of Sorrow.

The Castlevania series is among the most prolific in videogame history. There are over 20 games that have been produced within the Castlevania storyline, and after a couple of failed experiments in 3D on the Nintendo 64, Konami decided to stick with what works, making it a perfect vehicle for the Game Boy Advance.

Aria of Sorrow is the 3rd Castlevania game to emerge forNintendo’s latest handheld system in 3 years, and arguably the best. What’s interesting is the fact that this game steps away from many of the series’ defining trademarks, but without sacrificing quality or familiarity.

To begin with, this is the first Castlevania game where the story does not involve a member of the Belmont family. Instead it centers around a rather effeminate looking male high school student named Soma Cruz. The game also takes place in the future — the year 2035 to be exact, although this is by no means a sci-fi thriller. In this futuristic time, Dracula has already been vanquished by one of the Belmonts, and yet… Soma is preparing to witness a solar eclipse, when suddenly he passes out and awakens inside of a strange castle. As he explores the castle and fends off the evil that surrounds him, he notices a power awakening inside him. He also begins to learn what we could have assumed from the beginning… that a solar eclipse is one of the many ways through which Dracula can be resurrected! Of course!

As soon as I started playing this game I was hooked. I think the key to this game’s fun factor really is the huge variety in the abilities, weapons and items you can amass. The best part is that within minutes of playing the game your arsenal is already quite extensive. The idea of character building is clearly an RPG concept, but unlike a lot of RPGs, this game doesn’t take forever for your power to grow noticeably. You begin acquiring skills so quickly that you never want to stop because you simply have to see what comes next.

The abilities in Aria Of Sorrow come in the form of souls that you can absorb from fallen enemies. For most of the enemies it’s a random thing (some enemy abilities are harder to absorb than others), but with major boss fights you will always receive their “orbs” after you defeat them. You can even trade souls with friends over a GBA link cable and this “gotta catch ‘em all” theme adds a certain amount of replay value to the game. Most of these souls provide a typical secondary weapon that can be used like in previous Castlevania games, with these secondary weapons ranging from spears, axes and skeleton bones to lightning bolts and attacking animals. Other souls operate differently by providing magical effects that last for a certain period of time (shield, feather falling, petrification mist) or permanently (increased strength, power slide, ability to walk on or under water).

Your choice of primary weapon in this game is also a little different from what Castlevania fans might be used to. With the exception of a whip sword, the standard issue whip is all but non-existent here. Soma prefers to fight mainly with sharp weapons, and really, who can blame him? The game has everything from daggers and knives to a bastard sword, katana blade, hammer, axe, lance, and even… a handgun? Where the heck was that when I needed it back in those older Castlevania games? You can also equip various forms of armour and magical charms as well.

Exploration throughout the game reminds me of the Metroid series in the sense that the game’s general area is not huge, but you need to backtrack a lot and unlock areas once you gain new abilities that let you reach them. There are a few points that allow you to teleport across maps to cut down on some of the repetetive travel time too.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the amazing atmosphere of the game, and the stellar graphics, music and sound that Konami always delivers. This may be a 2D, 32-bit game, but it’s still pretty damn nice to look at, with many different layers of background motion and extremely detailed enemies and environments. It kind of makes me yearn for the good ol’ days of the SNES or even the NES for that matter. I think too much emphasis on 3D graphics has all but killed the market for games that are easy to pick up but hard to put down. Castlevania: Aria Of Sorrow is not groundbreaking or super-realistic and it doesn’t claim to be. It’s just addictive and a lot of fun to play, and in the end that’s all that really matters. — Sean