Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Critic Reviews

If I’ve said it once, I have said it a thousand times; this is the greatest game ever. There is really nothing wrong with this game whatsoever. If you enjoy old school side scrolling, or you just want a really good adventure game to play on your 360. Look no further than Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, you won’t be disappointed at all!

With a mixture of open-ended gameplay elements, more advanced controls, and a gripping story, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the epitome of the side-scrolling genre.

The future of Xbox Live Arcade starts here and today with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

It was, and still is, a gaming masterpiece. The term ‘Must Buy’ was created for games like this.

Symphony of the Night presents exquisite design, extraordinary scope, aesthetic coherence and transcendent elegance mostly unmatched elsewhere on Xbox Live Arcade, or anywhere else for that matter.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is easily one of the greatest games of all time, this is a pretty solid version minus a few oddities and a piss-poor d-pad (if Konami brought the game, the least Microsoft could do is give us a decent pad for it now), and at the price of $10 it's a steal.

Symphony of the Night is a momentous addition to the Xbox Live Arcade family, both because of its incredible depth and the fact that it is the first game allowed to break the 50 MB size restrictions.

One of the nicest things about the game is how aurally pleasing it is. The soundtrack is masterfully constructed and each distinct area has its own background music.

Gameplay on the 360 is almost perfect, but for the mushy d-pad on the wireless controller. Precise jumping (of which there isn't all that much, thankfully) or very quick direction changes aren’t always easy. You definitely have to want to look past some of the issues this creates. But when the core game is this great, that’s pretty easy to do.

A true classic in its own right - even with the minor enhancements and downgrades, but its port to XBLA may prove to be more important than the game itself.

While this version of Symphony of the Night may not be as original, innovative, or graphically modern as the original version was back in the day, it’s still a very solid game, with great enhancements and a price that you just can’t beat.

Beautifully paced and with the sort of gothic visuals that would scare Marilyn Manson.

Simply the best example of a retro game on Live Arcade. It's flawless in its design and outstanding as a game, even ten years on.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night packs a lot of value into its relatively small package. It has multiple endings, a second inverted and more difficult castle to unlock, as well as the ability to play as Richter Belmont once the game has been fully cleared.

Symphony of the Night is full of imaginative gameplay, great level designs, outstanding music, and some of the greatest action you've ever seen.

The game holds up better than the majority of games even half its age, and provides a rich gaming experience that will have 360 owners drooling in anticipation of the next great retro release on Arcade.

While Symphony of the Night was served up in the nineties, it's still welcomed with open arms today by XBLA enthusiasts.

Symphony of the Night was an amazing adventure back in 1997, and even after 10 years, it's still most definitely worth playing.

If you've never set foot in the whip-cracking universe of the marvelously long and storied Castlevania series, Symphony is the best possible way to get your meet-and-greet on.

If you've been hankering for a good 2D Action RPG that lets you dash around as a half-vampire in a massive dungeon, maybe it's time you go back and check out the game that really started the modern Castlevania phenomenon.