Leveling Down

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow combines many elements of gameplay

Ever since playing through Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest on the original NES, I’ve been a fan of the Castlevania games. The series has strictly stuck to 2D, as it went from the NES to the Super NES before the wildly popular and critically acclaimed revamp, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, was released on the original Playstation. Since then, the Castlevania formula has stuck with this formula of mixing Metroid style gameplay with RPG leveling and gear collecting and found a dedicated fan base on Nintendo’s portable systems. Metroid Prime successfully brought the Metroid series into 3D through a Western studio – so can Castlevania: Lords of Shadow do the same with a fresh take from a Spanish studio?

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Welcome to Leveling Down’s 3rd Annual Gaming Awards/Holiday Shopping Guide! For those of you that are first time readers of our awards/holiday shopping guide, cmfl3x and I have basically compiled a list of various games released this year into different categories. We choose a “winner” of each category, but at the same time, all games mentioned as nominees in each category are worth considering – hence, the shopping guide aspect of it. If you can only pick one game from the category, go with the winner. If you enjoy that category a lot, consider checking out all of the nominees on that list!

As cmfl3x and I discussed the various categories and selected winners for each one, some categories we did not always agree on the same winner. This year, instead of forcing one another to see agree on the same game, we have instead allowed for ties – so there is a potential of two winners for each category. Our gaming tastes are not exactly the same and I didn’t think any of you would gain much from us forcing only one winner.

Our 2010 Gaming/Awards/Holiday Shopping Guide will span across all gaming platforms, and will run over the next two weeks on our normal Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posting schedule. Next Friday’s entry will conclude this year’s feature with our 2010 Game of the Year.

Without further ado, hit the jump for today’s categories: Best Action/Adventure Game and Best Role Playing Game.

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Are these four games enough to hold against this holiday season’s sequels?

Going into this year’s holiday gaming season, I am lacking enthusiasm. I don’t know if it’s because I’m busier now or if the current games this holiday season are just not as exciting as in the last couple of years. To be honest, most of the games I am about to call out I haven’t played yet, but based on buzz I am reading and demos I’ve played today’s entry will sort of be my knee-jerk reaction as to why I am not excited about what’s in store for the 2010 holiday season.

The problem is, we have so many sequels that are worse than their predecessors or sequels that don’t exactly blow their predecessors out of the water. This leads me to find practically all of them lacking in the excitement category that I have had in past holiday seasons. How many sequels are being released this holiday season? Let’s see!

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Being able to play Final Fantasy VII on my PSP for $10? Sign me up!

I’ve been traveling a lot for both personal and business reasons for this past week or so, and the PSP has been my only source of gaming on my trips. One of the things that I think is really cool about owning a PS3 and a PSP is the PS One Classics line. These are PS1 games that are sold through PSN between $6-$10 in price, and are digital downloads that can be played on both the PS3 and the PSP. Considering the PS1 graphics aren’t too great on our HD TV sets these days, I’m not a big fan of playing the games on the PS3, but on the go with my PSP? Perfect! Hit the jump for a list of PS One Classics currently available that I will probably purchase at some point and a list of remaining PS1 games that I hope come out for download in the future for us here in the States.

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Monster Tale’s innovative combination of Metroidvania and monster raising works beautifully.

I was able to check out the Monster Tale demo that was set up at E3 last week, and with the Majesco booth tucked away from the main show floor not many people got a chance to learn what DreamRift’s Monster Tale is about and more importantly, how it plays. That’s where I come in – while crowds were fawning over the newest Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc., I’m bringing you all impressions of a game that seriously has potential to be the sleeper hit of the year for both casual and hardcore gamers alike. Read on for some detailed impressions from this aging hardcore gamer.

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