Konami

Game Description: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence propels you ten centuries into the past and into the role of Leon Belmont, the forefather of the legendary Belmont Clan and the first in the the family's long line of vampire hunters. Your mission is only one, to find the love of your life who has disappeared.

It's been years and most of an entire console generation since one of the great franchises in videogame history has seen the light of day on a major console. The Castlevania franchise's undead second life on the Game Boy Advance was successful enough that it is surprising to see Konami try to leave the comfortable crypt of handheld gaming. Since the Nintendo 64 titles were reduced to critical dust, it makes sense that the new entry in the series, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, is a tentative toe-dip into the potentially deadly running waters of 3D.

For almost two decades now, Konami's seminal Castlevania series has been a vivid example of just how far the Dracula mythos can be stretched. Their "anything goes" motto in regards to expanding on the original source material has been a staple ever since the series first emerged in 1986 (then called Vampire Killer but later retitled for its released on the Nintendo Entertainment System [NES].)

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood, Violence

Games that are story-oriented, which are usually the kinds of game that try to create evocative and beautiful spaces filled with detail, seem made for admiring in this way. In my experience of playing story-driven games on a portable platform, the only ones that ever really worked for me were ones on Game Boy Color.

Games can usually be broken down into two distinct categories: experiences and diversions. Experiences tend to be ambitious games, large in scope and innovative in design. They can surprise me, knock me off balance, make me think and wonder and use my imagination.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood, Violence

Game Description: It's the most exciting Castlevania adventure yet! The year is 2035 and Soma Cruz is about to witness the first solar eclipse of the 21st century when he suddenly blacks out - only to awaken inside a mysterious castle. As Soma, you must navigate the castle's labyrinths while confronting perilous monsters at every turn. But beware, you must escape before evil consumes you!

Perhaps such middle-of-the-road gameplay alone does not make the game "a worthwhile experience" (as Matt puts it), but, coupled with the directorial flourishes and aesthetic flair of Konami's immensely skilled development team, Silent Hill 3 is never less than compelling right through to its conclusion.

"Suikoden Means War," cried the U.S. print ads for Suikoden II, though the translation was far from accurate. "Suikoden" is actually an English-Japanese transliteration for "Shui Hu Zhuan," the title of a fourteenth-century Chinese novel familiar to some as Outlaws Of The Marsh. But the mistake should be forgiven. Suikoden II is good enough to stake a new claim on an old word. It conveys the turmoil of war with the ring of truth.