Bargain Bin Gaming-Episode Three: Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow

51f6y8k3n1l_ss500_Dawn of Sorrow currently clocks in at $17.99 at Gamestop and can be found as cheap as $19.95 on Amazon.

For nearly 20 years, the Castlevania series, regardless of the system it’s appeared on, has always been a symbol of gaming excellence.

Fortunately, for Nintendo DS owners, “Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow,” continues the series’ quest in greatness. In fact, many might make the case that “Dawn of Sorrow” may be the best Castlevania game since “Symphony of the Night” reestablished the series on the Playstation over 10 years ago.

Taking place after the last game on the Gameboy Advance, “Aria of Sorrow,” gamers will see that the journey of Soma Cruz has just begun. After finally learning to tame his demonic power in the previous game, Cruz must now put his power to use in deterring a demonic cult from reviving the dark lord once again, using any means possible.

Those that are familiar with the series will find that Dawn of Sorrow looks and plays remarkably familiar to “Symphony of the Night.” It’s amazing how Konami managed to create this game on a system not known for great graphical capabilities and still turn out a solid looking game.

On the gameplay front, like most games in the “Castlevania” series, “Dawn of Sorrow” controls remarkably. Veteran and newbie gamers will find controlling Soma’s actions a synch after only a few short minutes of gameplay.

What is also interesting is how Konami decided to implement the DS’s touch screen in “Dawn of Sorrow.” Using the touch screen to draw a magic gate around the game’s bosses to defeat them truly ties the best aspects of the game into the ability of the system, making for not only a great game, but a game that couldn’t be done on any other system.

Making “Dawn of Sorrow” an even more enjoyable title is its length and the appearances of several memorable characters in other gameplay modes. Taking anywhere from 10-15 hours to beat depending on your gaming ability, “Dawn of Sorrow” is one of the most challenging games on the DS.

Also considering that beating the game opens up “Julius Mode,” in which gamers get to play through the entire game with the last member of the Belmont clan and a few other surprises, “Dawn of Sorrow” is a game that most will work very hard to finish.

On the whole, “Dawn of Sorrow” is a must own game on the Nintendo DS for any hardcore Castlevania fan or any challenge hungry gamer that has never played through any of the previous games before.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14260 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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