Castlevania: Harmony of Despair was released in September 2011 for the US, October 2011 for Europe, and March 2012 for Japan. It is a Castlevania game from Konami, that involves sidescrolling action. However, unlike previous Vanias, this one gives a max of four offline/six players offline to play this game. The question is, does it work?

The answer is.... Kind of.

I mean, let me state something right now, the Graphics(even though there's a few weird spots) are Castlevania, the Sound and Music are Castlevania. Yes, it has that going for it. The game plays mostly like a Castlevania, but there are some instances where it does not. First, let's go over the basics.

You have your whip attacks, dive kicks, your subweapons, you can jump, you can zoom in and out the screen to see the full map, but there's one major issue. Instead of using EXP from enemies you kill to gain levels(like the most recent games), you have to kill the enemies with your subweapons, to level them up... This in turn makes you stronger. A thing like this is not as good as you think it'd sound, because some people will just spam projectiles all the time to level up their stuff quickly. This creates a HUGE gap between everyone. When I jumped into a few online games, I notice people rushing straight for the boss as fast as possible, not letting me actually do much with my subweapons, let alone fight a boss. It can be pretty unfair that the game is so off balance that you'll have to get a couple of friends offline to have a decent experience. That's right, because playing the game solo is either hit or miss, depending on your taste for Boss Rushes, because that's exactly what you have here. Go through level, fight boss, win. There's also a Battle mode, but... it's nothing special.

Graphics and Sounds are mostly inspired and taken from the DS games, and this disappoints me. There's barely anything from the NES, SNES versions(just a few DLC chars and stages), while some games like the Genesis Castlevania and Circle of the Moon get snubbed completely. Those are the types of things that just make me shake my head. If you are making something like this, you should use a wide range of games, not just take 95% of the stuff from the DS, just because you can. Konami really botched on this. There's a lot of depth for getting the best items in the game though, however, it just feels like farming for money and the like. It's just the way the game feels on occasion. 'Oh, I need this much money, so let's run through this same stage over and over.'

The graphics are redone, yes, they are HD, they look good. The game is fun in small bursts, and even that seems to be dropping a bit, because of how the servers have pretty much dropped off. I barely see any games on now, let alone 6-player games. Is it worth the purchase of it's price $15? If you like the RPG Vania's enough, and don't mind going through a few annoyances to get your fix, yeah, sure. For others who wanted a bit more of a traditional Castlevania experience... It falls flat.

Thanks for the game review of this>I totally forgot about this game my friend that's a huge Castlevania fan told me about this game but ever since the game came out he hasn't told me anything since.