I took some time to explore the soundtrack to the upcoming Wii action RPG "Pandora's Tower" from Nintendo and Ganbarion, and after some reading up on he game's mechanics, I have to say I'm pretty pleased. From what I've read, seen, and heard, Pandora's Tower looks to be not only a fun, original action adventure, but a better successor to Castlevania than many of the franchises' recent installments. The large, non-linear castle to explore, the multitude of weapons to find and craft, the dynamic chain whipping and swinging action, the slightly twisted dark fantasy story and choral, gothic sound track all combine to form a package that has me thinking that Pandora's Tower could potentially be the game to finally fill the Castlevania void.
This got me thinking about the possibilities of Pandora's Tower as a classic NES game, which got me hard at work making that vision a reality. I had pretty limited info to work on in terms of the game's specific mechanics, but tried to make do with what I had. It's obviously patterned after the NES Castlevania games. Probably the biggest challenge, though, was resisting the urge to more closely replicate the game's look. I wanted this to look like the simple, classic game that inspired the modern epic, not the other way around, so I took great pains to no be TOO accurate. Unfortunately, the game has such an unorthodox sense of design that it was quite difficult.
In any case, this game is coming out in Europe this summer, and hopefully in the US sometime after that. I urge anyone that's a fan of gothic action games of old, be they Castlevania, Demon's Crest or Actraiser, should look into Pandora's Tower.
Before stumbling on this in your DeviantArt, I don't think I've ever heard of Pandora's Tower. I watched some videos on Youtube, and I agree with your assessment. It drives me crazy that there's no US release date.
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