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Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (DS)
Portrait of Ruin is the second DS Castlevania, with a third coming up soon (yay!), and it keeps most of the standard 2D Castlevania formula that's been around since before I was playing Castlevanias. In short: there are vampires, you have a whip, therefore, you need to go whip some vampires, have fun. The story is fairly basic, but adequate, because the focus here is really on the action. I'm holding on to Castlevania as one of the last big franchises which still publishes 2D games: Zelda and Metroid seem to even have 3D handheld games now, which saddens me a little because, even though I like 3D games, sometimes 2D games have their own kind of charm. The unique aspect about this entry in the series is the partner system: you control both Jonathan and Charlotte, either both onscreen while the computer controls one, or one at a time, with the ability to switch at will. Interesting (if not entirely novel) concept, but there wasn't a whole ton of use of it in puzzles or fights. It basically gives you a choice of two fighting styles for any encounter; Charlotte is a caster and Jonathan is the old-school whip-wielder. Both have their uses, although all of Jonathan's subweapons felt awful in comparison to any of Charlotte's spells. Like I said before, the real draw here is the action, new (and familiar) bosses and enemies to face off with, mixed in with some platforming action. The bosses didn't disappoint, all very fun and exciting fights which reminded me why I liked the previous Castlevanias enough to pick up this game. I liked the use of enter-able paintings (think a cross between Mario 64 and a vampire anime) to vary up the environments a bit, although I think they could have used some places that weren't so similar to the castle. The desert/egypt themed levels were good, as was the carnival, but the other levels could have easily been part of the castle. One annoying bit: Charlotte's voice clips, while not bad in and of themselves, get really annoying if you use her any decent amount, since she finds it necessary to yell out the spell she's casting, and while you play her that's about all you do. Overall though, a very enjoyable action/platformer with just a smidge of RPG elements.
(Lots of websites use this, but it strikes me as the best way to sum up a review, especially since I think numerical scores aren't really a great way to inform someone if they should buy a game or not.)
Good:
Keeps all the things that made previous 2D Castlevanias great
New interesting boss battles
Slightly more varied environments mix up the traditional Dracula's Castle
Bad:
Nothing really all that new, still relies on the old formula
Partner swapping system doesn't add many new tactics or puzzles
Charlotte's spell announcing
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