Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Review

I"m BACK and smellier than ever!! Sniff, Sniff, smell that.....yeeaaaah, that's right!!

A while back I played Dawn of Sorrow from the Castlevania series, a big jump since the last time I played it (Simon's Quest) and what I found was I am disconnected from what the series is at that point(Dawn of Sorrow) and from what I remember playing.

So I was told and WANTED to play a different version of the franchise and had a overwhelming response to play "Symphony of the Night".
Well I had a chance to pop that in and unlike Dawn of Sorrow, this one is really good! I would chat about it, but anyone who is any gamer and not me, knows about this game already.


I'm late to the party on this one, in fact the tenants have moved out and Ma and Pa kettle have taken up resident and are upset that I want to come in and drink whiskey and eat coleslaw on their back deck.
I mean it has alot of similarities to dawn of sorrow, but for some reason, this one just makes sense, its F-U-N!!
I had a great time playing the game, and I think the main reason was I could progress through the main story line without having to hunt around the castle for something that I didn't know if I needed or not,so I could get past a situation that didn't explain what I had to do. I could get through the whole story without having to TRY every possible solution. So then, if I wanted to go back and find that secret passage, I could on my own time. I like that set up:)

So with that one completed and under my belt and being very satisfied with the game, do I dare continue on with the next one? Where is the actually turning point in the franchise where it goes from me enjoying myself to something where I want to throw the the game across the room?

Or should I just leave the franchise alone from here and jump ahead by 10 years or more and start anew? I am looking forward the new Castlevania for the Xbox/PS3, that looks pretty damn cool.

So if you haven't played Symphony of the Night, then you are a loser like me. So do yourself a favor and download the game from the PSN/XBLA.

9/10