This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
America misses out on some of the coolest special features in video games. If Konami hadn't imported "Castlevania: Rondo of Blood" to the PSP and the Wii virtual console, we could have lost one of the best characters in the Castlevania games.
I'm talking about the young Maria Renard. She's the odd shoujo anime character, who was probably added into the game just for laughs. She can use cats, birds and eggs as her secondary weapons. Even the ending credits make her look unbelievably adorable as she runs with her animal friends.
Despite the fact that Maria looks too cute and young to hunt dangerous vampires and undead monsters, she is one of the best characters in the entire Castlevania series. If you use a special Street Fighter-style button combination, she can split off her ghost to perform a rapid-fire punch move. She can turn invincible if you hide her in the tortoise shell item. She can even slide on the ground if you hold down and A.
Maria even returned as a playable character in one of the special edition releases of "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" for the Sega Saturn. This version was never released in the United States and we almost missed out on playing as the older Maria. Thankfully, Konami was nice enough to bring back Maria for the PSP release of "Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles."
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db5AWxE60_o ]
However, there is one question that always looms inside my head. Which guy should Maria choose to stay with? Richter or Alucard. I mean, the girls probably love Alucard, but come on. He's a vampire who lives forever. Wouldn't it be scary to have your husband outlive you by a million years?