I really love these games, but none of them ever seem to capture what SotN did. I think for me it was the variation in weapons and the special attacks for certain weapons and weapon/shield configurations. They haven't accomplished something like that effectively in the GBA/DS games.

It would be awesome if they would change it up a little bit, I'm getting tired of the same gameplay every time.

Wasn't this originally a cell phone game or something? And personally at the SotN comment I think Dawn of Sorrow was actually the superior game if you ask me. But both are jaw droppingly awesome.

I'm all for another sequel. The previous are all among my favorite DS games. I just hope they don't recycle as many of the enemies as last time.

At least the art has gotten better since the first two DS Castlevanias.

At last, a reason to pick my DS back up again... games have been a little slow for my tastes recently...

I hope it's good, and not a bore like PoR was. Also, Konami needs to ditch the anime crap. Either provide a decent story, or don't even bother. The dialogue in the past few games sound like they're written for saturday morning cartoons. Then again, they're probably targeting it towards kids, but the Castlevania fans are players from way back.

I would love to see the game take a more darker turn. SotN stayed true to the older games, with dreary settings and such. That was the last (good) game to use that kind of mood.

And to be honest, the Castleroid gameplay has been running stale as of late. They should revisit the old schools style Castlevania, and just load it with secret exits, hidden areas that requires enough searching to get 100%. Kind of like how Castlevania 3 was, just much larger with that kind of difficulty.

Now this looks good.

Dawn of Sorrow was possibly the best game I've ever played. I never even thought there could be a better platformer than Mario World. Wasn't keen on Portrait, crappy character swapping system and the music wasn't as good as DoS.

Do want!

The DS is starting to show it's age a bit. As much as I love the Castlevania series, ever since the original on the NES, the DS Castlevanias are starting to show the wee bit lack of power on the DS.

Don't get me wrong, I've had way way more fun on the DS than on my PSP but I think it's time for the DS "Advanced" to come out with a larger color palette and more 3D processing power. All while keeping the same battery times as the original of course.

I swear, these screens look a lot more like GBA graphics than DS. It might be just because it's been a while since I've looked at blown-up DS sprite-art, but these look terrible.

Hopefully the music will be good again in this one: Aria of Sorrow had my favorite soundtrack of any Castlevania, and though DoS had a great one as well, Portrait of Ruin was a little lackluster. I guess Portrait was just a little lackluster in general. I missed the soul-system and Jonathan's items were essentially a dumbed down replacement.

P.S. Dawn of Sorrow > Symphony of the Night

I wish they'd release this for the PSP as well. Why is it that EA can port "The Simpsons" to 50 different platforms, but Konami can only make Castlevania games for one platform?

I should really try out the series for once. Heck, if they made a platinum edition bundle with all 3 DS games, I'd get it.

i will buy it full price. The combo of old school style gameplay with a fresh new little idea now and then is hard to get wrong, plus i loved the first two ds castlevanias, i hope there's a neat pre-order with this one too.

I am SOOO sick of these SotN-followups being portable-only.

Hold it, this is post-Belmonts? That must mean it takes place after the Sorrow games. Does this mean Shenoa's going to have to fight [Dracula's incarnation who I shan't mention in case it's considered a spoiler]?

Which is considered the best of the GBA Castlevanias?

I suppose it's inherently subjective, but I have to disagree that either of the Sorrow games holds a candle to SotN for a couple of reasons. First, once you got some of the very rare items in SotN, Alucard could kick monster hind-quarters like Soma could only dream about (magic aside... I'm more of a melee judge of character when it comes to a character's bada** factor). Second, SotN ranks so highly in my book (and in the opinions of many of the "top 100" evaluators) because of it's ability to innovate. Say what you will in favor of the Sorrow games (and there's much to be said that is positive about them... they are fantastic games), innovation is not one of its dominant (or even present) characteristics.