One of the cornerstones of the PlayStation library comes to the Xbox Live Arcade.  Castlevania is one of the few series that has the longevity to release on every generation system starting back with the original Nintendo.  While the series is most popular in it's two dimensional format, Konami has tried to push the series to the 3D level on the PS2 and Xbox with little success.  On the Nintendo handheld systems, Castlevania stayed true to it's 2D roots and became creative on developing addicting modes, tricks, and other options to keep their games fresh and all were reviewed to the same high level.  This innovation and development started with Symphony of the Night.  Castlevania Symphony of the Night features multiple endings, magic spells, morphing abilities, rpg-like leveling, secret weapons, item, and armor combos, and a secret second castle to extend the gameplay to a ridiculous 200.6%.  The achievements are all attainable with the Richter achievement being the longest.

    The Arcade game captured all of the feel and environment of the game.  The soundtrack is great and the control feels a hundred times better with the analog sticks.  But with the good comes the bad, the translated dialogue throughout the game is horrendous and to add on to the level of dialogue, the voice acting might be worse.  Can you voice act in a tunnel?  I think Konami proves that you can.  Even with these issues, I give Castlevania a solid score and the title as the best retro Arcade game in the Xbox Live Arcade library.

My Score: 8.7