Mention the words "Castlevania" and "3D" around any seasoned gamer, and their response may surprise you. While not exactly terrible, none of the three- dimensional incarnations of the Castlevania series to date have quite captured the essence of their 2D brethren, not least the classic side-scroller Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. So what does Curse of Darkness, Konami's latest foray into the third dimension of Castlevania, bring to the table?
This time around, players have the opportunity to fight alongside Innocent Devils, familiar spirits with—dare we say it—Pokemon-esque attributes. Depending on your fighting style, defeated enemies will drop various pickups that you can use to upgrade your Innocent Devils along a limited evolution tree. And, when you're not powering up your familiars, you can use dropped or stolen materials to boost the stats of your arms and armor. That's all well and good, but what do the critics have to say?
The GoodExcellent musical score
Sharp graphics
Wide variety of customizable
weaponry
The Bad
Drab, uninspired environments
Lack of platforming
elements
Monotonous battle sequences
The Quotes
IGN [78] - %uFFFDIts nicely implemented Innocent Devil
scheme and its varied, and useful, assortment of weapons are great, but its environments are lackluster.%uFFFD
Electronic Gaming Monthly [75] -
%uFFFDCurse is thus leagues better than its PS2 predecessor, but it still doesn%uFFFDt reach the legendary status
of its 2D forerunners, mainly because of a lack of Metroid-style open-ended level progression.%uFFFD
1UP [70] - %uFFFDAyami Kojima%uFFFDs artwork and
character designs are excellent as always, and Michiru Yamane%uFFFDs soundtrack is perhaps her finest since Symphony of
the Night.%uFFFD
GameSpot [68] -
%uFFFDDespite a solid combat system and a good presentation, this latest Castlevania is cursed with extremely
monotonous levels that prevent it from being an engaging action-adventure game.%uFFFD
The
Bottom Line
PlayStation 2 [74]
Xbox [78]
