One of the finest Castlevania games out there.
Before the game even begins, there's the menu screen. There's three save files that can be used. After that, there's the option to begin the game wherever you left off (the game saves after you beat a level or when you get a game over). There's the option to change your character to Maria once you rescue her (she behaves differently than Richter). Stage select can be used to replay any levels you've beaten or if you want to try to find the secret level. Sound test mode is used to listen to the games tracks. Finally there's Technic which plays a video that shows tips on how to defeat a certain boss. All the menus are in English, so you should have no trouble navigating them.
Like most Pre-SOTN Castlevania games, there really isn't much of a story to it. There is one cutscene that probably explains the story, but unless you can speak German or read Japanese, you won't have a clue what it's talking about. The story's not important though, it's all about the gameplay.
The core gameplay is the same as all the other classic Castlevania games out there, with a few additions. You play as Richter Belmont and whip your way through all the levels until you reach the boss. Defeat the boss, collect the orb and move on to the next level. Repeat this until you reach Dracula. Stage 6 breaks away form this formula because it's just a long boss battle.
In every level of the game, there's hearts and subweapons to collect. The hearts are used to make the subweapons work. Meat can also be located to give Richter some health back. There's 1ups which are self-explanatory. Finally, money bags can be collected for extra points and can be used for Technic.
Two of the biggest innovations of this game are Item Crash and secret levels. Item crash is used to activate a more powerful form of the subweapon you're carrying, but it uses more hearts so beware. As for the secret levels, most stages have secret places that can be found if you look hard enough or use your head. These secret places lead you to a different boss that can be fought, and defeating this boss will take you to a secret level. In total, there's 14 stages to be played so players will spend quite a bit of time trying to complete the game.
The game controls are great. Richter controls the same as the other Belmont's, except now he can do a backflip and jump off stairs. Instead of doing a backflip, Maria does a double jump which makes her better for platforming.
As for the difficulty, this game is definitely no cakewalk. There will probably be plenty of language and giving of the birds as you play this game. Beginner players will complain and say that there's too many cheap hits in this game. Controllers might even be thrown if it's bad enough. Practice enough though and you'll be pretty far into the game before you know it.
The graphics in this game are pretty good. The animations are great and there's some good parallax scrolling too. The cutscenes look excellent and are detailed (there's no FMV in this game).
The music is some of the best in the series. It's compromised of new tracks and remixes of classic tracks, and they all sound impressive despite being compressed to fit the Wii's limit.
In the end, Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo Of Blood is a very good game. It may be hard, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the best import titles on the Virtual Console.