It was close, and as I said: I personally prefer Super Castlevania IV. But there's no denying that this game is the pinnacle of the franchise. By taking a legendary series and merging it with the best elements of another legendary series (Metroid), the developers of Symphony of the Night managed to carve one of the best titles of the 32-bit generation without the era's seemingly required-by-law use of the third dimension. The smallest complaint a fan of the series could have with this iteration is that it cut back on the platforming elements. Indeed, bottomless pits were non-existent thus making jumping more of a defensive maneuver. But that was where the game shined: battle. When traversing rooms full of enemies, some could be mowed down with a single hit while others were more like mini-bosses that required a great deal of strategy to destroy or evade. And the boss battles? Epic.
Many gamers, often Wii owners (myself included), often foam at the mouth with the "gameplay over graphics" argument. While SotN has extremely tight-gameplay and would likely have succeeded had it been released on the NES or SNES, its graphical presentation elevates it to a level of sublimity. The backgrounds are beautiful and elaborate. The enemies are obscenely detailed and each kind contains their own unique, elaborate death animation. And Alucard's jaw-droppingly gorgeous sprite set is arguably the best 2D animated character to ever appear in a video game. The sound is no slouch, either. Amazing tunes accompany the son of Dracula as he slays his way through his father's castle. And the over-bashed but admittedly cheesy dialogue is still a nice touch. Without it, what else would this site use to make fun of Castlevania Judgment?
Every original game in the series post-SotN has attempted to capture the awesomeness of its predecessor by sticking fairly close to its core mechanics. But such a goal is impossible: part of what made the original so marvelous was the fact that we had never gotten our hands on a Castlevania that played or looked the way SotN did. It's something that all fans of 2D, and gaming in general, would benefit from experiencing. We're super pumped about the pseudo-confirmed WiiWare Castlevania, but is it too much to ask that Symphony of the Night gets a simple port for Wii-owners?
