In my opinion, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is one of the best games ever and it definitely in my Top 5 of all-time greats. Sure, it stole some initial ideas from Nintendo's Metroid series but it took it all one step further and created an experience so well-designed and wondrous that it transcends any sort of limitations that 2-D might normally provide.
When Konami announced that Castlevania:SOTN was going to be released on Xbox Live Marketplace, I was a little bit bittersweet. On one side, I was glad that a whole new market of gamers would have easy access to such a monumental title. On the other side, though, I was disappointed that I would have to play it using the Xbox 360's cursed controller's d-pad. Despite this and the fact that I own the original PS and Saturn versions of the game, I felt I had to support the release of the game and play through it one more time.
Interestingly enough, an insider told me early on that Konami was not really keen in having any real sort of visual enhancements or changes added to the game, aside from the obvious conversion to make it look good on HD televisions. This struck me as peculiar as this would have been a perfect opportunity to spice things up a bit and make a enhanced 2-D version of the game with 3-D elements and new effects. Don't get me wrong... SOTN is still very pretty to look at, but with today's releases featuring endless particle effects and 3-D environments, there might be a lot of people out there who might feel it's a bit aged. These people could be considered dumb, but that doesn't change the fact that Konami was being adamant that no major changes be made.
With today's announcement from the Konami's Gamers' Day, though, the company's decision about the Marketplace version of the game totally makes sense. Konami announced the fall 2007 release of
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles.
Chronicles, Castlevania’s producer Koji Igarashi said, includes the Castlevania games
Demon Castle Dracula X: Rondo of Blood and
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
"Chronicles will mark the first time Rondo of Blood will be released in the United States. In addition to a special “arranged” version that includes such fanciful upgrades as three-dimensional backgrounds for the two-dimensional action, Igarashi noted Konami will also be including the original game, untouched. Symphony of the Night, which originally saw release on the PlayStation and Saturn (and, later, Xbox Live), will be ported over with some improvements, but Igarashi refused to give out details on what they might be." - NextGen.biz
So, there you go. The PSP is getting not just one, but
two, Castlevania titles in enhanced form. Woohoo! This simple news made my day, but also made me lose any interest in getting the Xbox 360 version of the game. At least in this one case, I think the PSP has won a little victory over all the bad news that has been following it lately. All I ask is that a limited edition version of the game be released with a special item for those of us who are planning to rush to the store and pre-order. I've got my money ready, Konami, just tell me when.
UPDATE: Here's a link to more info about the game, as well as the first video of it.
