***UPDATE AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE***

Remember a little while back when a slew of Xbox 360 games were revealed to be coming to Xbox One Backwards Compatibility through a glitch in the system?  Well, it’s happening again, this time, as the title suggests, it’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

The originator of the term “Metroidvania” and arguably the best Castlevania game to date.  I wouldn’t confirm that award personally, but an argument can be made (and has) by plenty of people to at least hold merit.  The kind of merit where you may not agree, but you don’t feel comfortable refuting because there’s still a possibility of it being true.

The game first broke onto the scene in 1997 on the PlayStation (yes, the PS1) – March in Japan, October in North America, and a month later in PAL territories.  Sega’s Saturn got it in 1998, but we’ll pretend that and the Tiger system don’t exist right now.  Fans and newcomers alike ate the game up.  Personally, my group of friends and I couldn’t get enough of it.  It may not have been a major seller stateside, but the fervor it created is still felt today (see my latest written review for Shantae – or video review – if you need further evidence).  In March of 2007 Konami, Microsoft, and Koji Igarashi once again graced our home consoles with a port to Microsoft’s new and burgeoning Xbox Live Arcade platform for the Xbox 360.

 

 

 

Now, I have a little confession to make here, and I kind of feel bad for doing this, but, you live and you learn, I guess.  This game was included in the aforementioned games leaked previously.  Also…  You can’t actually play it yet.  You can download it, but, when you do so, you get an error message.  Take a look:

 

 

Pardon the shit photography, but these were my results pre-and-post download.  So, with that said, this is hopefully a good sign for this game to be truly released soon.  I’m certainly hoping for it, and I hope you are, too.  Please forgive my initial deceit.  It came from a place of love.  A love of you.  A love of video games.  Most importantly, a love of Castlevania.

Fun Fact:  This game was the first XBLA title to be bigger than the 50 MB restriction downloadable games had back in the early Xbox 360 days.  So, if you didn’t know this and you ever get that in a trivia contest, think of your friendly neighborhood Heazie-Man when you get it right.

 

***UPDATE***

The game is now available for all!!

However, as of this writing, at 11:15 AM on 3/17/16, my Alan Wake disc and Castlevania: SotN download still don’t work.  Same error message for Castlevania, a different – “This game isn’t playable here” and link to the list – error message for Alan Wake.

12:36 PM – After a 4th hard reset Castlevania now works.  Alan Wake, however, still will not download via disc (I am seeing others claim the digital works).  For the record, I am not mad, even if it seems like I am.