Dawn of Sorrow is the follow up to Konami's Aria of Sorrow for the GBA. The plot of Dawn of Sorrow goes something like this: a crazy cult is obsessed with Soma and wants him to unleash the evil within to become the next Dracula. Anyone who played Aria of Sorrow will remember that Soma is the reincarnation of Dracula, if you haven't played it, oops, spoiler. This game takes place exactly one year after the events of the last one meaning this is the second Castlevania game to take place in the future.

Returning in this game is the unique soul collecting system. Once more you can absorb the souls of your enemies and put their powers to your use. Just like in Aria of Sorrow there are several types of souls you can collect: Bullet type which shoot projectiles, Guardians which summon familiars to fight with you, and Ability which increase your powers. Thanks to this system you can customize Soma to fit your playing style. New to the game is that you can power up your souls by collecting multiples of it. Handy, but considering that collecting souls is random in the first place getting multiples of the same type, especially the rare, powerful ones, is hard. The reward of turning your favorite soul into a super powerful attack is enticing though.

This powering up also applies to your weapons, another new feature in this series. Although there are only so many weapons you can get, increasing their power more than makes up for it. In Aria of Sorrow I liked to use the handguns, the problem with that was they were weak. No longer do I have to worry about that because I can beef up my gun and make it more useful! The same goes for any weapon you've taken a liking to. Before I forget, powering them up makes them look cooler too and really showcases its upgraded status.

For those of you who are afraid that Dawn of Sorrow will be controlled by the touch screen, don't be, the stylus is hardly used at all in this game. The touch screen is used very rarely and so far comes into play only against bosses (to draw a symbol and trap them in) or to chisel certain blocks into steps. The use against bosses is probably the most interesting use of the stylus. Before you challenge a boss you are shown a specific symbol. Memorize it because you'll need to draw it to finally beat the boss for good otherwise it'll come back to 'life,' regain a bit of health, and keep on fighting you.

Dawn of Sorrow looks just as good, if not better, than Aria of Sorrow. Everything looks sharp, from the giant enemies to the shadow trail Soma leaves behind. The backgrounds are incredibly detailed and each area of the castle looks unique. One thing I particularly enjoy is how the art style has changed. The mopey, white-faced Soma has been replaced by a more anime inspired style. This doesn't really affect the game at all, but I was getting tired with all of the main characters looking dead.

Exploring has been made incredibly easy thanks to the top screen. Now the map of the castle is constantly displayed saving you the time of pausing the game to look up the map. It's a little thing, but I'm sure fans of the previous Castlevania GBA titles will be thankful for this.

I can't wait to get my hands on this title, fortunately for me it comes out in October. I throughly enjoyed Aria of Sorrow so I'm eager to sit down with Dawn of Sorrow. If it's anything like it's predecessor then I'm sure this game will be incredible and well worth it to pick up for your DS.