Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

Order of Ecclesia may play like Symphony of the Night, but the linear level design is a throwback to the classic Castlevania games. The result: fun gameplay, but because of the lack of backtracking, less game. This is not a bad thing; instead, it's a more focused, intentional game, with some clever boss battles, and a wide variety of difficult locales. (Unfortunately, the same music is recycled.) There's also an actual hub now, a town that is repopulated (Soul Blazer-style) as you free villagers from each level, not to mention some fetch quests, a few of which actually require you to pay attention to where you've been.

Most interesting of all is the new "glyph" system, which allows you to mix and match weapons and magic attacks to the X/Y buttons, creating combos and specials as you go. (The R trigger is used for defensive magic, or to alternate between glyph "sleeves" or presets.) You probably won't need to use most of that arsenal (especially since your skills don't level up), but the customization is fun, and the weapons are varied enough to make you test them.

Overall, Dawn of Sorrow's tag-team combat and painting-based exploration is still the best hand-held Castlevania. But Ecclesia's an interesting hybrid, and a step in the right creative direction: after all, after beating Dracula and exploring his castle 10+ times, you need to think outside the box (or at least, for a little while, the castle).