The Ultimate 2D gaming experience.
The Protagonist's sprite is detailed amazingly, to say the least. Alucard reacts to the situations he is in with amazing realism, from attempting to regain his balance after running to the very edge of a ledge, to his cape fluttering close behind him in a burst of speed. I've never seen such detail in a sprite. Unfortunately, this detail doesn't apply to the various enemies in the game, which kind of disappointed me, but I guess it wasn't like I was going to watch the enemies the whole time they were trying to climb up the stairs to stop me from getting a relic. On the other hand, I find myself attempting to recreate Alucard's stance that he just pulled off, which should tell you how much fun it is watching him fall in a spin after being hit by an enemy off of a ledge.
The gameplay is, as expected, the best in a 2D game I've seen so far. I liked leaving the remains of my enemies on a button to keep an elevator from breaking down. The only thing I don't really like, surprisingly, is how I have to comb through the whole castle to find a single relic that lets me turn into a wolf. The linearity of a game is important, so I would have found it less confusing if there were just some rooms off the path that I was meant to take. But they fixed this as well, to an extent, letting me teleport from one location to another through use of a specific set of rooms. Too bad these rooms are so hard to find. The spells are pretty fun too, being able to teleport and shoot fire out of my cape made me feel like a real Dracula clone.
Sound? The best part. The castlevania team have outdone themselves in this one. It's actually a lot of fun to just stop for a second and listen. And then make Alucard yell out battle cries while in a boxing match with a skeleton. Now that's entertainment. ("Dark metamorphosis!")
So my verdict: Must-play. You just have to get this game, it's a lot of fun, and it'll keep you playing for hours. Truly, it's the Ultimate 2D gaming experience.
-The True Jago