Castlevania Double Pack
	Genre: Action Developer: Konami
Publisher Region Released Konami NA 01/11/2006

Your Account Options

You currently have no privileges related to this game profile because you are not signed into an HonestGamers account. Please log in, or click to register for a free user account.

More Reviews by Zigfried
	One Chance (PC) One Chance is a bad game for obvious reasons. The graphics are poor, the music is repetitive, the guy walks slowly, the story is silly, player interactio...
	Canabalt (PC) I view people who subscribe to the holy book of Canabalt the same way that Orson Scott Card intended readers to view Xenocide's Qing-Jao: as obses...
	Splatterhouse (PlayStation 3) Once upon a time, all this blood and nudity would have been daring. I remember gasping in awe when playing the originals . . . of course, those were marketed t...
	Rad Mobile (Arcade) I remember drooling over magazine screenshots for Rad Mobile, known back in 1991 as "that 32-bit arcade game WHOA MOMMA". I remember actually playing
	Super Sprint (Arcade) Most players will quickly realize the true nature of the deceptive diagonal path and avoid it. True racing experts will keep trying -- and failing -- until the...

Best Game Boy Advance Games
	Mother 3 Average Rating: 10.0; Reviews: 2
	Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Average Rating: 9.5; Reviews: 2
	Kuru Kuru Kururin (Import) Average Rating: 9.0; Reviews: 2
	Fire Emblem Average Rating: 8.7; Reviews: 3
	Mario Kart: Super Circuit Average Rating: 8.7; Reviews: 3
	Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon Average Rating: 8.5; Reviews: 2
	Super Puzzle Fighter II Average Rating: 8.5; Reviews: 2
	Riviera: The Promised Land Average Rating: 8.4; Reviews: 2
	Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Average Rating: 8.4; Reviews: 7
	Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Average Rating: 8.3; Reviews: 7

Looking for a good read?
Check out a selection from our database of more than 8000 reviews! bluberry has weighed in on Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow for the Game Boy Advance and figures it rates 9 out of 10. What do you think? Read the review, then be sure to leave feedback or chime in with one of your own!

Staff Review

Review by Zigfried
July 04, 2006

Castlevania -- the name conjures images of whip-swinging action, endless enemies, blue-skinned countesses, pirate ships floating in moonlit bays, burning villages, and a diabolical vampire who's been resurrected more times than Spider-Man's elderly Aunt May. Castlevania -- the name is synonymous with excitement!

At least, it used to be.

After playing the disappointing Castlevania Double Pack, the "Castlevania" name now brings back memories of emasculated bishounen dunderheads, forgettable filler music, long empty hallways, and tiresome backtracking. Quite frankly, this cartridge makes me sad. Instead of providing a double shot of Transylvanian tequila, both games -- Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow -- leave me thirsting for the past. Neither game satisfies on its own and, since each highlights the other's weaknesses, they're even worse when mixed.

Harmony of Dissonance starts off slowly. Aria of Sorrow seems exciting at first, but runs out of gas halfway through. Harmony is too empty. Aria is too short. Harmony's music is under-produced. Aria's colors are too dark, especially if you're playing on an actual Gameboy Advance. And, if you've experienced Symphony of the Night, they both feel uninspired.

"Aaaargh! Death has returned!"

...for the record, those are Juste Belmont's words, not mine.

As in SOTN, the hero in Harmony of Dissonance is taunted several times by the specter of Death. In this case, Death is searching for Juste's damsel in distress -- a girl named Lydie. You're probably guessing that Juste fights Death at some point. You're right. Although it's a repeat Castlevania encounter, the battle was interesting; Death had some surprising new abilities that I didn't expect.

Unfortunately, the hero himself does not have any surprising new abilities. Throughout the entire game, Juste Belmont's only weapon is the trusty whip, and his (few) other abilities -- such as the rocket jump -- are lifted straight from the legendary SOTN. Compared to SOTN's array of unique weapons or Circle of the Moon's card-based skill system, Juste is underpowered.

But I'll be fair -- I wouldn't dare attack the original Castlevania or Dracula X for only including a whip. I'll also be honest -- those two games more than compensated with actual action. Harmony is too laid-back. Like NES Metroid, it's an "exploratory" game. Unlike NES Metroid, a lot of Harmony's spacious rooms are loosely populated or completely devoid of enemies. Running through long empty hallways does not excite me. Backtracking through those same empty hallways excites me even less. My greatest fear while playing -- my motivation for locating the Save Rooms strewn throughout Dracula's Castle -- was that the GBA's batteries would die.

KONAMI, WHAT HAPPENED?

Adding to the travesty, Harmony's music is technically and aesthetically inferior to past adventures. On the plus side, Harmony does showcase some nice stylish graphics, such as the disturbingly detailed "Scarecrow" enemy... which is a naked man impaled on a bloody spear, bouncing around the screen on his macabre pogo stick.

The Double Pack's other title, Aria of Sorrow, doesn't have such cool visual moments. Compared to its older brother, Aria's scenery is drab and its enemies creatively uninspired. The best you'll see is a full moon hovering overhead, which is nothing compared to Harmony's roiling thunderclouds in the Sky Walkway.

Aria does feature lots of enemies and tons of new abilities. Whereas Harmony's rooms might contain three or four easily-slaughtered skeletons, many of Aria's overly-dark environments are populated by re-spawning ghosts or skeletons. New hero Soma Cruz (who looks even more girly than Juste) wields DOZENS of ways to obliterate his uninspired opposition. Soma gains these powers by STEALING MONSTERS' SOULS and MAKING THEM HIS SLAVES.

Unfortunately, there's still too much back-tracking. Revisiting visually uninspired, poorly designed areas -- even if those areas are heavily populated -- isn't fun. Furthermore, even though you'll meet a lot of enemies, they're not particularly challenging. Dracula's minions move in basic, easily-slaughtered patterns... instead of offering any real resistance, they're just going through the motions. The game is difficult because creatures take off 40 points of health, not because of any actual intelligence of design.

That's what the Double Pack lacks: intelligence. Intelligence and creativity. Both games assume that players want mindless, repetitive treks through stale variants of Dracula's castle. WRONG! I want stimulation. The Double Pack lacks the creative spark of genius that fueled Castlevania, Dracula X, Bloodlines, and Symphony of the Night.

However, the problem with the Castlevania Double Pack is NOT that it abandons the "classic" formula. Nor is it a problem that the Double Pack tries (and fails) to imitate a great game like SOTN. The problem is that Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow both come across as half-assed efforts, especially when compared to each other.

Still, I have to admit that Double Pack producer IGA has balls. With Harmony of Dissonance, he tried to replicate Symphony of the Night's perfection... and he tried to do it on a much weaker system. After failing miserably, IGA had the balls to go out there and try again! If IGA led a band, I bet he'd release a hard rock cover of "Imagine". Then he'd follow it up with a jazzy rendition of "Enter Sandman". I'm sure some people would praise him as a visionary.

I wouldn't.

//Zig

Feedback

Facebook()

Forums(0)

You can click the tabs on the above bar to choose whether you wish to read comments from visitors who have posted on Facebook, or from registered site users who have left feedback on the forums. Please leave a comment of your own if you have anything to say!

Info | Help | Privacy Policy | Contact | Advertise

© 1998-2012 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site--from reviews, guides, cheats and editorials to message board posts--may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Castlevania Double Pack is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Castlevania Double Pack, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors.