One of the best Castlevania games of all time is officially 22 years old. No, I'm not talking about Symphony of the Night, though this one deserves just as much praise, with some considering it to be better than SotN. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is a 2003 Game Boy Advance game, being the third from the series to appear on the platform, and it's wild to me that in ten years, we'll be in the same year the game takes place in. 2035 seemed so far away in 2003.
Not just a fantastic Castlevania game, Aria of Sorrow is one of the best GBA games, period, being the definitive Metroidvania experience for the platform. There are numerous reasons to compare it to Symphony of the Night, which also celebrated a huge milestone this year, and one of them is its initial release. Both games had a lackluster reception at launch, with Aria of Sorry shifting little more than 27k units in Japan in its first month, though its reception in the West was much larger, with 158k copies sold in the US for the same period.
If you're not familiar with Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, it offers something a bit different, taking place in the future rather than the past, which is a first for the franchise. Speaking of firsts, the Aria of Sorrow introduced the Tactical Soul System, an innovative feature that would go on to appear in some subsequent games.
While you might expect to play as a Belmont, as is typical in most Castlevania games, you actually play as a new character called Soma Cruz, who's on a quest to ensure that Dracula's power doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Luckily, the days of desperately trying to hit your enemies with a whip are over, as you can engage in ranged combat with a handgun, though you do have primitive weapon options, like swords and axes.
I, for one, find the level design in Aria of Sorrow to be second to none, and it's easily my second favorite game in the series – I'm a Symphony of the Night girlie. And it's especially fun to experience it again in the Castlevania Advance Collection, which also features Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, and Dracula X.
Though we have that collection, I can't help but long for a full-blown remake of Aria of Sorrow, especially with the impending release of the Nintendo Switch 2, though I acknowledge that's highly unlikely to happen. If Konami remakes Symphony of the Night, Silent Hill 2 style, then I might be a bit more hopeful.