Whenever I hear of a game like Little King’s Story I tend to be attracted to them simply because I know most will pass the game up with nothing more than a glance at the cover and name. Not that I blame them..but usually this is how sleeper hits become…well, sleeper hits.

Thusly I put on my gaming cap and rolled up my sleeve and took a little trip into a little kingdom. What I found was..interesting. And oh so fun.

So go ahead and take a gander inside for my review on Little King’s Story.

The game begins simply enough: A little boy of five or six years is sitting around in his room and enjoying his toys. And that’s about where normality ends as a family of multicolored mice (someone’s been around) makes their pesky entrance. Of course, the boy does the same any boy his age would: he cheerfully follows the mice into a tiny hole.

The hole leads into another world, as they tend to, and now no longer interested in the mice the boy gets lost. It’s fine however, as he eventually comes to a boulder that bursts apart to reveal a golden crown. Our little hero does as any sane person would do and puts it on, and there you have it. The entire premise and story of Little King’s Story. All the animals and all the people bow to him as a king, and thus the game begins.

While the story won’t be getting any praise from me, or most people for that matter, it’s ultimately as important as Pikmin’s story, which is to say not very.

The silken cream layer of the game is within the gameplay. Little King’s Story starts off with a few simple tutorialish goals, but once you complete them you’re allowed to reign as a true king.

You’ll spend most of your time obtaining money in a fashion similar to Animal Crossing: by gathering various type of citizens (grunts, farmers, carpenters) and then taking them to chop wood to clear passages and gain wood, defeat enemies to earn candies and luck charms, and dig holes to find gold coins and bricks.

After gaining the needed funds, you’ll be able to start upgrading your dirt-hole kingdom into an empire spanning the world. You’ll be building various structures such as a town square, a barracks, a hunter’s hut, a carpenter’s shed, and a farmer shack.

Each of them grant you a new feature or the ability to give your citizens new and far more useful jobs, thus allowing you to reach new areas and making old tasks, like digging holes, easier.

All this is done through a fairly simple set of controls. Basically, “B” calls back your citizens and “A” is the action button that tells them to get working on whatever you’re currently looking at. It’s extremely similar to the way you gave commands in Pikmin.

Aside from that combination, you’ll use the other buttons and the nunchuck for the usual mundane gaming tasks: Opening the main menu, turning the camera, movement, and so on. Those of you hoping for waggle controls will be disappointed, and I did see some instances where it would of been useful, but ultimately it was a thankful omission to the game.

As fun as the Little King’s Story is, it isn’t without it’s flaws. The graphical level and art style of the game fits much like it did Animal Crossing, but you can notice a few areas where more polish would of been nice.

The music, aside from the quite surprising intro background theme and perhaps two region jingles, isn’t very memorable even if it does the job and fits the setting.

The game’s also pretty easy. I turned it up to hard difficulty and still managed to beat the first few bosses on the first pass; they simply just seemed to take longer.

Little King’s Story isn’t a bad game at all, it’s just not a game for everyone. If you liked titles such as Pikmin, My Life as a King, and Animal Crossing, you’ll find this game very enjoyable.

If you’re interested, I’ve included a video version of my review below so you can see the gameplay a bit better.

Nintendo Wii, $49.99
Worth Owning? For lovers of Pikmin, Animal Crossing, and My life as a King, definitely.

Best Traits: Charming, if odd, characters and very enjoyable gameplay
Worst Traits: Music is subpar most of the time, gameplay eventually repetitive when earning cash

Grade: 8.5/10

Check out Little King’s Story and other Nintendo Wii reviews at Test Freaks.

Lets roll back to August 2007.  A little title under development called Bioshock was released.  It told a twisting story that captured the imagination of gamers everywhere.  It even managed to work in ideas from Rand and others to make for one of the most compelling storylines anywhere.  But with all that said, there was clamoring from the masses, stating that the game was good, but was missing multiplayer.  I could not understand the arguement.  Why did the game need multiplayer?  Here was a story that delved into the inner pychosis of man, and a chunk of gamers shrugged and asked why there was no multiplayer.  Worst still is that they want to add multiplayer and/or co-op to the upcoming Bioshock 2, which to me is a travesty.

I always wonder why multiplayer trumps solid design and writing for gamers.  I mean, a great example of how mutliplayer can go wrong is The Darkness.  The Darkness told a dark and foreboding story of Jackie, and how no matter what he did, he was doomed to join his demonic side.  There was so much more that could have been examined with that story, but it seems like the developers felt the need to include multiplayer in The Darkness.  Problem is that the multiplayer ended up being the worst implementation of multiplayer ever in a console game.  The mechanics, the levels and even the technical problems just getting a game together ended up hurting The Darkness at the register, whereas, if Starbreeze would have ignored the calls and just focused on a single player experience, you might have had people look at the game in such a different light.

Now before people think I am going crazy again, realize that I love me some good multiplayer and co-op gameplay.  Mercenaries 2 and Saints Row 2 are really quality games, that implement co-op perfectly, writing them from top to bottom for co-op play from the start.  And I am a child of Doom, Duke Nukem and Quake to name  a few titles that had multiplayer working for them, and working well.  But they were designed that way.  Even Epic realized that they needed to split the Unreal franchise, having one team focus on single player, while the other crafted the hugely successful multiplayer title.

Multiplayer is suppose to compliment a game that would fit the concept.  When it is forced in, either to meet a launch date (The Darkness), or patched in as an afterthought to remedy complaints (Deus Ex), you end up with a subpar product that no one ends up playing, and lost resources that could have gone anywhere else in development.  Even looking at the new Chronicles of Riddick game, it has added multiplayer, but I don’t feel that it fits the spirit of the game, which was all about stealth kills and hand to hand combat.  So what do you end up with, a new styled game, that really has nothing close to the concept of the single player game.

I guess I was set off by the idea of 2K Marin announcing that they are adding some form of multiplayer to Bioshock 2.  It just did not make any sense to add multiplayer mode to the title, as it was a solid story on its own.  Does multiplayer factor into your decision to purchase a game, or can you look past it to see a solid story and gameplay mechanics.

As we’ve crested the 7th birthday of the Xbox, and the 3rd birthday of the Xbox 360, it’s time for a retrospective on how Microsoft has changed the face of gaming and what will be some of the fallout for the Next Next Generation. Readily burned into our minds are the obvious things like the Red Ring Of Death, and Xbox Live, but that’s only scratching the surface. Let’s pull back the outer layer and take a look at all of the little things that has helped advance the pastime of video gaming.

Previously, we looked at what the Xbox did to change the environment of console video game playing. This time, let’s look at what the Xbox 360 decided to bring to the table.

The early bird gets the worm
One of the foremost changes from the Xbox was Microsoft wanted to be first-to-market with their next generation console. This of course had many impacts, which will be touched on in further detail later, but had the biggest importance of giving themselves a 1-year lead on the competitors. There is no denying that the Nintendo Wii is the console with the largest consumer penetration, but the Xbox 360 still has more market share than the PS3 and even in the latest months has managed to outsell the PS3 in Japan. This is very notable because the Japanese market was never truly penetrated by the original Xbox, with its total sales around 473,000 units.

It’s not the size that matters
The Xbox 360 also departed from its predecessor by reducing the size of the unit and making it look more like it belonged in the family room. Borrowing from the mod community, it even has user-changeable faceplates to allow for customization of the console’s aesthetics. This caused another generation switcheroo as the PS3 now became known as the “big boy on the block” due its size. The controller, which is available in two flavors: wired or wireless, kept with the smaller size as well.

Another significant change from the Xbox was removal of the hard drive as a de-facto standard for the unit. This was done to allow a version of the Xbox 360 to be introduced at a lower price point to try and add sales. This brought about the effect of crippling the capabilities of the developers, who are interested in garnering the most sales, having to build a product for two possible configurations. This has caused users to need a hard drive for the online play of games, and a limitation in the size of the downloadable games on Xbox Live. The latter has been an area where Xbox 360 owners have missed opportunities or adultered releases. Recently Microsoft realized the need for permanent storage as a default option and added 256MB of internal flash storage on its low-end Arcade units. Some will compare this to the PS3 which featured many different versions, with varying capabilities. Out of each of the PS3 iterations, the core features required for standard operation still existed: next-gen gameplay, online capability, and mass storage. By making the hard drive optional, a ‘core’ feature was removed from certain SKU’s.

No longer a one trick pony
With the new Xbox360, Xbox Live received an update as well. Now gamers can download video content from Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace, or stream it via Netflix. These additional capabilities reinforce Microsoft’s original stance that the Xbox360 was more than a console and attempting to become commonplace in the entertainment centers of homes around the world. In 2007, Microsoft announced that they would be adding IPTV capabilities. Since the initial announcement there has not been much information, but it appears that it is currently in testing. Microsoft obviously took note of what the mod community did to the original Xbox in expanding it into a media center. Also, the Xbox360 now includes the ability to play back media from a DLNA media server, although the formats and outputs are limited even compared to the PS3. With money involved with selling media and Xbox Live Gold accounts, it’s hard to blame Microsoft for limiting the playback capability.

One ring to rule them all

Out of everything the Xbox 360 has done, the one thing that will go down in the annals of history is the colorful light display that too many Xbox 360 owners have seen: the Red Ring Of Death. With the surge to be first-to-market, Microsoft pushed the hardware out the door too soon, which contained many design issues that led to premature failure. The problem grew to such epic proportions that Microsoft was forced to step up and acknowledge the problem, as well as extend the warranty on the device to cover the problem. This little snafu cost over $1 billion to fix the problem. Luckily this helped to the Xbox 360 to save face and continue its push into the market place. It was after 3 years into the device’s lifetime that Microsoft had finally solved most of the issues with system. Clearly, the system was not quite ready for primetime when it was originally released. The one saving grace at the time was the library that was already teeming with quality titles from nearly every genre for every player. If the software to back the system was not there, it’s quite possible that the Xbox 360 would have flopped and been overtaken by both the Wii and the PS3.

Overall, the Xbox 360 showed a continued commitment from Microsoft in providing a viable, versatile, and fun video game console. By fragmenting their user base, they brought with them some of the headaches found on its earlier gaming platform: the PC. If the system had been sound in the hardware department, it is quite possible that it may have been the console of its generation. It is nothing but a smart move to bring more features outside of gaming to their device, in attempts to consolidate electronics, as well as provide a greater value for the investment cost in purchasing the system. The experiences and feedback that Microsoft has received from this generation is going to fuel the fire for its next iteration.

Now that Sony has its first good exclusive shooter (Killzone 2) they could launch a new PSP with dual analogs and have a new Killzone game to go right beside it. To work though they need to make sure to build in dual analogs. I have played a few PSP FPS’s and some were decent, but none were must haves, and that’s a shame. So please Sony, put another analog stick on the new PSP and I will be lined up on day one to get myself one. The longer they wait the more likley the xbox team will move in and take over with Halo mobile, not that I would mind that either, but having two to choose from would be mighty nice! There was a bit of an uproar from some when the PSP came out about there not being a second analog stick, I just hope that it hasn’t been so long that Sony forgot.

Do you want dual analogs on the new PSP? Let us know in the comments.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Killzone 2 redefines nothing whatsoever. Please don’t drink the Sony kool-aid they are forcing down your throats. Killzone 2 is a very standard and very vanilla shooter, but that is not a bad thing. The overall Killzone package is a very good and worthy of some praise. The problems arise from the fact that the game has some glaring issues that any shooter with as much hype as Killzone 2, shouldn’t have. These issues keep the game from being what could have been a classic FPS. You might think I am nit-picking, but all these complaints were heard time and time again while I played the game this weekend. Some of these can be addressed with future updates, but some cannot. These issues make me wonder if any of the reviewers actually played the game for more then 10 minutes!

1. Map Design – They did a great job making Killzone 2 look realistic, but they forgot to make more then one map. Every single level in the multi-player looks 80% similar to every other level. The only thing different is the layout of concrete and metal, and what color they tint the light. This annoys me because creative maps are what help the longevity of a game. In Killzone 2 we get the same 10 textures over and over again.  For the most part the larger levels are well designed, but when they all look alike it gets old really quick. Each map is just another maze of concrete and rusty metal. Where is the variety?

2. Multi-Player Options – The lack of game options in Killzone 2 is quite frankly appalling. How can they spend this long on a game and come away with 5 game types, 3 of which no one wants to play, and also not allow a free for all game. When you make a custom game, which is ranked by default, you have very few options compared to most popular multi-player games. This is supposed to be a huge major multiplayer game yet we are stuck with bare bones options. We can’t even make custom non-ranked games!

3. Controls – I harped about this when I played the demo, and the retail release is no different. Killzone 2 controls can be utterly frustrating at times. I played the game all weekend long and to my surprise I was really good at it. I even got a Valor Medal for being in the top 6%. The problem is even though I did well the controls still are annoying even after I spent so much time with them. How a game controls is 75% of what makes the cream of the crop FPS’s shine above the rest. Killzone 2 fails at this miserably. I had to listen to so many people over the weekend bitch about how bad the controls are that I ended up just taking my headset off.

4. Ranking – Can I ask what is the point of a ranking system that can be maxed out in a matter of two days. Thats right two days! I am still one rank away from the top after two days of playing, but I could easily be done by now if sleep was not a function of the human body. Why does the ranking system move so quickly? You still have ribbons and medals to collect and that’s all good, but I really would have liked to see a more expanded ranking system. Luckily they can do this with a title update…right Guerilla! This might not be an issue for some people, but for me and many others it cuts down the motivation factor a lot.

With all this negativity I should point out that I did have a lot of fun playing Killzone 2. Even with all the issues in multi-player I would advise at least a rent because there is fun to be had, even with the control issues, just be patient and you will be fine. Killzone 2 is one of those games that will be fun for a month or so, but then wear thin once the look alike levels and lack of gametypes starts driving people away from it. I hope they plan to add new gametypes, and possibly some more creative maps in the future. What did you guys think of Killzone 2? Let me know in the comments.

Every truly great FPS has a great feel about it when you first pick it up. The controls work fluidly and make the game feel smooth and fun. Killzone 2’s controls make you feel like your fighting waist deep in pudding. Even after my sixth go round with the demo, and after trying to tweak the controls, I could never find one that made me happy. Control is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to first person shooters, which is a shame, because it seems like they got everything else right this time. I might just change my plans and make Killzone a rental, but don’t change your mind based on my opinion. Just don’t go in expecting a revolutionary game, because Killzone 2 is not that game. What it is, is a solid FPS with some nice visuals. Although I have to say that the game did not really blow me away with its graphics. Where Killzone 2 shines is its lighting and animation, besides that the game doesn’t look much better then most. I think the game looks much better when seeing it in small scale on a computer monitor, it just loses something once you see it for real. Textures are a bit muddy and the environment lacks depth. Everything is just metal sheets and falt walls. I hope that the rest of the game expands on this a bit and we get to see some environments with more depth.

P.s. Once you download the demo make sure to watch the CGI trailer and then play the game. You will notice that the CGI trailer looks way way better then the game does, but kudos to Guerilla Games for coming as close as they did. Now I must go download the Halo Wars demo and see if it is any good. Please leave a comment about how you felt about the demo, that is if our comment system is back up and running again.

It’s February, the month that gamers use to tie up lose ends in the games that they played all throughout the holidays. I personally have yet to finish Far Cry 2 or Mirror’s Edge, and I still have a lot of World at War to play. Unfortunately February looks to be a decent month for gaming. Right out of the gates we get F.E.A.R. 2 (Feb 10).  The first game was great and after playing the demo I doubt they will disappoint with this installment.

If you are a fighting fan then just a week later you will be able to download or buy the all new Street Fighter 4 (Feb 17). Personally I don’t care much for fighting games, but I know plenty of you do. Remember you can also pick up the Street Fighter Pad if you are really hardcore.

The end of the month will bring us a heartwarming game about family and the struggles that ensue. That’s right I am talking about The Godfather 2 (Feb 24). The first game was a pretty good and with tons of added functionality and new squad mechanics the new game looks to be just as good if not better.

Here are some other games that might grab your attention that will launch in February.

• Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection
• GTA4 The Lost & the Damned
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope
  
• X-Blades

February will not go down as a memorable month, but its gonna be way better then January!

#1. Nintendo Continues to Ignore Hardcore Gamers – Nintendo’s strategy with the Wii worked out better then even they imagined, but with this new plan Nintendo left out a huge section of gamers…the hardcore. This may in the end not really be an issue, but personally I was looking forward to some more grown up Wii games. As long as the Wii prints money at the rate it is I doubt we will see this trend stop.

#2. Jack Thompson will creep back into the limelight – You can’t keep crazy down, and even though he has been stripped of his license Jack will be back in 2009. My money is on Jack trying to start an organization against media corruption. In truth I welcome more Jack, because he tends to make gaming look better when he gets involved.

#3. Microsoft releases motion sensitive controller – The long rumored Wii-like controller just might see its debut in 2009. Microsoft has had enough time to develop the hardware, and possibly create some initial games for it as well.

#4. Sony Price Cuts Will Disappoint – At some point in 2009 Sony will have to cut the price of the PS3, but just how much of a cut will be an issue. A $100 cut would be very good, but I don’t see that happening. I imagine the first cut will be only $50. This will increase sales, but not enough to compete with the Wii or 360. The economy may force their hand in this matter as well. I hope that I am wrong on this one and that Sony gets the PS3 under $300 by years end, but that will all depend on factors too numerous to mention here.

#5. The Wii will still outsell the 360 & PS3 – I think most people could predict this one. The Wii is a worldwide success and Nintendo can’t make them fast enough. Even though the Wii will outsell the 360 & PS3, I think that this is the year that Wii sales will start to level of slightly.

#6. We will see at least 4 WWII games – A world war is just too interesting to stop making games about. I thought at one point I was done with WWII games, but then I realized that as long as they are the good ones (COD:WAW) and not the bad ones (Turning Point), I will always love playing a good war game.

#7. Sony will lose at least one more exclusive game, but so will Microsoft – Over the last few years games franchises have been looser then a swingers convention, and I don’t see that trend stopping anytime soon. We will see Sony and Microsoft lose exclusives in the new year. Who loses the biggest one will depend on who has the deeper wallets.

#8. The PS3 & 360 start showing some more muscle – The first 3 years of next gen was all about hardware, but now that each console has been broken in it’s time for software to take over. You see tons of BS stories about how a developer has pushed the PS3 or 360 to its limits on a certain game, but in reality the PS3 & 360 have tons of unlocked potential, they just need the right software to make it happen. The Rage engine is a perfect example. It runs on both systems and is producing the best console graphics I have seen to date. At this point its all about optimizing software to produce gameplay enhancement.

#9. Microsoft will buy a major gaming studio – Even though Microsoft has a solid lineup for 2009 they know that for the future they need more exclusives. Simply paying companies to make a game exclusive is too expensive and doesn’t always mean the game will remain exclusive. The solution is to buy a well respected game studio and get them to work. The economy might stop this from happening, but sooner or later Microsoft need to build a bigger base of developers.

#10. There will be no Xbox Portable – Many rumors have been swirling around about the possible announcement of an Xbox portable. While I would love to see it happen I don’t think that 2009 is the right time. The economy is weak, the DS is still selling like mad, and I just don’t think there is a big enough demand for it right now. Halo in your pocket is something that could easily make the Xboy sell, but it just doesn’t feel like the time is right. Be patient you know its coming eventually.

It’s fun to guess, so play along and give us your best prediction for 2009.

Let’s have a look at where the franchise has been over the years as I get ready to tear into a game that could provide an excellent retrospective of some of its most important characters.

In May 1988, Nintendo published Konami’s Castlevania in North America. The storyline told of Simon, of the vampire hunting house Belmont, who sets out to infiltrate Dracula’s castle and kick the undead man’s pasty ass armed with little more than a leather strap. This was a linear platform action/arcade game where you progressed through six stages of gradually increasing difficulty. Most of the challenge in the game came from the hard, simplistic controls. Hitting hopping flea men with your whip was an incredible challenge, but if you didn’t master it, you wouldn’t last more than a few seconds. Read my review.

In December of that same year, Konami brought Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. The story goes that Simon, just as he was slaying Dracula in the previous title, was afflicted with a curse that would eventually kill him. The quest is to gather the various body parts of Dracula that were being kept safely in various places around the map, bring them together and resurrect Dracula, then kill him properly and break the curse. This game dropped the linear progression in favor of an RPG-style game, with plenty of platforming but including branching paths, towns, items and upgrades to find and purchase, and a series of small mansions to explore, as well as one of the best known typos in gaming: “you now prossess Dracula’s rib.” Read my review.

A year later, Konami released their first game on Nintendo’s plucky Gameboy handheld, Castlevania: The Adventure. Christopher Belmont, an ancestor of Simon, ventures into Castlevania to rescue his son Soleiyu, who’s been captured by Dracula. An admirable first effort, the game stands today as the most unplayable game in the series due to the pixel-perfect jumps required and the torturously slow pace. The music, for the era, is pretty impressive though, true to the franchise’s legacy.

The following October, in 1989, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse was released. Trevor Belmont, another ancestor of Simon’s, heads across the countryside and into Dracula’s castle in an effort to put down the Count’s centennial resurrection. Along the way he can meet and team up with one of three alternate characters. There’s Grant Danasty, a pirate whose parents were killed by Dracula. Sypha Belnades, a cloaked magic user who eventually pulls a Samus Aran. Alucard is here as well, in his first appearance in the series, and he brings the very useful ability to transform into a bat. Castlevania III was changed a lot when it was brought from Japan. The biggest difference was that the advanced chip that was built into the cartridge in Japan was pulled to save money, meaning the game took a serious hit in graphics and sound. Still, it sounded great for the era, and may have been the best sounding game on the NES anyway.

Super Castlevania IV hit the SNES in December of 1991, and it did so in a big way. This is a bigger, more beautiful looking and phenomenally great sounding reimagining of the first Castlevania game. Still, when the game was localized, the story in the game was changed to make this a kind of sequel to Castlevania II. It doesn’t so much matter now, because story wasn’t important to the franchise until much later, anyway. IV brought with it much of the tight play control we expect of the series today. Simon can crouch and crawl slowly, jump short or long distances and whip in any direction. He can even swing from his whip or let it dangle in front of him to shield him from fireballs and small enemies. Much of these advanced whip techniques would be lost in later games. Read my review.

Konami went back to the Gameboy for the simultaneously released Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge. This game was basically the same as Castlevania: The Adventure, except with the brutally unforgiving game elements repaired. The game was presented to the west as a sequel to Adventure though, placing it several years later in the timeline than the first Gameboy game.

Castlevania Bloodlines was the only appearance of Castlevania on Sega’s Genesis console, and it brought a far more arcadey feel to the game. It was an attempt to not only connect the franchise to Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel by incorporating relatives of that novel’s characters, but also to create a new and far more bloody image for the game. Two playable characters were offered, John Morris or Eric Lecarde. Morris used the whip, Lecarde a spear. This was composer Michiru Yamane’s first outing in the series, and she did an incredible job with it. Despite the far more limited (compared to the SNES) sound chip on the Genesis, the music in this game is not only varied and original, but extremely catchy.

Castlevania: Dracula X for the SNES, which came in September of 1995, was an attempt by Konami to port the excellent Dracula X: Chi no Rondo from Japan’s PCEngine (TurboGrafx-16). It was an extremely limited port in comparison, and felt like a solid step down even from Super Castlevania IV. However, in the US, this is all we got of Dracula X until much, much later. This game was actually billed as a sequel to Chi no Rondo in Japan. Dracula X tells the story of Richter Belmont, who heads into Castlevania to conquer Dracula. The original game had a far more elaborate story involving the rescue of maidens, not to mention a much better CD audio soundtrack. Dracula X’s main claim to fame is that it was produced in such limited numbers that despite its shortcomings, it’s rather expensive to buy in any respectable condition.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night appeared in 1997 on Sony’s new PlayStation console with series programmer Koji Igarashi at the helm for the first time. Something’s amiss in Dracula’s castle, so Alucard, who’s apparently been asleep since his experience with Trevor Belmont long ago, awakes and sets out to figure out why his father is up and about. This was a direct sequel to Chi no Rondo and a turning point for the series. Koji Igarashi and his team chose to reinvent Castlevania in the style of the contemporary Super Metroid, taking the player’s equipment near the beginning (unless you tricked the game with a quick backslide, oops) and making them progressively collect it all again to gradually unlock more of the castle. Of course, we don’t find out Alucard’s a girl at the end. We already knew that by looking. Read James’ review.

Castlevania Legends was the third Gameboy Castlevania game. This appeared in March 1998, and it starred a female Belmont named Sonia, who marches on to fight Dracula, bumping into Alucard along the way and perhaps even becoming more than just friends with him. This was the pinnacle of handheld Castlevania at the time. Nowadays it seems not much more remarkable than the other two Castlevania games, except for its scarcity and steep price tag on eBay.

Castlevania arrived on the N64 in 1999 with the confusingly named Castlevania. Choose from either Carrie Fernandez or Reinhardt Schneider and following varying paths through the first 3D version of the game. This was a controversial move, perhaps because the series hallmarks of beautiful graphics and amazing sound were not really feasible with the technology of the time, particularly on the N64 which didn’t even have a dedicated sound chip. In fairness, it’s not a bad game, but it doesn’t capture the feeling of Castlevania well at all, playing more like an entirely different kind of game.

Later that year, Konami sought to release a more finished version of the game for N64, polishing over many of the rough edges and adding a playable character named Cornell, who was a werewolf. Opinions are split. It’s generally accepted that the game is better than its predecessor, but at the same time it doesn’t help that it’s basically the same game less than a year later for another $60. The game was a much shorter run than the other N64 game as well, making it pretty scarce and expensive nowadays when in collectible condition.

In June 2001, Castlevania went handheld once again with Circe of the Moon. The Belmonts are nowhere to be found, so Nathan Graves must rise to the challenge when Dracula takes off with Graves’ teacher Morris Baldwin. Circle of the Moon was the first Castlevania on the Game Boy Advance and it came at a time when there was no internal light available for the system. Compounding this issue was the darkness of the game’s design. The game was pretty much unplayable on a standard GBA without direct sunlight. If you were lucky enough to play it though, the game was pretty good, involving a card combo magic system and a lot of interesting powerups. Read my second spin.

Four months later, Castlevania Chronicles was released on PlayStation. This was an enhanced version of the remake of the original Castlevania that had appeared on the Sharp X68000 computer in Japan many years before. Players get the option of playing the original or a dressed-up version with new sprites, and there are some bonus features on the disc like a video interview with Koji Igarashi. This game was a limited run, and it’s not clear whether it sold well. It tends to fetch a high pricetag nowadays in good condition.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance appeared on GBA in 2002. Juste Belmont dives into Castlevania with the intent of saving his girlfriend, who’s disappeared and is reportedly inside. Dissonance plays very much like a handheld Symphony of the Night, but instead of an inverted castle, the hook here is that there are actually two parallel castles that overlap in general geography but vary greatly. The visuals in the game were amazing for the time, particularly the complicated bosses. Konami’s developers brightened up the color palette in response to criticisms of Circle of the Moon, only to face further criticism when players were trying the shockingly bright game on their now internally lit GBA SP systems just a few months later.

Late in 2002, Konami published Konami Collector’s Series: Castlevania and Contra for Windows. This was a collection of emulated versions of the three NES Castlevania games and two NES Contra games. The shell these run in is simple, but it is easier to understand than trying to play these games emulated. Further, the games have been adjusted. For example, Simon’s Quest has its famous localization errors fixed. This is out of print now but can still be had brand new for just a few dollars on eBay. Set this up with a gamepad using an external utility, and you’ll be all set.

In May 2003, Castlevania hit a high-water mark on the GBA with Aria of Sorrow. This game, set in the future, has Soma Cruz stumbling into Castlevania accidentally, and trying to find a way out. Dracula was put down permanently in 1999, so not even those who know where he is understand why he’s there. He discovers he has the ability to absorb the souls of defeated monsters to learn some of their abilities. There’s a wide cast of memorable characters and a seriously shocking twist near the end that knocked me out of my seat. On top of all this, the graphics and sound are probably the best on the platform.

In October of that year, Lament of Innocence came to PS2. Lament we should, because this 3D Castlevania game chronicles the beginning of the Belmont vs Dracula story, and while it’s a phenomenal game, it drew some harsh critics. Leon Belmont is ousted by the church when he insists on heading to Romania to rescue his girlfriend, only to stumble upon Castlevania. This origin story is not only brilliantly written and competently voice acted, the graphics and sound are, to date, some of the best the series has to offer with a genuine Castlevania feel right along with tight play control.

In October 2004, Nintendo published a port of Castlevania as part of their Classic NES Series for Game Boy Advance. Notable enhancements include a save function, which makes the brutally cruel game far more manageable as you can play it in short bursts.

In the following October, Dawn of Sorrow, which was a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow, brought the Castlevania goodness to Nintendo DS. A cult bent on resurrecting the late Dracula has built their own castle and is trying to install one of their own as the Count. Just as Aria did before it, Dawn of Sorrow seemed to “break” the platform, showing just how good a 2D game could look on Nintendo’s new handheld. The soul-stealing function returned, along with a somewhat clumsy “seal drawing” system that used the stylus. The cast of characters from the original game returned with all their revelations from the previous game open to each other, and it made for some interesting dynamics.

The following month, Curse of Darkness appeared on PS2 and Xbox. This is a direct sequel to Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse and it features Trevor Belmont as an NPC. The main character is Hector, one of the recently slain Dracula’s top guys who had some involvement in the big guy’s downfall. Hector’s a devil forgemaster, a man with the ability to create and manage an assortment of familiars to help him progress through the castle to put an end to the ambitions of another of Dracula’s top guys, a devil forgemaster named Isaac. The innocent devil system is cool but confusing, and the weapon forge system is brilliant. The game is absolutely huge, with a variety of large areas to explore and lots of stuff to collect.

January 2006 brought the very short run of Castlevania Double Pack, a compilation cartridge for GBA that had Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow on it for those who didn’t get one or both of those games the first time around. I made the mistake of not picking this up right away thinking it would be around for a while, and when it disappeared quickly I ended up having to pay a premium to pick it up.

Portrait of Ruin became the second DS entry in the franchise in 2006, and it was a direct sequel to Castlevania Bloodlines. Jonathan Morris, son of Bloodlines’ John Morris, joins Charlotte Orlean, a descendent of Castlevania (1999)’s Carrie Fernandez in a cooperative adventure to take down a vampire named Brauner who’s taken up residence in Castlevania in Dracula’s absence and decorated it with magical paintings that serve as portals to other places. Brauner’s brought his creepy daughters with him, and they cause plenty of trouble along the way. Portrait of Ruin was another beautiful game with some amazing effects, but the cooperative element was not well implemented. This game had a great 20th anniversary preorder bonus, including a series soundtrack CD, a stylus, art book, and some other great things. Read my review.

In September 2007, Konami’s mobile division produced a Castlevania title called Order of Shadows for mobile phones. Desmond Belmont staggers slowly through a tiny Castlevania killing things. This clumsy, ugly, noisy game bears little resemblance to the quality titles in the rest of the series, and is stunningly short at less than two hours. I envy those who reportedly found a way to play all the way through Konami’s demo version on their website, because I paid $6 for this game and I want my money back. Read my review.

The following month, we found out where Koji Igarashi had been. Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles was released for PSP. This is a compilation of the original Chi no Rondo, plus a remade version (called Rondo of Blood) with modern graphics, plus an enhanced port of the PlayStation version of Symphony of the Night with far improved localization. Chi no Rondo and Symphony need to be unlocked and it’s not easy to do so. The 3D character models in a 2D world look great on the PSP, and this compilation should not be missed. It serves as a kind of turning point in the series, from the generally linear Rondo of Blood to the Metroid-style Symphony of the Night, probably the most important shift in the series.

In October 2008, Order of Ecclesia arrived for Nintendo DS. The game takes place after Richter Belmont’s disappearance, so an Order called Ecclesia has appeared to handle the task of keeping the forces of darkness at bay. Things start to go wrong with the plan however and everything takes a dramatic turn. Ecclesia uses a Glyph system where Shanoa can absorb magical seals into her body, gaining abilities from enemies and objects like Soma did in the Sorrow games. The game is beautiful to look at and hear, controls like a dream, and has a surprising amount of things to uncover. It’s also astonishingly hard compared to other recent games. Look for my review if I can even beat the final enemy.

Castlevania Judgment is the most recent Castlevania game. It came out last month, in November 2008. This is a fighting game with a cast of characters from across the series’ history. There are some surprising cast choices and some apparent omissions, but we’ll have to see how that turns out later, as my review copy is supposed to be forthcoming. There’s even a new character named Aeon who is apparently the one to blame for this little timeline-hopping brawl. The game features open combat with opponents and also monsters in some parts, as well as boss battles against more powerful monsters like the minotaur.

Image source: AOS Citadel

So what brought this on?

I was thinking about that Harmony of Dissonance cartridge that failed on me not so long ago, and how strange it was to open the thing up and find the battery soldered to the board. I only had a very passing understanding of what a bootleg GBA cartridge looks like at the time, and I ended up discarding it when I destroyed the thing trying to replace the battery. A failed battery is a common sign of a bootleg game, but there are more specific ways to tell while the game is still working. Unfortunately, these things don’t tend to leap out at you in an auction listing, but there are a few things that are a clear tipoff that something’s not right.

Don’t trust these games. Certain games are more frequently counterfeited than others. Nintendo’s popular brands like Mario and Pokémon are obvious choices. Other games that tend to go out of print quickly and are often fake on eBay are Castlevania games and Majesco’s Bookworm port for GBA.

Look closely at the label. As is the case in every industry, ripoffs tend to look like ripoffs. Know what the label on the cartridge is supposed to look like before you go shopping, and make sure you’re looking at an exact match. If there’s no picture, it’s suspect. If it’s a stock picture, it’s suspect.

Does it come with the box and manual? Seeing a complete game with all the inserts (like registration card) is very promising. This is a step in the right direction, but not 100%. After all, a bootleg game could be put into a legitimate box and manual, or the box and manual can be faked. Several of my games are now sitting in boxes and manuals that originally came with a different copy of the game. These things happen when people build collections.

Where’s it coming from? If the seller is in a country where it doesn’t make sense to be selling an English-language version of the game (as opposed to a Chinese language version) it’s almost certainly counterfeit. This is even the case if it comes with a box and instruction manual, because these people even make fake boxes and manuals. Often these games will find their way into the country and then the person who buys it will resell it on eBay, with or without any knowledge that theirs is a fake, so there’s really little way to know.

I bought a copy of Super Mario World for GBA in 2003. It came with the box and manual, but was a counterfeit from a user named revolution852. A look in PayPal shows the name Siu Cheong Yip. Nowadays, I would never have made that purchase.

How can you be sure?

History is the only way to be confident before the game arrives. Look over the seller’s feedback for any sign of people complaining they received a counterfeit game. Even one complaint like this should be enough to discourage you from bidding, because for every one complaint, you can be sure a hundred fakes went out unnoticed. If you see an obvious fake being sold, with a fake label for example, report it to eBay to make these people’s lives difficult.

Until the game’s in your hands, you can’t be certain though. Once it’s there, you can tell by looking at the board. On a GBA game, this entails looking in the connector end of the cartridge for the Nintendo logo, which is printed on the board if it’s a legitimate game. You may need a flashlight to see it, but it’s pretty big and it’s there. Unfortunately, it’s at a very hard angle to photograph without opening the cartridge, so don’t expect to see pictures of it in the auction. Promises that the game isn’t a bootleg shouldn’t be taken lightly though, because specifically saying it’s not implies the person knows how to tell the difference. Further, there’s that much more to use against the person if it turns out to be a fake when you get it.

Keep your wits about you when shopping, and protect yourself by using PayPal. Check your games as soon as they arrive, and tell on the bad guys when you find them. eBay’s not going to shut these people down without people complaining about it. Good luck!