If you're familiar with the more recent installments of Konami's Castlevania series, you'll feel right at home with Soul of Darkness' presentation. Like in that series, this Blackberry game's protagonist is a cape-wearing, long-haired prince who is both dapper and the perfect gothic athlete who runs, jumps, and eviscerates the undead. Unfortunately, while Soul of Darkness looks the part, it's as vaporous as the midnight fog.
You play as Kale, a vampire hunter who seeks to rescue his long-lost love Lydia (who may or may not be a vampire herself) after she disappears one night. In the Blackberry version of Soul of Darkness, you'll travel through a town, a cave, and a castle--all of which play very similarly with only a different color scheme to set them apart.
With the Storm2's touch screen, Kale is not adequately responsive to your input. He can run to the right and turn left as you slide your finger over the virtual D pad, but he can't run left and then turn right. You jump by pressing up, which can cause you to jump prematurely or miss certain ledges as you accidentally start to drift. This is not a positive for a platformer game where running and jumping are so important.
Castlevania-trained players will appreciate some of the details in Soul of Darkness' level design, like rolling fireballs that chase you, chandeliers you can bring crashing down, and lanterns you can light to repel certain creatures. You'll also enjoy leveling up your character's strength and using attack combos with collectible purple gem shards, but your upgrade levels max out very quickly in this brief game. And sadly, the storyline, which seems interesting enough, ends abruptly when a game-crashing bug rears its evil head toward the very end of the game.
Different versions of Soul of Darkness, which are more stable and offer greater length and variety, are available for other mobile devices. However, this Blackberry version is mediocre. Banish this creature of the night from your phone.
This review was provided by GameSpot mobile content partner SlideToPlay.com.
