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Articles

Non-stalgia: Symphony of the Night

Non-stalgia: Symphony of the Night
Having never played a classic Castlevania title, Matt explores whether the series stands
up under scrutiny, in a retrospective that’s free from any rose-tinted nostalgia.

By Matt Young

N

ostalgia. It carries a lot
of weight in the games
industry; a game can
often ensure a huge chunk of
sales because it’s supported
by a franchise that you played
to death back when you could
barely wrap your tiny hands
around the huge, angular chunks
of plastic they called controllers.

people have numerous happy
memories of playing it in the
past, they refer to it as a ‘classic’
and use it to describe other
games. Castlevania IS nostalgia.
But guess what? Until writing
this article I HAD NEVER PLAYED
A CASTLEVANIA GAME. So what
I want to know is - without that
warm fuzzy feeling - do the oldNostalgia gets you right in the school, side-scrolling action
heart because it harkens back adventures still hold up?
to an age when your spare time
was a blank slate, relationships For my academic study into
weren’t an issue as the opposite vampire slaying badassery, I
sex were gross and you played decided to try out Symphony of
that one beloved game to death the Night - my in-depth research
over and over because you (Yahoo Answers) uncovered that
could only afford one title a most considered this the best of
year (or you owned a Nintendo the early games. So through the
64 and that was all you got, combined power of my PSP and
whether you had the money or the Playstation Store I was taken
not). Those times were good. back in time to 1997. Press Start.
Having been around since 1986
Castlevania is cle \