The newly-added glyphs replace weapon equips, and offer magic and field abilities as well as humble melee attacks. This trial and error nature is embedded in its very soul, but instead of being a sheer difficulty issue, it's a much-welcomed challenge and an opportunity to engage in the deep combat and glyph system. You trade your health to see what you're up against and how to defeat it quickly: chances are you'll die before you reach the next save point, but next time round you're more prepared. While save points are regular, the stages are planned to throw unique enemies at you every step of the way, each with their own lethal appendages or weapons to avoid.

It also has a hair-pulling difficulty level to go with its retro charm. The music and sound effects from every cavern and sword swing are lively but strike the perfect tone, making for an experience just dripping with nostalgia. The gothic style that coats every pixel looks old fashioned but never crude, and although it's not as stand out as many other 2D DS titles, the fluid and comprehensive animation of every enemy - from wandering bats to towering behemoths - is stunning. The visuals are straight out of the 16-bit era, lashings of gorgeous sprite animation draped over fleshed-out backgrounds, complete with copious amounts of Mode-7 from every creaking door and vanquished boss encounter. Order Of Ecclesia is unashamedly old school. But by simply adjusting the pace of the exploration and tweaking the ability system, you'll want to give the latest in this standout series another crack.

A third DS release in the side-scrolling adventure series in three years is a touch too much, and there's only so much Dracula chasing we can take before we hang up the whip. As timeless as the RPG brawling game mechanics of Castlevania are, they’re in real danger of being fatigued.

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