June 14, 2001 - We are fortunate to have Konami on our side -- sure, the company's got a ton of games in its library we'd love to see on the handheld, but the company's arguably most known for one specific series: Castlevania. And with the launch of the Game Boy Advance, we're getting one of the deepest, most satisfying titles in the Castlevania series. Though Castlevania: Circle of the Moon isn't entirely overwhelming graphically, its deep gameplay and extremely long quest more than make up for the standard imagery and graphic techniques. This is one must-have game for the new handheld.

Features

• 80 DSS Spell Effects
• 10 magic summon attacks
• Battery back-up
• Only for Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance version of Castlevania will be very familiar to anyone who's played any title in the series, as the design doesn't stray from the basic formula. You'll whip zombies, spirits, bats, and other ghastly beasts, as well as collect hearts for your secondary weapon (boomerang, dagger, holy water, stopwatch)...all the while progressing through the horror that is Dracula's castle. It's now Nathan Graves' turn with the whip, as he's off to rescue his kidnapped father from the resurrected vampire of Castlevania past.

The Castlevania series broke away from the structured level design of the NES and Super NES series with the excellent PlayStation edition, Symphony of the Night, and Circle of the Moon on the Game Boy Advance follows a very similar formula. The design is very much like Nintendo's own Metroid: you're in one continuous "world", in this case, Dracula's castle, and the other portions of the huge structure are only accessible when you earn specific and necessary techniques. At the start of the game, you've got nothing but the whip in your hand -- as you progress, you'll earn the ability to run, to double jump, to break specific sections of wall...and other handy capabilities. These specific techniques are necessary to master if you want to get through the many different sections of Dracula's abode. But don't think you'll get lost -- your progress is charted in an extremely handy auto-map feature...another element that mirror's the Metroid design. Throughout the quest you'll also find rooms that will save your game in progress -- and with a quest as long as Circle of the Moon, you'll be extremely thankful for the battery in the cartridge.

As you defeat the many different enemies, you're awarded experience points that will level up your character, building up his attributes to assist in his overall attacking and defense abilities. Along with the techniques you earn, you'll also collect items known as DSS (dual-select system) cards along the way. There are two different categories of cards: Action Cards and Attribute Cards, and when one card from each category is combined, it can enable a special attack technique that can be used to great benefit against specific enemies. It's a game of trial and error finding the cards that work with one another, and it adds to the game's fun in giving the player something new to discover.

Unlike other titles in the Castlevania series, Circle of the Moon isn't a graphical showpiece for the system it's made for. When Super Castlevania IV came out for the Super NES, for example, the developers pulled as many graphic effects as the system could handle. Not so here -- though the game does look very nice, the imagery won't take the breath away. Some rooms have multiscrolling backgrounds to offer an illusion of depth, but others only have a single scrolling plane. Character sprites are very limited in animation frames, especially in the lead character -- he walks in an awkward three-frame cycle, something that you might see out of a Game Boy Color version. And, it's dark. The development team toned down the contrast of the graphics to create a specific mood in the game, and that doesn't translate well on the non-backlit GBA screen. Forget about playing this game in locations without a direct overhead light illuminating the LCD...it's just a difficult game to see.

But Circle of the Moon is all about the gameplay -- and it's here where the game really shines. This is one of the best playing Castlevania games released. The world is huge, the boss creatures are massive in size and challenging to defeat. And the overall quest is extremely fulfilling, as the game will take several hours to complete in its entirety.

Closing Comments
Circle of the Moon is probably the best 2D game in the Castlevania series, and we handheld gamers are the ones who benefit -- the game is very long and extremely challenging without being frustrating or a chore to zip through . It's just a shame the graphics weren't upgraded just a tad, as character animations look like they've been ripped out of a GBC development, and the game needs as much light as you can give it in order to see all the dark rooms in the castle. Still, it's a brilliant game, and definitely among the Game Boy Advance's top five launch titles.

Rating	Description
out of 10	click here for ratings guide
8.0	Presentation A very straight-forward package with a decent Dracula story. And battery save...good stuff all around.
7.0	Graphics The visuals are very nice, but nothing special. Animating is a little on the chunky side, and in many places, the levels are just too darn dark to see properly.
8.0	Sound The haunting choir at the beginning of the game is top-notch, and the rest of the tunes are of SNES quality. Good stuff all around.
10	Gameplay The game is incredibly deep and challenging, with tons of technique you'll have to learn and utilize throughout the adventure.
8.0	Lasting Appeal The quest is very long, but it is finite. We're looking at a good couple weeks of straight playing to beat the thing.
9.0 Outstanding	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)