With my DS Lite feeling the burn of excessive use at the moment, it was not a particularly hard question when a group of mates I was on a strictly-business-no-fun-being-had-here trip to the pub with asked me which console I would recommend to them. In the last month alone I have played through at least a good half-dozen corking titles on Nintendo’s dual-screened handheld, and despite fears that at some point I will whittle my DS stylus down to no more than a plastic toothpick it’s not a situation I can imagine changing any time soon.

As you may have noticed below my slightly sinister portrait above (seriously, I look like a mixture of an actual monkey and Raphael from the Ninja Turtles) I have been addicted to Portrait of Ruin for the better part of a month now. There’s something about hunting vampires and dodging those bloody medusa heads that’s kept me coming back time and again to try and discover all the secret passageways and nooks and crannies that I could. It’s the mix of slightly retro platforming with basic RPG levelling spiced up with a selection of fantastically drawn monsters that really engages the player and keeps him playing, even when things get tough (which they most certainly do).

Now, there have been more Castlevania games released than I have had decent kebabs (about 25 or so then), so explaining where the story of Portrait of Ruin exactly fits in isn’t something that can be so easily done. Set during World War 2, the game introduces two main characters for simultaneous use for the first time in the series. The first of these is whip-wielding Jonathan Morris, descendent of the Quincy Morris who slew Dracula in the original novel penned by Bram Stoker. His able assistant is Charlotte Aulin, more of a book-and-spell type. By using either or often both characters you traverse Dracula’s castle locating a series of large paintings that transport you to other dimensions in order to fight the good fight and gain new abilities.

The use of two characters may set fans of the series a little off-kilter, but in all honesty it doesn’t ever really affect the game other than at points where you need to jump on your partner’s shoulders to get to higher platforms. On latter bosses having Charlotte cast a spell whilst you distract the enemy as Jonathan becomes a necessary tactic, but the majority of the game can be polished off using either one or the other depending on your taste of wizardry or the ol’ hack-‘n-slash. It’s pretty familiar stuff, although perhaps you could say that the number of enemies has been ramped up to give the game more of an action feel.

Other than this, it still works in the same Metroidesque way that recent Castlevania games have. Initial exploration through the castle will see you limited in where you can go, with some areas tantalisingly out of reach until a special move has been added. The pace at which you receive the moves and are able to proceed on to the next section of the castle is finely judged too; as you battle both your characters receive experience and level up in a basic RPG manner, and you never find yourself hopelessly outclassed when you do find a new ability and get a new series of areas to battle through.

That’s not to say that the game isn’t challenging, though. Rather than just running blindly through everything you’ll need to make full use of the jump and crouch buttons to avoid getting the living heck smacked out of you pretty quickly. This is not only the case with boss battles but with normal monster encounters too; dashing around trying to avoid bats with swords or huge suits of armour with oversized knives isn’t the kind of stuff you can just continuously slap the attack button and live through.

Then there are the bosses themselves. Quite a few of them make a return appearance from previous titles (Legion in particular is as disgusting and unnerving as always), and each requires quite a portion of tactical thought and persistence in order to defeat. Once the game is completed there is once again the option to run through each boss consecutively against the clock, which certainly adds a good dose of competitiveness to proceedings.

Artistically, Portrait of Ruin maintains very much a similar style as you’d expect with 2D scrolling games. Every character and monster is wonderfully drawn and animated, ranging from the bog-standard zombies and skeletons right up to the large, unique bosses that fill most of the screen. Likewise, the numerous different areas you visit during the adventure are weird and wonderful. Take for example the level that you arrive at by hopping into the painting ‘Nation Of Fools’, which is supposed to resemble London after a blitz mixed with some kind of freakish circus mixed in for good measure (sounds like my childhood memories of Bournemouth for whatever reason). One moment you’re hopping about some kind of twisted, burnt-out city fighting insane clowns, whilst the next you’re thrown back into the castle to fight off all sorts of cursed enemies. It’s brilliantly nightmarish in most places, and certainly highly memorable.

Fans of the series will no doubt forge their own opinion on how Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin slots in to the detailed timeline and legacy that the series now carries. For me, though, as someone who has played a couple of the games and enjoyed them, I can certainly say that it at the very least stands up shoulder-to-shoulder with what I’ve experienced before. As a captivating, enjoyable and challenging platform adventure title with a range of memorable characters and locations, Portrait of Ruin ticks a heck of a lot of boxes. It might not suit everybody and to some it might verge on the side of being a little tricky, but if you’re after something to keep your DS warm this Easter then you could do a heck of a lot worse.