One of the best Castlevania, platformer, DS, and overall games to date.
User Rating: 9.5 | Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin DS
With it's unique story, superb gameplay, pretty graphics, balanced level of challenge, and perfect soundtrack, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is the best installment in the series since Symphony of the Night. The story takes place in the year 1944, you play as Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Aulin trying to stop the resurrection of Dracula after the castle has been brought back due to the death and suffering caused by World War II. The antagonist is the vampire painter Brauner and his daughters, Stella and Loretta, who seem to have no interest in reviving Dracula. I won't give away the rest due to spoilers. The background music here is perfect for slaying hordes of enemies. Both creepy and memorable, the soundtrack fits each level perfectly in which each track is played. The graphics are also very nicely done. Though there aren't many 3D graphics, the 2D sprites are very well designed. The levels can sometimes feel a bit bland, but only a couple of them. As I mentioned, the gameplay here is pretty much flawless. In an RPG style, you have an HP and MP bar, you level-up, and equip different weapons, armor, and sub-weapons. The game, of course, has the same platforming action the series has always had. Another combat feature is Dual Crushes, or super-powerful co-op attacks which consume a large amount of MP. You can switch between Charlotte and Johnathan, or even have your CPU controlled partner fight with you. The challenge level here is balanced, but theres also a hard mode in which you can set level "caps" (restricting how many levels you can gain). There are also 3 boss rush modes, which, if you beat them fast enough, reward you with unique items. Though there is a co-op, there are only 3 short levels available for it. Even if it doesn't bring anything new to the franchise, it's still one of the most refined, complete, and superb action titles to date. 
