How appropriate that it's Halloween while I'm typing up the review for Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, having just traipsed through creepy castles and forests to face off against flying banshees, giant bats and ghoulish zombies.

One of the many dialogue scenes with busy NPCs.

On one hand, the third Castlevania game on the Nintendo DS -- following 2005's Dawn of Sorrow and 2006's less impressive Portrait of Ruin -- returns to the series' roots as it's tough, big and full of hidden goodies, while it's also a clear step forward in the franchise with new gameplay mechanics, characters and level design. Despite a few frustrating moments -- namely, dying time and time again during boss battles or not being able to save the game when you want -- Order of Ecclesia is simply the best Castlevania on the platform, period.

As with past Castlevania adventures, Koji Igarashi's latest is all about defeating the evil minions of Dracula and hunting down the elusive vampire himself. This time around, however, you don't play as one of the Belmont clan, so you also won't have access to the bad-ass whip as in previous games. Instead, you play as a female fighter, Shanoa, who is part of the Ecclesia clan, another organization sworn to defeat the Count and his many malevolent followers.

Now that's a sword.

In order to combat these enemies, you're introduced to a new Glyph attack system in which our heroine absorbs magical inscriptions from these large items -- left by fallen enemies or found strewn throughout levels -- and equips them in one of three places: the Y button (main Glyph), X button (secondary Glyph) and R button (back Glyph). Glyphs can be used as a weapon (such as the rapier you start with, or throwing knives, bow, axe and so on), to cast magical spells, or to summon creatures later on in the game. It took me a few tries to properly assign the Glyphs in the equip screen, so the game-makers could've made this task more intuitive, but you'll pick this up by the time you venture out of the castle and find more of them.

Once a new Glyph is absorbed, you simply press the Start button to equip it, and executing it is as easy as pressing the corresponding button. Executing Glyphs requires varying amounts of magic points that recharge over time. Because you can equip your glyphs in various ways and even combine them, there are more than 100 different attack combinations to unleash against enemies.

Not the kind of horsey you want to ride.

You will also acquire Relics that grant special abilities and provide helpful info. Relics range from simply displaying the name of the monsters you're fighting (in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen) and unlocking a double jump, to the "Serpent Tale," which lets you navigate underwater. Other Relics help you with your Glyph management ("Glyph Sleeve") and execution ("Glyph Union"). Because you're not given everything all at once, this serves as a nice dangling carrot as you run, jump, and fight through the many levels.

Mmmm, Fishhead wall.

Speaking of environments, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is still a side-scroller, but you can expect many more locations than just the castle. For the first time in the series, you'll have a world map screen that allows you to select the area you want to play (in order to find more secret areas containing treasure chests). If you stumble over a warp point, you can press up on the d-pad and select a place you've already been to. New locations include towns, underground caves, a prison, forests, a sunken ship and snowcapped mountains -- many have a foreboding atmosphere that is aided by the occasional fog and haunting music. The graphics are top-notch, with colorful and detailed levels and characters, though some of the art (and enemy types) have been recycled from past games.

What's that standing between you and the Glyph?

While these levels are fairly linear, you'll find that less backtracking is necessary compared to past games. The only exception is when you take on optional side-quests from Wygol villagers you've rescued -- finding an item, photographing something, or killing some crazy creature -- as you're expected to run through areas you've already visited. You'll get these missions from townsfolk you meet in the village store (which you can visit anytime from the world map), along with the ability to buy and sell items such as jewelry, food, clothing and weapons. Without giving much away, the first half of the game prepares you for the second half, when you'll need to put your newfound skills and items to the test.

And you thought the bridge in "Temple of Doom" was dangerous.

Enemies are plentiful, and at times merciless. Oh sure, the regular assortment of flying bats, swooping purple ghosts, knife-throwing skeletons and wobbly zombies is quite easy to take down, but the huge and powerful boss characters are a different story altogether. Expect to see the death screen often as you face monstrous sea creatures, demonic horses and 30-foot-tall muscular abominations that can snap you like a toothpick. I don't recall being as frustrated in past Castlevania titles by the lack of save points; perhaps Order of Ecclesia is just that much harder. It would've been great if Konami had implemented an auto-save feature or included more save points. At least the Suspend feature, available from the menu screen, lets you create one Suspend spot per DS card and resume at a later time.


@@
Along with the main campaign are a handful of ways to play via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection or local wireless hookup. One is a head-to-head Race mode, in which you compete for a high score based on the number of enemies you destroy and how quickly you reach the end of the level. A Market mode lets you trade items you've found in the game. As with past Castlevania games, you can also unlock a harder story mode and Boss Rush mode (where you fight a series of bosses in various levels), and access different endings, too.

At under $30, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is one hell of a deal, whether you're a longtime Castlevania fan or simply looking for a deep, attractive and replayable platformer.

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.