Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

I've gotta say this has been one of my favorite Xbox Live Arcade games thus far.

I've heard it said elsewhere and I think to sum it up fits, this is "Castlevania meets Diablo". It's a 2D oldschool homage to Castlevania games past. It can be played solo or with up to 5 others online. I haven't really played it too much with others so I'll be reviewing based on solo mostly. The initial game comes with 5 characters to choose from(with 8 different shadings for those who play with multiples of this same character online) and 6 stages. To play the different stages you must beat the previous stage(you must beat Stage 1 to play Stage 2) and it also has a hard mode that unlocks after you beat Stage 6 on normal. Throughout the stages as you're killing monsters on your way to kill the boss you'll discover chests containing various loot(armor, weapons, food, etc.) and switches that'll unlock other sections of the stage. Note: Some sections of the stages you'll only be able to get to by playing with others so don't be surprised if you find a chest or area that you can't seem to get to solo. Most of the gameplay is your typical Castlevania game, killing monsters on your way to killing the boss, but in this game there are levers to hit along the way to open doorways and chests that you can open to get items and possibily better gear/spells/etc. The replay value for this game mostly stems from replaying different levels over and over again trying to get rare loot items and of course trying to get a better score but for those who've enjoyed the old Castlevania games like I did I'm sure you'll get more than your money's worth out of the game as it can be very addictive to play with the ability to increase different characters abilities and powers the more you use them or in some cases collect them you'll be spending a lot of time playing to even get one maxed fully.

And yes I know this is more of a rambling(although a bit of a short one) than a real review but that's how I do things and sorry about the delay in finishing it.