The original Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was possibly one of my fondest memories of the Playstation era. Before this installment, I had never been a huge fan of Castlevania; the series to me always came across as, at best, just another platformer. This game changed all that, however, and I’m now a firm fan of the series. The port to Live Arcade of this game has been done very well, and I can find very little wrong with it, to be honest, but I’ll do my best.

Symphony of the Night follows what is essentially a standard Castlevania plot.  The player journeys through Castle Dracula in order to stop the resurrection of Count Dracula.  There are a couple unique story elements, and a few others that were unique for the time (such as the main protagonist not being a member of the Belmont clan), but the game’s real achievement is the semi-RPG elements that add an amazing amount of replay to the game, from an experience system to equip able items and even an entire extra castle.

Everything you loved about Symphony of the Night on the Playstation is still here. The music still sounds great coming out of a 360, and the game’s art style and difficulty curve have been preserved masterfully. The developers made excellent use of the 360’s power advantage over the PSX to reduce load times, and the achievements provide some added replay value to the title.

While, as I mentioned above, there is very little I can find wrong with this game, most of the problems come with irritations about the original that were not repaired and/or removed. The graphics are starting to show their age a bit, and some smoothing might have helped avoid some of the PSX’s characteristic pixel-problems. Also, while the music sounds great, some of the sound effects in the game clearly need a little touch-up for modern audio.
But, like I said, these are nits at best that I’m picking here, and small ones at that. I strongly recommend that anyone that is even remotely interested in RPGs, action games, or platformers pick this title up. You will not be disappointed.

	System:	X-box Live Arcade
	Genre:	Side-Scrolling Adventure
	Experience:	Finished the game as Alucard with 190% completion and half the achievements.

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