dscross said:
You'll probably like them more if you aren't a Castlevania fan. It's more to do with continuity for me which they really screw around with. There are actually 3 Lords of Shadow games, the middle one being Mirror of Fate for handhelds.
Lords of Shadow 1 was actually pretty good and no doubt the best 3D 'Castlevania' game. The gameplay was a solid derivative of God of War and the backgrounds in particular were detailed and diverse. It had some cool boss fights as well. It actually mixed various games; God of War being the most obvious one but it also had traces of Shadow of the Colossus and the mountain climbing of Uncharted. Lords of Shadow didn't really have that trademark Castlevania cheese of having every classic horror villain provide this eccentric undertone(very hard to replicate I imagine) but it was still a solid game in it's own right. The second game however dropped the ball in my opinion. The environments were drab and boring and the entire game felt like running in circles. Making it all take place in this one city was a big mistake. I guess they tried to make a 3D Symphony of the Night but failed miserably at that.
Anyways my favorite Castlevania game is Super Castlevania 4 followed closely by Symphony of the Night. I enjoyed the NES games as well back in the day but there is nothing really that Super didn't do better(similarly with Metroid). I also played the Gameboy versions but man..memory is getting fuzzy there.
I remember the N64 Castlevania being garbage. Haven't played any of the handheld Castlevania 's from GBA and upward other than Mirror of Fate which I didn't really like that much.
A recent game that reminded me a lot of classic Castlevania is Momodora reverie under the moonlight. Surprised by how good it was. Really glad this kind of side-scrolling action found a new home at indie developers after such a long absence.