After Castlevania: Symphony of the Night XBLA, Konami brings Castlevania Harmony of Despair exclusively to Xbox Live Arcade, on August 4th. Press release and images after the click.
Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today revealed the release date for Castlevania Harmony of Despair, the first Castlevania game exclusively for Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Set to release as the third title out of five from the XBLA Summer of Arcade program, Castlevania Harmony of Despair will be available for consumers to download on Wednesday, August 4. Along with the release date, Konami has also revealed five new screenshots to go along with the announcement today.
In Castlevania Harmony of Despair, fan favorite vampire hunters from throughout the series come together in order to return Dracula to his eternal slumber. Joining forces with friends on Xbox LIVE, up to six players can explore massive levels inspired by the worlds of Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia via online co-op play. As players employ their cooperative skills to unleash devastating attacks and fight the forces of darkness, they can discover hidden locations, special items and equipment to help in their quest. Fearless players can even choose to engage in competitive Survival Mode with friends to and determine the best slayer of evil. Featuring detailed 2D art with the ability for players to zoom in and zoom out of the entire map of each level adding in a completely new dimension of gameplay, Castlevania Harmony of Despair will provide players with a thrilling, next generation experience coupled with the classic Castlevania aesthetic. To keep the momentum after initial launch, there are also plans for downloadable content featuring new characters along with new levels.
Castlevania Harmony of Despair will be available for Xbox LIVE Arcade as a part of the Summer of Arcade program on August 4 for 1200 Microsoft Points.
All comments (18)
The price feels a bit high, should be 800 i think. What with all the recycled sprites and stuff.
Portrait of Ruin was easily the most disappointing of the bunch, and it was so precisely because it chose to forgo the fundamental appeal of the "metroidvanias", of feeling like you're expanding the map, exploring and making tangible progress.
Here that's the least of their problems as they've literally just soldered together chunks from Castlevania levels we've already played, populated them with a bucket of recycled sprites, and thrown co-op into the mix. All of which smells of not wanting to make anything resembling an effort to actually *make a new, good, Castlevania* for digital distribution.
Even if you're oblivious to handheld gaming and how brilliant Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia are, this seems a pale not-even-imitation of those games. Kinda like the sad, watered down "Lumines Live".
Until this gets some glowing endorsements and proves to be a fun time, I'm just gonna believe that it's terrible. Even "Harmony of Dispair" sounds bolted together from old CV scraps, lacking in actual meaning. Fitting, really.
With all these metroidvanias I would like to see a new 2D stage based game. Oh and it needs to be hard. So hard that you want to destroy your Xbox, Playstation and burn your house. Maybe next time...
Castlevania Harmony of Despair
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
DeathSpank
Then all of them will have normal price. :)
No, i'm not some cheap ass. Just didn't like to support overpriced stuff. Limbo is day 1 for me btw.
It looks lazy and recycled,like someone wants to cash in with the LOS release !
I know IGA was burned out ,but even this is below his normal Level !
Sad!
Cheers