How do you make a Castlevania game work on the iPhone? How do you translate tight, traditional 2-D action-adventure to a medium that lacks so much as a directional pad?
Konami’s answer seems to be “Remember Capcom’s Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo? Why don’t we do that with Symphony of the Night?”
Now I don’t want to decry this game before I play it — and for all I know it looks like a blend of time-tested puzzle mechanics and a beloved setting — but doesn’t this formula seem like a really lazy way to translate, well, anything to any possible platform? The gameplay here would work on any electronic device, from an iPhone to a PlayStation 3 to your fancier toasters, and aside from properly formatting the sprites for the screen size, this scheme requires almost no new creative work on behalf of the developer.
Why not translate everything to the iPhone this way? Why not bring Shinobi back for Puzzle Dancer or Karnov for some idiotic excuse to have a fat Russian stereotype breath fire at falling blocks? Like that sounds any more ludicrous than any handful of arcade sequels circa 1988.
Sadly, despite my attempts at ripping on Castlevania Puzzle: Encore of the Night, I just know I’m going to drop hundreds of hours of my life into it. I’m a sucker for Konami’s gothic world, no matter how stupid it gets, and who can resist portable falling block puzzles?
If you even think of investing money in this you need to be slapped.