Castlevania: Harmony of Despair whips up a first place finish on XBLA charts

Though the game received some middling reviews, it seems Xbox Live Marketplace browsers couldn't resist the appeal of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair's retro charms -- or its status as a Summer of Arcade title. The multiplayer monster slayer placed first on the Arcade purchases charts for the week of August 2, though it only claimed the number 15 spot for overall online activity.

To see how the rest of the Summer of Arcade contenders did, just check out the lists posted after the jump.

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU's)

Modern Warfare 2
Halo 3
Call of Duty: WaW
Call of Duty 4
FIFA 10
Red Dead Redemption
GTA IV
Gears of War 2
Battlefield Bad Co. 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Halo 3: ODST
Forza Motorsport 3
LIMBO
Madden NFL 11 demo
Castlevania Harmony of Despair
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Madden NFL 10
Trials HD
NCAA Football 11
NBA 2K10

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)

Castlevania Harmony of Despair
LIMBO
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Deadliest Warrior
Trials HD
Castle Crashers
RISK: FACTIONS
Blacklight: Tango Down
DeathSpank
UNO
Game Room **
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
Toy Soldiers
Battlefield 1943
Magic: The Gathering
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Worms 2- Armageddon
Hasbro Family Game Night *
Peggle
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge

**Combined sales of all Game Room titles
*Combined sales of all Hasbro Family Game Night titles

Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)

The Impossible Avatar Getaway2
The Impossible Game
Baby Maker Extreme
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1
Avatar Ninja!
萌めくり
Avatar Paintball
Try Not To Fart
Flight Adventure
Avatar Racedrome
Zombie Estate
Avatar Onslaught
Avatar Drop
GET TO THA CHOPPA!!1
Miner Dig Deep
Avatar Showdown
Super Avatar World
Dragon Chess
The No Button Game
Breath of Death VII

Games for Windows Top LIVE Titles (based on UU's)

GTA IV
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Colin McRae : Dirt 2
Street Fighter IV
Fallout 3
Bioshock 2
Resident Evil 5
Halo 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Red Faction Guerrilla
Gears of War
Blacklight: Tango Down
FlatOut UC
Tinker
Fuel
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
Battlestations: Pacific
Quantum of Solace
LOST PLANET COLONIES
Section 8

Reader Comments (33)

Hey Konami, how 'bout a PSN version please?

@The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross

Please do, Konami. Misery loves company.

@The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross

Damn straight. Got it on 360 myself, but everyone should be playing this :D

Surprised to see GTA IV just behind Red Dead. I tried playing GTA online on PSN just a couple weeks ago and the games were totally deserted.

@Shadsy

Die commenter! You don't belong in this post!

I didn't buy it. What kind of fan do they think I am? Not a whore, at least. I can draw a line, unlike some Final Fantasy fans. I'm talking to you, the 5 1/2 million owners of the botched thirteenth attempt -- it's an unlucky number! and if you are thick enough to drop a wad on it without a review-check, surely you believe in superstition?

this show that 2d games have a place in this era

I really hope that IGA release and make another 2d castlevania for DS or a new game in 2d HD for xbla and psn

I really enjoyed Castlevania: HoD. Too bad it isn't flying too well with game journalists.

I also don't even care that the sprites are reused from the DS games. The game still looks pretty good.

@zack11190 Actually, most game journalists have either turned into some elitist snobs that lavish praise on their fave franchises and scoff at anything that's not one of them, or they are so used to mainstream titles that they scoff at anything that's not easy and follows a generic formula to the letter.

I really love Lost Planet 2 and Castlevania HoD. Sure, they have their quirks, but they are much better than the press makes them out to be. Especially Castlevania HoD has fantastic level design that at the same time allows for teamwork AND exploration. The menu system is a bit quirky, but once you realize that using the "Main Menu" doesn't kick you back to mode select but allows for equipping and modifying your character before hitting a stage, all is well. And there's nothing more rewarding than to kick Death's bony ass with six people working as a team.

Yeah, I'm a Castlevania Fanboy. So what?

Baby Maker Extreme, eh? I can only imagine.

@Leon Trotsky TDA

It's a killer app in my pants.

@Shadsy How this isnt rated higher is beyond me.

@Shadsy Your words are as empty as your soul, mankind ill needs another commenter such as you.

Sad to see Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge in the 20 spot so soon.

More people play Castlevania than Transformers WFC :(

@K1LLZONE13
Which is sad because WFC has a pretty robust multiplayer system.

@Morph156

The Live ranking list is of unique users playing any portion of the game (doesn't matter if it's single or multi); one important thing not shown is how much time was devoted to each game. HoD is a recent release, unlike WFC, so it's a poor comparison.

That aside, HoD is pretty fun online. Brings about a Phantasy Star Online feel, which is a good thing.

@Morph156 But no host migration. Playing an MP match and getting booted out of the match because the host is a pussy who can't stand losing is really annoying. Had that happen quite often to me. "The host has left the game". Bah.

@Shadsy

There needs to be a fourth heart icon just for comments with epic-levels as high as this.

"I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1" is the best thing released for $1. On any console. Ever.

I'm still surprised that "Deadliest Warrior" is popular on LIVE. The game is forgettable at best. It's really only worth half the price it's listed at.

Could someone tell me what UU stands for please?
Thanks.

@Godmil

Unique Users/Units I think - Major Nelson did explain it a long, long, long, time ago.

Either that or Undead Umbrellas. I forget which.

@Mach2 Praise? You steal men's posts!

I really like the fact that it is 2D, but WHY does the whole damn castle take up my whole 60" screen and leave me looking at tiny characters??!! I was really looking forward to this until I played the demo.

Konami needs to make a true 2D successor that doesn't leave me squinting.

@ummhello

Click the right stick to zoom in.

@ummhello

It has like 4 levels of zoom which you can change as Vcize said. But I have wondered previously why they chose to have one of the zoomed out views as the default and this only confirms my thinking that that was a dumb decision. At the start of the game it should show you the whole castle and then zoom into the closest view. But I guess that is simply too logical.

@Vidikron

I've been playing it for a while and it's gotten to the point where on the first couple levels I personally think it's better to just leave it at the middle-zoom default for a while. But yeah, I had a friend who played for five seconds and then turned it off because he couldn't see anything.

:/

I'm surprised no SNK games make it.

Zombie Estate is a really fun game for $1. If you're bored with 80 points give it a chance. Lots of fun with friends.

@Shadsy

*queue Vampire Killer*

No surprise it's doing this well on the Castlevania brand alone.
The Castlevania fan base has been dying for a new game worth it's salt.
The game itself is medicore at best with tedious level grinding and only six levels very simplistic levels to speak of. I'm pissed I plunked down 1200 points without reading more reviews. I'll just go back and replay SOTN to remember what life was like when Konami cared about Castlevania.

I like Harmony of Despair (not sure it's worth the full 1200 points) but I hate the fact that every time I get onto a team for multiplayer, someone decides to quit. I've yet to be able to play a multiplayer match.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair whips up a first place finish on XBLA charts

Reader Comments (33)

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 12:31AM The Joy of Painting w Bob Ross said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:34AM onan said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 2:48AM Demaar said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 12:47AM mezzaninex said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:02AM Gashlycrumb said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:05AM Its X with Guns said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:11AM eilegz said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:15AM zack11190 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 5:24PM BFBeast666 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:24AM Leon Trotsky TDA said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 8:30AM def PD said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:39AM ETPL said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:43AM Ozzybx said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 1:54AM Gregorius said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 3:25AM K1LLZONE13 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 11:22AM Morph156 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 4:14PM kftgr said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 5:26PM BFBeast666 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 4:23AM Mach2 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 4:25AM Mach2 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 5:16AM Brian Griffin said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 6:25AM Godmil said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 7:21AM B0FF said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 7:57AM Teh Rei said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 8:23AM ummhello said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 9:14AM Vcize said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 10:23AM Vidikron said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 11:50AM Acosta02 said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 9:07AM Joeybeast said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 9:48AM clogger said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 10:11AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 4:28PM NastyGamer said

Posted: Aug 12th 2010 7:00PM horribledanger said

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Info

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