Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin will definitely please hardcore fans of the series. In this version you take control of Jonathan Morris and Charlotte Orlean, battling to prevent the resurrection of Dracula in the era of World War II.

The big innovation this time around is the ability to switch back and forth between your two characters using the "Call Partner" relic. You can alternate between Jonathan or Charlotte, or use both at the same time. Using both characters at once is helpful when you need to perform a task that requires two people, such as pressing a switch to open a door. Early on in the E3 demo you come across a drawbridge that is controlled by a switch. The only way to activate it is to stand on it with the weight of two people, so both Charlotte and Jonathan must be used at the same time. Two character face icons at the top-right of the screen indicate which characters are currently in use.

Other relics include Double Jump and Swap Items. Like in Dawn of Sorrow, Double Jump allows you to jump twice in the air, while Swap Items allows you to have an "A" and "B" set of equipped weapons and armor that you can switch between at will - very handy during boss battles.

Magic attacks also vary depending on whether you're using one character or both. When both characters are used they have a super attack (the one I witnessed was lightning), and then each character also has individual magic attacks. In the demo, Jonathan's magic attack is a red scythe (or sword, I couldn't tell) that flies out and returns like a boomerang. Charlotte has a fire attack that hits whatever is in front of her. These attacks deplete your magic meter in varying degrees. Jonathan's default weapon is the ever-popular whip (which can be twirled around in a circle), and Charlotte's is a deadly combination of an axe and two swords. The two characters play the same otherwise.

There are two playable levels in the E3 demo. The first is a moonlit, rocky environment that ends in an open area containing a floating picture frame. Within the frame is a picture of a Victorian-looking building, and when you walk in front of it an icon appears instructing you to press up on the D-Pad. Doing so initiates a spectacular "warp" animation that sends you to the second level, a European city. The city streets feature spectacular backgrounds with huge 3-D buildings and a nice-looking skyline in the distance. The city streets give way to the interior of an old library littered with desks and old furniture. Level maps are still displayed on the top screen, and all action takes place on the bottom (Start and Select were disabled, so I couldn't check out the inventory screens). Fans of Dawn of Sorrow will feel right at home.

This version appears to up the ante graphically compared to earlier Castlevanias. Some enemies, such as the "Peeping Eye", are fully polygonal, while some regular enemies seemed to have a few more frames of animation. The boss at the end of the second level is a huge headless knight called Dullahan. Well, he isn't totally headless - his disembodied head, sporting blue skin and blond spiky hair, floats up to his body and attaches itself periodically. His attacks include stabbing the ground with his sword, causing blades to erupt from the ground below you, and sending flying bloody eyes through the air to home in on your position. There is a lot of scaling and rotation that looks great on the DS screen.

I can state with confidence that Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin may very well turn out to a better game than Dawn of Sorrow. The ability to switch between characters is really cool and adds a new layer of puzzle-solving to the adventure. The graphics are just as good as before, if not better, and the World War II setting should take the story in a direction in which it's never gone before. I'm highly anticipating this title.