Rebooting a beloved and well established franchise like Castlevania was risky even before Konami outsourced the project to MercurySteam. But the little known Spanish developer, whose only major credit was the unremarkable Clive Barker's Jericho, would impress critics and fans with 2010's Lords of Shadow enough for Konami to greenlight two sequels. Mirror of Fate, a 3DS exclusive, is the first.

Mirror of Fate follows the bloodline of Lords of Shadow protagonist Gabriel Belmont across three generations. Transformed into the legendary vampire Dracula, Gabriel declares war against the Brotherhood of Light and sets in motion a conflict which brings descendents Trevor, Simon, and Alucard to arms against him.

This game breaks new ground for being the first side-scrolling Castlevania title developed outside of Konami as well as the first to trade sprites for polygons. The visuals are strong overall despite aliasing and underwhelming character models. Environments are detailed and well designed. The 3D is used to good effect and well suited for a side-scrolling game because of the added depth.

The 15- to 20-minute demo primarily highlights the game's combat and platforming elements. It begins with no introduction to the story, immediately dropping Trevor into the grounds of an old church and sending him off to battle.

Mirror of Fate's lineage is clear. Combat is similar to Lords of Shadow, with Trevor boasting a full suite of combos and defensive measures such as blocking, countering, and rolling. The demo provides access to only one secondary weapon and no magic, so Trevor's retail skill set is certain to be even larger. The combat translates to side-scrolling design with mixed success however, limited by awkward controls.

Movement is unresponsive. You're required to move with the analog stick, but it's a waste of 360 degrees because Trevor seems like he only wants to go the four base directions. The control scheme gives the impression of trying to squeeze too many commands into too few buttons. Platforming brings to light a few unexpected button mappings, such as the right shoulder button assigned both to starting and releasing a grapple. With that said, I was beginning to adjust to the controls by the end of the demo.

Mirror of Fate is said to focus on exploration more than its predecessor, but the demo was too short for me to get a sense for it. Following DS standards, the bottom screen displays the map. One of the game’s coolest new features is the ability to drag and drop custom notes to the map. It wasn’t necessary for the mostly linear demo, but I imagine it will be incredibly useful for exploring and solving puzzles.

With key gameplay elements for which Castlevania is known—exploration, magic, puzzles, secondary weapons—largely absent from the demo, my picture of the game as a whole is incomplete. That said, my impression is Castlevania fans who enjoyed Lords of Shadow should find plenty to enjoy here too, but the controls will take some getting used to for sure.

Mirror of Fate is scheduled for release March 5 and is said to set up the events of Lords of Shadow 2, coming later in 2013.