wraggster
January 4th, 2005, 12:08
Konami has revealed that it is bringing the legendary Castlevania series to Nintendo's DS handheld in the form of a sequel to the GBA's Aria of Sorrow.[br]Titled only Castlevania at the moment, the new DS game is set one year after the events of Aria of Sorrow. You'll play Soma Cruz once more as he infiltrates the Cult headquarters of Celia Fortner to face her demonic legions.[br][br]Castlevania DS will be a side-scrolling 2D platformer in the vein of the GBA and earlier console versions, with all the action taking place on the bottom screen while a map and your status details are displayed on the top screen. [br][br]The touchscreen will not be used routinely during gameplay as Konami want to stick with the immediacy of the D-Pad and buttons, so unfortunately we'll have to forget those ideas of whipping demon backside with the stylus. However, when you defeat a boss you'll have to seal its soul by drawing a mystical shape on the touchscreen. Muck it up and the boss will pop back to life, and you'll have to knock it out again. We've also heard rumours that you'll be able to mix spells with the touchscreen.[br][br]Konami plans to use the DS's wireless features in interesting ways, too. The Enemy Soul system from Aria of Sorrow makes a return (when you seal away a boss using the touchscreen you'll steal their soul) and you'll be able to trade souls and other items with your mates via wi-fi.[br][br]Even more excitingly, Konami has hinted that players will be able to create their own maps and trade them with others. Could we see thousands of user-created Castlevania levels keeping our monster-mashing going for months after we've completed the single-player game?[br][br]No screens or release dates available yet, but we expect Castlevania DS to emerge from the gloom sometime in Autumn.