Konami practically perfected the side-scrolling action game with the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the original PlayStation. Since then, they’ve tweaked and added to the formula with several portable titles for the GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS. Now, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair takes all that and combines it into one tempting package.
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair is a downloadable game exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade, due out this summer. It combines many of Castlevania’s signature elements, including haunted castles, horrific enemies and fast-paced action to create the ultimate game for an old-school Castlevania fan.
New to this game is the ability have up to six players playing cooperatively on one single, huge map. The players navigate Dracula’s castle, known as Castlevania, to reach the goal area. To do that, they’ll have to solve puzzles, find secret doors and, of course, use their arsenal of attacks against skeletons, ghosts and all sorts of creepy baddies.
Players choose one of five heroes, all from a previous Castlevania title. There’s Alucard from the classic Symphony of the Night, Soma Cruz from Aria of Sorrow, Shanoa from Order of Ecclesia, and Jonathan and Charlotte from Portrait of Ruin. If you haven’t played any or all of these games before, no worries. Every character has basic abilities that include jumping, sliding, attacking and so on. Unique to each character are secondary abilities that come straight from their original games. If a character used magic spells, they can do so here. Likewise, if they normally used secondary weapons like boomerangs or throwing knives, they can do so here.
Players will have to work together to reach the goal within the time limit, and that sometimes requires teamwork. If one player is stuck behind a locked door, it will sometimes be up to another player to unlock it. If your character dies, you come back as a skeleton until another player can revive you. In the level I got to play, the goal was guarded by a huge boss monster, and taking it on alone would have been suicide. Much wiser to make sure the whole team arrives to take it on together.
Konami has had a great run of side-scrolling action games, and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair promises to continue the trend. Look for the game to come out this summer for Xbox Live Arcade.
I am a Los Angeles-based writer and gamer who is always looking to combine my two main passions. I believe video games have the potential to become the best storytelling medium of the 21st century, and it is the writer's responsibility to encourage this process. Oh yeah, I'm also a nerd.
