Castlevania Double Pack Comments by Tom Bramwell

Wow... so is this one actually coming out or what?

Not here it didn't! Maybe it will soon.

Australia gets routinely shafted, even moreso than you guys.

It's probably been banned in Oz, on the grounds of having links to the occult or something equally silly...

Wot, no frod?

So, better than SotC then?

This cart is now firmly embedded in my GB Micro - I'm playing through HoD first then gonna go onto AoS.
:-D

Gotta say that DoS on the DS reinvigorated my love of platform games - I've never really "clicked" with 3D platformers, but I love 2D stuff like Metal Slug, Castlevania, Astroboy etc. :-)

/cough up again by the looks of it :/

Jaysus! If I'd know there'd be this many Super-quality games, I'd have applied for that credit-card insted of tearing up the letter when i got my DS.

Oh and quit my job or something so I'd get time to play them all.

Does anyone else just feel a little sad that there are so many games, you'll never get to play them all? Oh to be a teenager in school again and 35+ hours spare a week!

awesome! i've never played a castlevania properly before, but have often had the urge to. looks like this bad boy is gonna be the one.

"Does anyone else just feel a little sad that there are so many games, you'll never get to play them all? Oh to be a teenager in school again and 35+ hours spare a week!"

Yeah... that's an argument for shorter, cheaper games if I ever heard one.

So Frod & Genji, I take it you two are very enthusiastic about this title then? ;)

/just had a quick count-up of the number of posts so far in this review...

Lack of challenge? I tried playing Symphony of the night and couldn't even get past the first boss!

Excellent games, both of them. Not quite as good as Symphony of the Night, but easily among the best games on the GBA, especially Aria.

I got a lot more than 10 hours out of both of these games. Sure, if you rush through and don't care about getting the full endings, you'll do them in less time than that, but I'd be surprised if anybody got the full ending on Aria in less than 10 hours first time through. And then, you've got the additional modes that are unlocked after playing through, which change the game a fair bit and offer quite a bit of replay value.

"So Frod & Genji, I take it you two are very enthusiastic about this title then? ;)"

Hey, I was being serious in my response to your post. I really do want shorter, cheaper games that don't require me to dedicate my life to them for weeks at a time.

I *am* enthusiatic about this, but know that it's going to be nigh on impossible to get a copy at retail. I preordered Dawn of Sorrow months before it came out, and do you know what happened? When it came out, the store I ordered it from got 5 copies. FIVE COPIES. I didn't get mine. They told me to wait for the next shipment.

I was still waiting for it two months later. I eventually gave up, cancelled my preorder, and imported it from Hong Kong.

Maybe I should do that with this as well.

How does these compare to Circle of the Moon (the only GBA Castlevania game I've played)? I thought CotM was an excellent game and wondered if anyone who's played them all had any thoughts in terms of comparison?

Man, I'm confused now.

I swear I had Dawn of Sorrow and Circle the Moon, both on the GBA, yet neither are in this double pack?

@blizeH

Dawn of Sorrow is a DS game. The other one is a GBA game, but isn't in this pack.

Genji, I'm not sure if the solution is to make the games shorter and cheaper (for me), although this makes a lot of sence now you mention it (Forum topic maybe?). I would welcome games costing less, and short enough that I can 'realistically complete' them (as well as never-ending titles like Zoo which you can play until you're bored).

My problem is *still* just not having as much time to play them as I used to, and Nintendo seemingly having released games that are just f**king great, month after month. :)

I'm not saying make ALL games shorter. Maybe just some. You have to cater to a variety of tastes.

I know that a lot of games would be really improved story-wise if there wasn't a need to artificially create a longer playing time through lots of filler crap and level crunching. I'm looking at YOU, Tales of Symphonia!

/glares at Tales of Symphonia.

EDIT: You can create a forum topic for it if you want. I'm going to see a movie now.

Had this lodged into my GBA and my GBA welded onto my hands all week and I'm absolutely loving both games. Glad I waited and got them for £18 rather than £50 though :D

Is this better then Dawn of Sorrow???

I''ve never tried a castlevania game before (except an old nes game) and this looks intresting....

Any recommendations on the cheapest place to get it from? As a rule I don't do full-price games, but I need this, so I'm prepared to compromise by getting it new as cheap as possible. What's the actual RRP?

RRP is £25; Play have it for £18.

I've preordered it for 29 EUR at Play.
Fair price.

\o/

so are they like metroid then? i love the metroid series - and if this is anything like that then ill run out and buy it at lunch!

i've never really got into the castlevania series, it always looked a bit boring, but for £18 i might give this a go.

Although I have the original games I brough the double pack over the weekend... I recently found that my original Aria of Sorrow cart wouldn't retain save information anymore so I needed a substitute plus it's great to have 2 metroidvania's on one cart. Great space saving especially when used in a Micro.

@ Tejstar - Yeah I loved CotM as well but apparently that wasn't made by the team behind the castlevania series and has been removed from the castlevania timeline *sorry for that geeky bit of trivia there*

The problem with the games that followed it on the GBA was that they were far too easy. Although it was a good game I consider Harmony to be the worst title of the GBA Castlevania and the music was really piss poor on it which is usually one of the halmarks of castlevania games for fans IMO.

Although the Aria games are good I never liked the direction they took Castlevania in although I like the soul skills and stuff. I think they need another game set in the past, possibly a remake of Castlevania 2 but using the Symphony of the night engine.

Draculas Curse was a great game and is often forgot, it introduced a metroid style (if not slightly limited style) of play to the game, introduced some of the classic tunes we know and love as well as a night and day system where enemies were much tougher at night.

Surely "Pack of Double" would have been a more appropriate name for the set?

@SlackMaster

For me CotM is one of the best games on the GBA and it's difficulty is what kept me hooked. It never get frustratingly difficult, i always felt it was me who was at fault. However, saying that it was probably the hardest game I've completed on the GBA. Think I'll still go for this though, especially at £18!

@ Tejstar - Yeah it's well worth it and will keep you entertained for hours... I think in each one you can unlock additional play modes and a hidden character, so replay is quite high as well.

But I do agree that CotM was the best Castlevania game on the GBA although Aria does come very close.

Harmony of Dissonance is OK, but I prefer Circle of the Moon in its stead.

But Aria of Sorrow should be the main reason to buy this. Lovely game. You'll be soul-searching (ahem) for many many weeks and indeed, months...

I remember I found a copy of Aria of Sorrow for 3.99 in Gamestation last summer, and I still haven't played it yet. Might do so as soon as I finish with my current handheld games.

Buy Castlevania Double Pack.

...I had no idea this already came out! I guess my purse will be even lighter than usual.

@ Vermin - I wouldn't say that the 'Sorrow' games are better than 'Symphony of the Night', and although 'Harmony of Dissonance' wasn't the best Castlevania it isn't a crap game, it's just not as good as the others.

For me the best Castlevania games are Super Castlevania IV and Symphony of the Night possibly followed by Castlevaina II: Dracula's Curse on the NES. I never got to play Dracula X: Rondo of Blood for the PCEngine so I can't comment on that one but it's supposed to be the best game of the entire series, the SNES verison tho was an aweful game.

Bit the bullet - ordered!

yay about time this one came out, after the problem of not actually being able to buy the games , unless heading down the dodgy emulation or pir8 route!

so £18 is a bargain, buy buy buy!
i wanted theese but could never get them, but a similar fate seems to ahve happened to Dawn of Sorrow on the DS... tryign to find a copy is liek tryign to find some hens teeth!!!

like other people have said

Buy this game

I think they should have released all 3 GBA games on 1 DS cart, that would be heaven. I recently started playing Circle of the Moon again after 5 years. I still played it inbeween though, it had 5 different modes, yes 5!

But this is still great just before I found out it was released I was looking for Harmony of Dissonance on ebay. Glad I got this, Harmony is the worst out the 3 but its not bad, just not as good.

BUY IT!

Just completed Dawn of Sorrow.

Buy AoS and then buy DoS.

I bougt this aria of sorrow is amazing!

This came from the Americas today! Every GBA owner should get this, every Castlevania fan should also. Look just get it