Souls of Darkness

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ0Bx8w5PKQ[/youtube]​

Introduction
Imagine, if you will, a world in which vampires existed. A world where the vampires are hunted by men, and men are hunted by vampires.

Yeah, not so hard to imagine these days, with all that going on, but it wasn't new in 1986, when this game came out the first Castlevania hit Japanese shelves. And that's what this game is. Castlevania. With new paint.

Gameloft has done this quite a bit recently, taking popular and established franchises, and recreating them extremely well onto newer platforms, usually iDevices, and almost all of them have been met with critical acclaim.

Gameplay
Imagine this: you jump. And you attack. And you cast a different spell, depending on your weapon.

That's it.

It's actually a bit more complicated than that, but y'know. Would've been cooler if this section would have just ended there. You start the game with your fire sword. B jumps and A attacks. You kill enemies for a while, collecting gems along the way, both from crystal piles, and from enemy drops. Green gems heal you, blue replenish your magic bar, and purple give you points with which you can upgrade your weapons. Pressing select brings you into your weapon upgrade menu, where you can upgrade the weapon's attack, combo, critical hit rate, or magic. There are only three or four ranks each, so it's nothing special, and you should be fully upgraded by the end of the game, regardless of what you do.

After a while through your Castlevania-esque adventure, you'll get an ice spear, and the same upgrades are available. Pretty standard. Not to spoil anything, but during a few levels, you have the ability to turn into specific monsters, such as a fish, and traverse areas that you wouldn't be able to as a human.

If you die, you get a game over, but you have unlimited continues, and you continue from the beginning of the room that you were in at the time.

Audio/Visual Quality
This game is beautiful. Just throwing that out there. It's not as beautiful as, say, Shantae: Risky's Revenge, but this game can easily hold its own with the DS Castlevania games, to be given the inevitable comparison.

The audio is also acceptable. It isn't too memorable, but it's definitely suited to the game itself, and never feels out of place. The sound effects are also of high quality.
Replay Value
Not so hot, here. Once you complete the story, not that it's anything great anyway, you don't have much of a reason to replay the game. It is incredibly linear, and you should find all of the secrets on your first time through the levels.

There is a difficult mode that is unlocked after your first playthrough, so there's always that if you're really into the game.

Score: 7/10

Pros:
Only $8.
Fun Castlevania-style Platforming
Colourful and Beautiful
Good Music


Cons:
Story is stupid
Cloned gameplay
Short
Too easy

 

Solid review. It's actually only 500pts/5$ though (in the US anyways).