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Castlevania Leads DS Charge
GameDailyBiz reports that as the Holiday season moves on Castlevania is driving DS sales to new heights. From the article: "I think what makes the games so amazing is their simplicity. The little enhancements go a long way (for example the on-screen map which is something that fans of the series have been longing for). The development team does an amazing job at taking traditional gaming elements and discovering ways to evolve them with each different version. With the DS, we were able to deliver a familiar style of gameplay with incredible graphics, sound, and for the first time interactivity thanks to the touch screen ... We can't just make the same game over and over again." Dawn of Sorrow is a dang good game.
Funny thing... these reviews actually work. It was the mario kart review that got me looking into the DS. I thought it was a gimmicky tacky child's toy and never really bothered to read about it or check what it was all about. I've always been a fan of nintendo and gameplay over graphics. So anyways, started looking into the DS and mariokart and started getting interrested. For example, i didn't know of the wireless online play. The fact that its free is quite simply amazing. Plus there seems to be quite a few interresting games. The current games are quite nice, but there also seems to be a whole host of new ones around the corner too. I'm actually thinking about getting one. The price is right.
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Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Yeah, what a big improvement over the previous non-interactive Castlevania games.
*rolls eyes*
Haven't played Dawn of Sorrow yet, but once I get my DS, it'll be one of the first games that I play. At least in this case, Koji Igarashi (and Konami as a whole, by association) knows what the hell he's doing. Aria of Sorrow on the GBA is that damn good, too.
Now, if he'll promise not to make any more games as bad as Nanobreaker, then I'll truly be happy.
Of course, it's not any of the half-a-dozen amazing DS games that make it so great combined, its this ONE game, which came out well over a few months ago. It's a great game, I own it, but for them to claim it's the driving force behind DS sales is sheer arrogance.
Oh yeah, the DS sales rest on Castlevania's shoulders, nevermind Mario Kart, Kirby, Yoshi, Advance Wars, Warioware, Bomberman, Lost in Blue, and nevermind common sense, we're on /v/, it seems.
Submitter obviously hasn't heard about this sleeper game called "Nintendogs".
good old Castlevania, I wish I had a DS tho, been contemplating between the PSP and the DS, both are good handhelds :/
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This game was great when I first picked it up (used no less!). But after about 14 hrs of gameplay I had uncovered about 90% of the map and facing the end boss didn't yield any new powers or weapons.
The weapon upgrades are cool and interesting however the "randomness" of the creature drops is annoying and make some weapon upgrades near impossible.
I took it back for a store credit and got Animal Crossing.
I really want a Nintendo DS....I thought mabey next year they would release a Nintendo DS-SP or something like that so I bought a Gameboy Micro (which I am very happy with and is a great system), however in the few months since I purchased the Gameboy Micro so many good games have come out for the Nintendo DS....Mario & Luigi, Mario Kart, Sonic Rush, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, etc. Well I am not sure if I want to keep waiting, but I would like a smaller system.
Alas, it seems to have been discontinued here, and presumably in the rest of Europe. I've not seen a new copy in months and even second-hand copies are hard to find. The same happened with the GBA titles.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
While I'll agree that Dawn of Sorrow is a pretty good game, I find its mostly the same as Aria of Sorrow all over again, plenty of enemies are the same, plenty of souls that you can collect are the same and the weapons are also nothing really new. The graphics are quite a bit better then on the GBA, but the touchscreen additions are pretty minimal. Yet, its still a good game and it shows that 2D games are always plenty of fun when done right, I just wish we would get a fresh titles in that genre instead of just continuing stuff that goes back into the days of the NES.
I'll give you credit for nostalgia, but I'm really hoping you are being funny. Yes, I drew maps. *Tons* of maps, in my youth. I even had most of my text adventures mapped out. It all has to do with time. When you're young, there's too damn much of it. I could not imagine now coming up with a map scheme and legend for a game. Just give me the damn map, (only the explored sections) and I'll be happy.
If you really were serious, however, you can change the map to a status display with a touch of the select button. Then you and your pencil can get back to your good 'ol days.
-- I have fans? Wow.
When you're on the go you usually don't want to carry around material for drawing your map. And besides, the map only shows the areas you've been to so all it really does it handle the drawing for you. You're still exploring the unknown as long as you're really exploring new areas. Most gamers would prefer not to get lost just because they didn't draw every move they make into a map. Since it's pretty easy to get lost in the game without a map that would be an exercise in frustration.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I just wish they would port these 2D Castlevania games over to the PS2, GC and XBox. Seriously, these are way better than any of their 3D counterparts. The last great Castlevania for non-handheld console was Symphony of the Night. Obviously, there is still a great deal of appeal for quality 2D games.
I have fans? [slashdot.org] Wow.
Actually, those are my fans (hence the "my" in the URL). The URL you want for a universal link to your fans list is:
http://slashdot.org/~fwitness/fans
Unless it's part of a joke, in which case carry on.
While drawing maps yourself can be fun, its most often more annoying then good for a game. What I however would like to see is the ability to extent the auto-draw map with custom self written information, so that one can mark places which one might one to revisit, secrets that are only unlockable later with the right extra, etc. The DS already has a touchscreen, so it would be simply to add, memory might be a bit of an issue, but it should be doable.
I remember drawing the map for the original Zelda. Many "squares" were special in that they warped you around, and it was pretty disorienting because you didn't know if you moved to the next square, or if you were repeating the same square. So I pretty much abandoned the map drawing at that poing.
This is also maybe the fourth or fifth supposed "breakout" DS hit I've read about in a week. Each one gets described as driving sales and so on. (Apparently Nintendo Kool Aid sales are also being driven in a similar manner.)
No way does Castlevania make as big a splash that way as Nintendogs. Nintendogs cuts across gender and age lines better than the others, and the fact it's getting bundled so conspicuously would go to the "driving sales" part. Probably it's that followed by the new Animal Crossing right now -- though how many people have sampled the peculiar charm of the original AC, I don't know.
Next to those, "Castlevania" is securely within a genre that people either like or don't like already. Mario Kart networked (for free) is fun, but it's not like racing games are going to win grandma over. I know at least two grandmas who adore the little virtual puppies...
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Yes, it is. Ever since Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the 2D Super Metroid-style Castlevania games (Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow) have had a map. That map doesn't show rooms until they're uncovered, or until you stumble upon a map that will show a few more rooms (if you haven't uncovered them already). The game is still about exploration, even with a map. And guess what - if you don't want it on the screen at the same time, turn it off. It's as easy as it ever was - just hit "Select" to toggle it on and off.
I personally know a number of Castlevania fans that were eagerly awaiting Dawn of Sorrow and its always-on map. It's a time saver, especially in vertical columns where one can easily enter the wrong door and get sidetracked for five or ten minutes before realizing their mistake. Additionally, in the Saturn version of Nocturne in the Moonlight, there is a pause of nearly a second between when the map button is hit and when it actually comes up. This is distracting and a waste of time, but having it open all the time removes this hassle. Instead of hitting a button and looking, one can just look.
The on-screen map was a nice bonus. If you don't like it, turn it off. Don't pretend that fans haven't been longing for it, because they have. I personally know a number of them.
Every once in a while I like to masturbate a new word into my vocabulary, even if I don't know what it means.
Definitely, this is my one gripe with all games like this. How hard can it be to allow me to scribble a note and attach it to an area on the map screen?
Metroid is a little bit better in that it gives you the colour of the doors on the map so you know when you can access new areas there, but when there's a big jump or obstable you cannot pass without a new suit or weapon it just gets annoying that you can't write yourself a reminder.
I agree with you that that Dawn of Sorrow is very very close to being the same thing we had on the NES; however, I'd disagree with you that this is a bad thing. Human art is something that's been derivative since the dawn of time. Why? Because looking at that cave painting of the antelope on the wall, we got the idea that we'd like to do something similar, but maybe with a man and women in the foreground, or a mountain off in the distance.
Incremental additions to existing formula's are the bedrock of any artistic endeavor, in fact you could even go further and say that perfect copies of existing art go a long way in connecting one human emotion to another. Because the artist is not only dealing with their own emotions/memories/expectations, but those of their audience as well. Take a look at some of the most experimental artists or musicians out there as an example, and you'll still see a metric ton of derivative work even there. It is how the human mind operates.
Also, once you have a cultural set of expectations for something, such as a side-scrolling 2d action/exploration/beat-em-up, there also comes a set of connected emotions to these experiences. These emotions draw on a large range of memories as far back as your first play session with Castlevania on the NES. This drawing on memory and expectation adds a whole new depth to the art that simply would not be there otherwise.
only one everything
You can turn the map off by changing it to display your stats instead with just the push of a button. That solves your exploration problem.