Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Not much to see here. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow provides some definite upgrades over the previous Harmony of Dissonance but plays almost exactly the same, so there's little for me to say. Substitute the outer space exploration of Metroid games for a more Gothic setting, and you've got the Castlevania universe. Fulfill your obsessive-compulsive needs by attempting to explore every square of a map, search for upgrades, and sidescroll, sidescroll, sidescroll. Aria of Sorrow's only real claim to fame in the series is its 'assimilation' techniques, similar to Brave Fencer Musashi where you can steal an attack from any enemy in the game. Other than that, it's the same old addicting gameplay as always. There's plenty of games left in this series, so full completion would be a long ways off, but there's potential here for that. We'll see.