Castlevania on XBLA now

By Robert Purchese Published 21 March, 2007

At a whopping 95.32 MB.

Bulging like a juicy jugular on Live Arcade this morning is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which will cost you 800 Microsoft-bob and weighs in at a record breaking 95.32 MB.

Previously a PlayStation gem, it puts you in the wicked winkle-pickers of Dracula's half-vamp son, Alucard (uninspired parents). You'll get the chance to take him back to daddy's castle, defeating boss monsters and solving puzzles along the way, as you attempt to explore the dusty old ruin.

Symphony of the Night is the first full console game to appear on Xbox Live Arcade, and is apparently so good that Microsoft decided at GDC to up the limit of downloadable games from 50 MB to 150 MB.

But be warned, if you haven't got a premium 360, you'll have to wait until April until you can get the new 512 MB memory unit before you can play the game.

As usual, the title's been enhanced for the new high-definition era, with a bit of spit-shine on both audio and visuals, plus your standard 12 achievements on offer for a total of 200 gamerpoints.

Head over to our Castlevania: Symphony of the Night gallery to sink your teeth into the latest screenshots.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • the_dudefather #1 5 years ago

    what is a review? a miserable pile of secrets!

  • #2 5 years ago

    No widescreen support? I hate those naff backgrounds, really offputting.

  • the_dudefather #3 5 years ago

    start game -> look in disgust -> options -> stretch -> ??? -> profit!

  • nickthegun #4 5 years ago

    Ive been playing this recently on the PSP and its still a very good game.

  • Steroyd #5 5 years ago

    What's funny is that this game isn't B/C with the PS3.

    why does fate mock me so?

  • TafKas #6 5 years ago

    Just w00t!

  • trevd72 #7 5 years ago

    if i have portrait of whatever on the ds unplayed as yet. is it worth getting this as well?

  • Beano #8 5 years ago

    "Ive been playing this recently on the PSP and its still a very good game"

    Which is strange as the game is not yes compatible with the EURO PS3. Thought the PS1 emulator would be similar.

  • Steroyd #9 5 years ago

    if i have portrait of whatever on the ds unplayed as yet. is it worth getting this as well?

    Best Castlevania EVAH!! ...IMO

    BTW How easy/hard is it to do Soul Steal?

  • MadMirko #10 5 years ago

    Best Castlevania EVAH!! ...IMO

    Have they fixed the loading times between the areas? Would be cool if the different castle segments would feel like a large continous space to explore, instead of bits connected by (loading-)pipes.

  • peteb #11 5 years ago

    >You can enhance graphics and fill the screen from options. A bit chunky but if the backgronds bother you too much ...

    i dont think u can do this if your running it through a vga cable.

  • lambtron #12 5 years ago

    "Ive been playing this recently on the PSP and its still a very good game"

    "Which is strange as the game is not yes compatible with the EURO PS3. Thought the PS1 emulator would be similar."

    Wait! I thought Sony said ALL PS1 games would be BC? Did they stretch the truth on that one too.

    With regards to the emulator, given that an emulator is a piece of software that makes one machine behave like another there is no reason that something that would work on the PS1 emu for PSP would therefore work for PS3...

  • nickthegun #13 5 years ago

    "Ive been playing this recently on the PSP and its still a very good game"

    Which is strange as the game is not yes compatible with the EURO PS3. Thought the PS1 emulator would be similar.

    Not that strange. Ive got hacked firmware which can play almost any PS1 game you can throw at it. Its avery good emulator.

    It just seems they couldnt be arsed tweaking it for the PS3.
    Edited by 1 at 21/03/07 @ 11:35

  • kincaide #14 5 years ago

    Yes

  • peteb #15 5 years ago

    >I'm running through VGA to a monitor. If that's what you mean you can.

    ahh ok, haven't had a chance to check this game yet, but it didnt work for me with turtles, i just didnt get the option for stretching the screen.

  • Barry619 #16 5 years ago

    Well i'm using a VGA and i could stretch the screen on Turtles, peteb, strange.

  • peteb #17 5 years ago

    >Well i'm using a VGA and i could stretch the screen on Turtles, peteb, strange.

    Okay, this is a bit odd. I looked in the settings for the game and there was no such option for me, I just assumed it was because using VGA. What resolution are you running it at? I think mines is 1280x1024, set to widescreen

  • Kelduum #18 5 years ago

    So, the question is, what does the 'enchanced' graphics option look like?

    I doubt they have redrawn all the sprites, so is it just an emulator style upscaler thing?

  • the_dudefather #19 5 years ago

    OH NOES A SOUND EFFECT IS MISSING, ALERT THE INTERNET

    (red skeleton death)

  • Steroyd #20 5 years ago

    A SIGN OF COMPRESSION NINJA'S AT WORK

  • Xerx3s #21 5 years ago

    The enhance option has nothing to do with stretching, you need the option below.

  • Eighthours #22 5 years ago

    Have they fixed the loading times between the areas? Would be cool if the different castle segments would feel like a large continous space to explore, instead of bits connected by (loading-)pipes.

    Seems like there's no loading at all.

  • Lov3 #23 5 years ago

    This game rocks absolutely. I never played it before, and wasn't convinced it'd be any better than the GBA offerings... how wrong I was. Didn't even need the full 15 minutes to convince me to buy it.

  • squeakyg #24 5 years ago

    Mapster: "No widescreen support?"
    DAMAGE.INC.: "What Mapster said, truly pathetic."

    You can stretch the 4:3 window of the game to any size or shape you like in the menu (it's in the menu once the game has started, but not when you're on the title screen, which may be why people aren't seeing it). You probably wouldn't want it completely filling the screen though, because the game's resolution is so low. The pixels are massive.

    The "enhanced" mode is a very ugly kind of blurring. It kind of shaves the exposed corner off every pixel, making things look weird. It's like Filter>Noise>Median in Photoshop. I turned it off straight away.

    I don't think you can complain about a lack of true widescreen for 2D games that rely on pixel-art for their level designs. It was drawn for 4:3. I'm sure it wouldn't harm the horizontal designs of most rooms in this particular game, but still.
    Edited by 1 at 21/03/07 @ 22:23

  • The_Inquisitor #25 5 years ago

    Despite already owning this game on the PS1, I still bought it. Purely so I wouldn't have to keep changing memory cards every time I wanted to play the game.

    NOT for the points, not for the points..........

  • mike_mgoblue #26 5 years ago

    The Xbox Live Arcade version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is BY FAR the BEST version of Castlevania EVER MADE!!!

    Seeing this in an optimized form of high-definition graphics with 5.1 digital sound is incredible!!!

  • mike_mgoblue #27 5 years ago

    If you own a 1080p HDTV that upconverts the 2D pixels to 1080p, then the solution to making it look less pixelated is to turn the Sharpness of your HDTV set all the way down.

    It is like that with all 2D games played on an Upconverting 1080p HDTV set.

  • muters #28 5 years ago

    I got about half way through the castle on a PS1 emulator but it wouldn't let me advance, so it's really great to get to play this again. Probably the first XBLA game since Doom where I truly feel I've got more than my money's worth.

    As a not-very-seasoned SotN player, it's a bit frustrating to have to hop to gameFAQs to find that I was supposed to crack open a completely inconspicuous bit of wall to get the odd important item, but hey ho.

    As far as the graphics go, I think they're lovely, stretched out to full screen through VGA on a 19" monitor.

    Is SotN pretty much the daddy of the (2D) Castlevania series? If the handheld titles have even half the scope, then I might have to do a bit of shopping.

  • m0thr4 #29 5 years ago

    I loved this game on the PlayStation, although I got nowhere near finishing it (scraped a finish on the 1st castle missing loads of the upgrades, spells, familars, etc.).

    I think I'm going to play nothing else for a few weeks...