Okay. So I get the chance to procure a broadband connection from my girlfriends house.

I casually go on and download a few demos (Overlord, Project Sylpheed and the POS POTC3), as well as Shivering Isles.

At any rate though, I decide I'm gonna buy SOTN with the last few points I had, as it got great reviews. I loved the old school hardcore Castlevainias. #2 was my favorite. Being an Nintendo guy, I got Castlevainia 64, and didn't realize Konami made SOTN on the PS1 way back in the day.

 All I can say is this: SOTN is by far the best XBLA game available, and proof of why VC/old games are so great. SOTN is just...amazing. If your a Castlevainia fan, horror fan, sidescrolling action fan, or Legend of Zelda 2 fan, this is the game you need. IMO, SOTN is a hybrid of Legend of Zelda 2 for NES, and Castlevainia 2. It's graphic, gory, and just fun. It has some fantastic RPG elements, pretty decent voice acting (for the late 90s), and the graphics are pretty good. The animations are very nice for being a 2d game.

If you have 800 MS points ($10), this is a must-have. Easily up there with the other XBLA greats like Geometry Wars and Outpost Kaloki X. I haven't got too far into SOTN, but until I can get Shivering Isles working (gotta download a patch, as I DLed SI without having the disk in), this game is great.

 I'd give SOTN a 9.75. Just fantastic. A definate must-buy. Supposedly, there is some extra content vs. the orig. game, so its still worthy. More devs need to get on the XBLA train and put out more old fantastic games that I never heard of: Expecially some PS1 games (Vagrant Story maybe?)

 Ironically, thanks to MS, I can discuss a Playstation 1 game on an Xbox console :-p   I must now know what a Genesis fan feels like playing Sonic on a Wii.

glad you like it, but that is old old news. I was hoping you were gonna say there was something special about the XBLA version. Either way it's an amazing game, castlevania should always be in 2d.

I would actually say it is more like Super Metroid than anything else. It really is a great game.

That too. When I saw the map I was thinking "Super Metroid is back!". Yes, the gameplay is similar to Metroid as well, but also has the open-ended additude of Simons Quest, and a leveling system kinda like Links Quest (Zelda 2)

There is only one Castlevania game that I prefer over Symphony of the Night and it is Aria of Sorrow on the GBA.

Also if you have a PSP this game is coming for free with the new Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles game for PSP due out soon.