Nintendo Wii Fanboy

I've only played the first three, 64, and the DS games. Out of those I like Dawn of Sorrow the most. Sealing the bosses did suck though.

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I can't wait till Wrestlevania is released for the VC.

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I was never really into Castlevania. I'll probably check out the ones on the VC sooner or later.

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There's no contents, Symphony is the best Castlevania... and in my opinion, the best game ever made.

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^^ There's no *contest* (wow, that was a bad typo)

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Honestly, every single one offers a great experience. Although the first one is a little weak, but that's only if you ignore the fact that it's the first.

I LOVE the RPG elements of the second game.
I LOVE the alternate paths and characters of the third game.
and I LOVE the swinging around of the fourth one... oh, and the MUSIC.
I even LOVE the game boy advance versions, that reminds me of a great metroid game.

If they created an RPG version with multiple characters and swinging around... that would be heaven.

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I liked Aria of Sorry the best. I haven't played the sequel yet.

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*sorrow* funny typo.

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Oh, and I liked Dracula X, that game was hard, but the super powered up secondary items were just awesome.

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Absolutely 100% its' SotN. That game not only revolutionized the series, but kept 2D gaming alive at a time when 3D was the new hotness.

In terms of gaming eras, I'd say Simon's Quest was my favourite of the 80's, SotN on PS1 in the 90's and Super Castlevania in the 90's and then Dawn of Sorrow in the 2000's.

I can't wait for Chronicles on the PSP.

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Castlevania 64. There. I said it.

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My favorite is Portrait of Ruin, because it breaks the monotony of always being in a castle. Also, the painting with the disoriented twisty world was just brilliant.

The old style Castlevania games were fun, but I much prefer the MetroidVania style of games since SotN.

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I used to think SotN was best, but I've been considering the GBA and DS titles as parts of a series, and taken as a whole, I think that "series" would win. The newer games are just really well executed (I hated "sealing" too, but they fixed it for PoR), and they give you *so* much to do after you beat it with new modes, Boss Rush, collections, etc. that they're worth at least as much as your average at-home console game.

If you still think SotN is the best, play back through -- I think you'll surprise yourself with how (relatively) little replay value it has. You get all the good stuff in one go (especially if you remember where things are from last time you played it), then you're pretty much done. Great game, but the GBA and DS titles win in the end, IMHO.

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I see you slyly slipping in Randy Savage in that pic. ;)

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I like SoTN a lot, but I really loved Portrait of Ruin the best. It was such a great idea. I loved the duel character system, even though it was in Castlevania 3, but it seemed so refined with the ability's your partner can assist with. breaking out of the castle formula was the best. I loved the London portrait, as well as the circus. The game is phenomenal, and oh yeah- it has some amazing music too!

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Symphony of the night followed closely by Castlevania: Bloodlines.

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Well, i've played a LOT of Castlevania, i have 15 of them, and my goal is to get them all. i would say either SotN or PoR. they were both breakthrough titles. Harmony was too easy, circle was in my opinion the worst. Love medroidvania style, but classic oneway whackem brings back memories. they should add to this thread "who's your favorite character?" and i would say, witout hesitation, Alucard all the way!

WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER?

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It's like choosing a favorite child. I'd have to say Castlevania III. I agree with Koji Igarashi, it is a flawless game.

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Symphony of the Night was my favorite. I only wish that Konami would quit pushing 'Metroidvania' clones on us, since it actually would give the illusion that they're trying to change the way the franchise is played. Every time I'm about to find a new item I'm driven to wonder if the morph ball will be next.

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It's not hard at all to pick just one:

Symphony of the Night

...Because it's the only "Metroidvania" that was actually designed to be played on a real television, instead of all of that "Pocketvania" crap we keep getting now (not that they're bad games, I just hate Konami for turning the "Metroidvanias" into an exclusive portable-only series while giving the TVs nothing but that 3D-ified crap). AND it came out well before Konami went so far off the deep end with the "Castlevania: X of Y" naming convention. Oh, and also Alucard is the coolest character anyone's ever made, ever.

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One more reason for Symphony of the Night: It was back when they had that really incredible artist on board (what was her(his?) name?), as opposed to the DS games where they pulled a Megaman by going all "generic anime just for the sake of generic anime".

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I've only ever played Portrait of Ruin, which was awesome. Hopefully I'll have time to play other ones during this school year.

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Simon's Quest for me - I really like the RPG aspect of those types of games - leveling up, buying new equipment, etc. I remember getting the panic moments when I was somewhere far away from safety and the sun went down signaling much harder monsters. I did enjoy taking advantage of those harder monsters in certain towns to rack up the points. It was also kind of cool not just having a set number of lives to hack my way through to the end (I gave up on the original Castlevania after too many frustrating plays where I'd die and just have no real desire to try yet again to get past whatever monster was blocking my path). Getting the different objects and using them in the correct places was kind of cool to me as well.

I never really got a chance to play the others as I haven't owned a console between my NES and the Wii (!). From what I saw, the gameplay looked like it moved back towards the original game and that's just not my interest - I've usually been much more into Final Fantasy and adventure type games (though on most consoles, mouse-driven games are a beating). I have to admit that a Castlevania game on the Wii would be interesting, especially if it took advantage of the controls really well. Build in some of the RPG/Adventure elements and I'd be in.

-Pete

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Portrait of Ruin

That game never gets old.

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SOTN all the way!

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Simon's Quest for me! I must've played through that game ten times, and never once got tired of it. Definitely looking forward to picking that up on VC when it comes out.

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Symphony of the Night is my favorite, then Portrait of Ruin and the only old school castlevania that I love is Super Castlevania IV

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The original game was as close to 2D platforming perfection as we've seen without going to Mario. I've played through it so many times that I can often finish it now without continuing.

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