When I heard that the game boy advance was coming out, I wasn’t to excited. I figure I would wait for a little bit to see if the games where any better. It wasn’t until I heard that they had a castlevania symphony of the night clone was I ever truly excited. I have only play symphony of the night over at a friends house for 15 minutes, but he seem to love the game.

Anyway's when I was at wal-mart the other day I bought a fuchsia color gameboy advance (it was the only color they had), and this game. Here are my thoughts.

Story every 100 years Dracula raises from the dead (actually it's more like every 2 or 3 years but who's counting). This time it's by a witch named Camillia. Seeing how the Belmont family is on vacation the job falls to Morris Baldwin his son, Hugh and his apprentice Nathan Graves. When the two get to castlevania they are to late to the resurrection of Drac. Morris gets capture and Nathan and Huge fall through the floor. You play has Nathan who's job it is to rescue his master and whip fang faces butt once and for all.

graphics.
I would like to find the person who led the graphics department in this game. I would like to shake his hand for the wonderful moody colors and backgrounds in the game. Then I would like to beat the h*ll out of him for not realizing that it's on a non backlit system like the game boy advance. With the dark color the game is incredibly hard to see, and most of the incredibly great backgrounds are lost in the dark. Without perfect light you might has well be playing in the dark because that is all you will be seeing.

Has for the sprites go I am not impressed. The main character has about has many frames of animation has Trevor Belmont did in castlevania 3. That was OK back in the day of the NES, but the gameboy advance is supposed to rival the playstation in power. Because of the lack of frames the characters animation appears jerky.

Sound.
Well the great news here is that graphics aren't everything. The bad news is I will me missing all the beatings I got whenever I turn my GBC volume up to max. The music in this game is awesome for a portable game. The music like the graphics fit the mood of the game. The title screen has some haunting music, and the music for the game is equally creepy but it has also has adventure quality to it to. My only gripe is that there isn’t many sound effects, just a few for the whip and jump and that's about it.

Gameplay.
While I haven't play symphony of the night enough to compare it to this, I can tell you of what classic games this does remind me of. Imagine Zelda 2, castlevania 2, and super metroid all roll into one game and you get circle of the moon. Like Zelda 2 you get exp for killing enemies and eventually level up, like castlevania 2 whipping monsters and using items is your main theme, and like super metroid you can go wherever you want (almost). Like metroid there will be areas that are hard to get into, till you get a certain item, once obtain the obstacle is cleared with ease.

Items.
Along the way you will also me picking up items, some can be equip to effect status, other will be used to restore health and cure status abnormalities.

DSS system
Along the way Nathan will have to play cardcaptor, and collect magic cards my defeating enemy's. There are two types of cards action cards, and attribute cards. When two are combine they can create some awesome spells. They can increase whip power, and give you flame whip and much, much, more.

Challenge.
Castlevania games have been known to give my video game controllers frequent flyer miles, they can often be overly frustrating. While circle of the moon is challenging (especially the boss battles) it's far from overly frustrating. Mainly because the controls are spot on perfect, and easy to use. A is for jump, B is for whip, L is for the DSS, R is for special move, and start and select are for map and status screens. There has never been a time where I died because I felt my character did not do what I told him to do. The only frustration that will come with this game is finding the right kind of light to play it in.

My recommendation.
If you’re a big fan of the castlevania series then this is the gameboy advance game to own.


Recommended: Yes