Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening truly was one of last year's best action games, turning in one of the PS2's best all-around releases and putting the franchise back on the map after the ungodly disappointment that was Devil May Cry 2. Sadly, however, with other epics like Resident Evil 4 and God of War stealing the show, the third (and best) installment of Dante's blissful demon-slaying adventures instantly became overshadowed and seemingly forgotten a few months after its release. A year later, Capcom has re-released Devil May Cry 3 in fancy new Special Edition form under Sony's Greatest Hits budget lineup, complete with a bunch of cool new extra features not seen in the original release to sweeten the deal. If you don't yet have a copy to call your own, now is the perfect time to finally make the move to your local game shop and get in on this intense, gothic-themed hack-n-slasher.

To recap, Devil May Cry 3 follows series star and venerable badass Dante as he battles against his twin brother and fellow son of Sparda, Vergil, in a prequel narrative to the original Devil May Cry that kicked off the fantastic series, and this Special Edition is no different. After cursing your way through the game's thumb-crippling ten-plus-hour, twenty mission campaign, (unnecessary if you have a completed save file from the original release), the Special Edition's main new gameplay feature becomes unlocked: the ability to play as Dante's brother, Vergil. Playing as Vergil you basically retread the same path through the game as Dante's, with little new story material to make the bonus gameplay mode live up to what it was expected to be. Although Vergil's time in the limelight doesn't tell a whole new side of the storyline as I was hoping, simply being able to play as the blue-coated badass is worth recognition alone. Equipped with three killer melee weapons, devil trigger capability, the ability to summon sword projectiles as a ranged attack and the all-new Dark Slayer fighting style straight from the beginning, Vergil is even more powerful than Dante and actually a lot cooler to play as. Consequently, the game's notorious difficulty level also isn't nearly as brutal when Vergil takes the lead, which may be a good or bad thing depending on your definition of challenge.

Speaking of challenge, Devil May Cry 3 instantly became praised or slammed by critics on both sides of the fence for its insane, sometimes cheap, level of difficulty and subsequent inaccessibility to series newcomers. For the Special Edition, though, Capcom made it a point of emphasis to balance the game's difficulty and what they've come up with should please newbies and series veterans alike. The most obvious new addition to Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, and the one that changes how the game plays more than any other, is the brand new continue system. In the original, yellow orbs were needed in order to continue at a nearby checkpoint after dying, and coupled with the game's brutal nature this continue system was a bit too unforgiving, causing you to occasionally replay entire levels again and again if you had no yellow orbs.

Though this old continue system is still available for you gaming masochists out there, a new Gold Orb continue system has been introduced to relieve the nagging frustration of constantly replaying the same areas and missions over and over. With this gold orb system, you can continue unlimited times at the nearest checkpoint without the need of a yellow orb, and if you have purchased a gold orb you can use it to revive Dante at the point of death with full health. Devil May Cry purists may claim this makes the game too easy, but I feel it simply eliminates any unnecessary frustrations - and it's not like you have to use this system if you don't want to. Also new are the game's further balanced difficulty settings; the default Normal difficulty has been toned down from the original version, as has the Easy setting, so if you want to revisit the way of the past you can unlock Hard and the all-new Very Hard setting to relive the experience in its original viciousness.

The other significant bonus feature is the new unlockable Bloody Palace survival mode; after completing the game (or as another benefit to having a save file from the original), the Bloody Palace becomes available, in which you fight groups of ferocious demons through a multi-tiered dungeon of 9,999 total levels, all to see how far you can get on one life bar. After clearing each level, three portals open up - Fire, Lighting and Water - and depending on which portal you choose, you advance either 100, 10 or 1 levels into the dungeon respectively. No, this mode probably won't jump out and blow you away, but again, it's a solid extra that further extends the replay value.

On top of the already discussed new coming attractions, Devil May Cry 3 also has a number of subtle little goodies to discover. The new Turbo Mode option, for instance, boosts the gameplay speed by 20% for an even more wild and chaotic experience. Also new is the opportunity to fight it out with the new Jester boss battle and a Demo Digest mode that provides a theater for watching the game's superb cut scenes individually or in one stream. Concept art galleries and new costume unlockables are included as well, so, as you can see, the amount of content you get for a budget price is out of this world.

With all of these special features, it's also worth remembering that you're still getting the same brilliant Devil May Cry 3 gameplay experience. The same stellar combo, style and upgrade systems, reflex-intensive hack-n-slash action, epic boss battles, massive arsenal of super-cool weaponry, on-the-fly weapon swapping and gorgeous graphics that made the original so outstanding are all present and accounted for. Of course, since nothing in the core game has changed this also means that the same problems from before haven't been fixed either; the sometimes-captivating-and-other-times-corny-as-hell storyline is still a disappointment, the occasionally inconvenient camera views haven't gone away and Dante's atrocious voice acting still ranks as some of the PS2's worst ever.

Even after a year's time, Devil May Cry 3 holds up exceptionally well, easily redelivering one of the PS2's finest titles. In fact, with God of War and Resident Evil 4 hogging all of the action awards from 2005, this Special Edition may finally earn the game its proper respects come awards time this year. Sure, many of the bonus features could've been beefed up a bit more, but considering you're getting the same brilliant Devil May Cry 3 experience with new content at a bargain basement price, there's absolutely no reason not to go out and treat yourself to this action classic - if you haven't done so already.

Reviewed by Matt Litten for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).