How do you choose a favourite in your passion? When choosing your favourite, to me, it means that it will never be topped regardless of what else appears. For me, this is Castlevania Symphony Of The Night. I first played this when my brother got a new game for his PlayStation and I was just instantly mesmerised while watching him play it. The animation, graphical detail, music! All of it just outstanding. This is one video game that will always give me a happy feeling and I can constantly go back to and enjoy it like it was 1997 again! This game was my first import from Japan, so the story and everything else was just gibberish to me, but I still enjoyed it. Playing games from another country was a new thing for me, I was only 11 at the time so I was just starting to get my feet into gaming properly and what a way to kickstart with this game. When you boot up the game you are welcomed with a beautiful gothic art title screen, then you press start and a haunting theme pours out of the speakers and I remember getting chills down my spine and I knew this was going to be something special.

I was confused when I got to the first playable screen because it said Final Stage : “Bloodlines” and I thought I had clicked something or entered some sort of code so I restarted and it was the same to which I thought “whatever, just play it!” You control a character from the previous Castlevania titles Richter Belmont. After a short battle with Dracula you gain control the main protagonist of the game in which your journey unfolds.

While playing this I noticed a similarity to a game I had played before and that was Super Metroid with the free exploration and map system, which over time,  spawned the side-genre  Metroidvania which some gamers detest or welcome. If someone says to me, it’s a Metroidvania title I know exactly what I’m going to be playing.

Graphically this game is the pinnacle of 2D gaming. Even looking at it today it’s outstanding! The detail, fluidity of the animation, backdrops, just everything is stunning. Admittedly today the HD 2D games do look great, as to why they have not done a HD version of this game is beyond me. Personally I would pay the full retail price as if it would be a newly released title – that’s how much I love this game.

Music in this game is the best in video game history. Variety is the spice of life right? Well the soundtrack to this will have everyone enjoying it. It can go from heavy metal to calming melodies that are haunting yet entrancing. The music suits every situation and area of the game and makes every area feel epic and not once I thought this is boring. I would sometimes just get myself into a safe area in the game just to listen to the music, yes, it’s that good that I stopped playing just listen to the music.

Controls matter in every game and still even today, they feel perfect. One thing I found myself obsessed by was levelling up in this game, despite playing other games that had RPG elements. I wanted to hit maximum level in everything because you get familiars through your travels which are little pets that assist you and can level up the more you use them. As I said I had played this game initially in Japanese so I played it, sunk in around 15 hours and it had finished, or so I thought. My brother printed off the guide to the game at work because he knew something I didn’t. I did not have internet access until 1999 so I could not search things on the world wide web! So I read this guide, word for word and read about areas that were hidden where if you certain walls, secret items and rooms would appear! This was the first surprise. While continuing to read the guide, it was approaching the end of the game and there was still a good 50-60 pages! I read the last boss fight and it said to continue to the portal after the battle, I stopped reading and sat back and realized I had missed something and it was big. I went back through the guide and found what I missed. I was excited to see what was beyond this portal, after entering it and traveling out of this magic portal I soon realized it was the castle but upside down and the difficulty rammed up. This game has just gotten longer with the same secret locations but with a boss like no other I had ever seen.

If you like platform/rpg/adventure games then check this one out. This is one game every person should play who enjoys video games. To not play it is a sin. You can easily buy this game now on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network at a steal as to what it is to buy on disc! You can also buy it on the PlayStation Portable in the form of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles which has a graphically enhanced version of Dracula X Rondo of Blood which was only available at the time in Japan on the PC Engine and an unlock-able version of Symphony Of The Night. This game will never be beaten for my favorite game of all time, I can say this categorically. There are some amazing games, but this one sits atop of them all, superior in every way. Truly epic.