What you get when you mix a crew with so much experience with 2d-platform game programming and art with a system as powerful (at the time) as the PSOne? One of the best action platform games ever done, if not the. Castlevania Symphony Of The Night was released with a bit of skepticism from many gaming critics. A 2d game, on an all-new 3D platform? Craziness. However, as this title has shown everybody, the 2d platform concept still has a lot to give. This game is a masterpiece, a rendition of all of Konami's experience with the genre, and the best Castlevania game ever produced. The game deviates a bit from the Castlevania titles already released. It is not linear, but not in the aspect that you can decide on which way to go, but meaning that you're on a real map, there is no separation on "stages", and you can go wherever you want whenever you want. Given that you gave the skills and items, of course - you need it to jump high, to fly, to go past traps and doors. Can you read "Super Metroid inspired" on that? Yes, I hope you can, because that's the what it is. Castlevania Symphony of The Night is heavily inspired by it, and you could even say it's a sequel, but with different characters and weapons. And enemies. And done by other company. Yeah, you get the idea. Very big and with some new concepts (item equip, character evolution), this Castlevania title also gathers lots of RPG aspects, and you'll find yourself going back and forth on various stages only to gather experience of a better item for you next boss fight. It's a reach experience, and thankfully, a lesson learnt by Konami, which released another, very similar title for the Game Boy Advance (Castlevania: Circle of The Moon) and is about to release another one (Castlevania: White Night Concerto, originally planned for the Playstation 2). Concluding, this game is a masterpiece, it represents the state of the art of 2d sidescrolling/platform action games, and combining elements from many great games in the genre (Super Metroid, Strider), it marks history as one of the best titles ever released for any gaming platform. If you haven't played this game yet, it will turn the concept you have of 2d gaming action upside down. Literally.
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