Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

The Good
Gameboy Advance, I'm not sure if I love or hate the console. I've never been any person who like consoles, I think most of the games on the consoles are insanely weak, mindless 3d games pointed at the mainstream audience. And why are all the japanese RPGs released on consoles the exact same? There's sure one thing good about the Gameboy Advance, it's the perfect excuse for making good old fashioned 2D games again (even though I still get the feeling GBA games share a little of that dull console disease). The bad thing about the Gameboy Advance is it's low amount of power, here you get neat 2D games... but so "small" games, you just can't help but think how cool it would be if they made the game for a more powerful machine, so they can give more animations to the 2D sprites and things like that.

I'm sort of going offtrack here, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is exactly what the Castlevania fans have waited so long for. a good old 2D platform Castlevania game. And it's mighty good to see one after these years with these odd Castlevania 3D spinoff games. It's not entirely "good old" though, it's not in the same style of the very old Castlevania games though, it's like Symphony of the Night with the non-linear RPG gameplay. Which is definately a good thing, because it gives so much more life to the game (although for the purists there's a actually mode later in the game which give you the ability to play the game almost just like any super old Castlevania game).

There's not so very much to say about the game, it's just another step into the right direction with huge similarities from Sympony of the Night. It got great music, great graphics, great gameplay... it's just simply great.

The Bad
You just can't help but comparing the game with Symphony of the Night. SotN was released for the Playstation which is more powerful machine that the GBA, which means they could so much more for it. SotN is much longer, it's music with fantastic quality, the graphics are great. In this regard Circle of the Moon is lacking. It's just plain worse than SotN, although it's still a really great game.

The Bottom Line
Though SotN is generally much better than CotM, CotM has some better things than SotN, it's balanced, it's got no of those silly weapons which make you super powerful. And the game is actually hard. The game is still relatively short though.

As a final word, this is the perfect game for any 2D platform gamer who likes some good old fashioned gameplay. If you've played Sympony of the Night and enjoyed it, be sure it get this, just don't expect it to be better.

The Good
Fun gameplay like the other two GBA Castlevanias. The DSS system is pretty cool, even if you likely won't use or even see all of them unless you grind. DSS gives variety to your attacks even though you are often restricted to the classic whip plus special attacks.

The Bad
The movement is a lot more stiff than Aria and Harmony. Which is not the worst, but I ended up playing Circle last of the trio and I hated the lack of movement tech like a backdash. Of course this is from someone who sucks at these sorts of games, but I personally hate just how annoying it is to grind items and just how rare and scarce they are.

The Bottom Line
Not as good as the other two, however it is still fun and also unique in its own way and completely worth playing.

The Good
Well, it's 2D Castlevania - for retro fans, that's a no-brainer. The beauty of Castlevania since Symphony of the Night has been firmly rooted in navigating a gigantic maze while steadily powering up your character. Happily, CotM continues this proven gameplay while adding a few new wrinkles. While the hero is nowhere near as cool as Alucard (and the plot is pretty predictable and cliched as well), you do get powers that Alucard didn't. These take the form of the card system. Throughout your travels, you'll collect a series of cards divided into two groups. When you combine a card from each group, your character takes on a certain power. For example, one set of combinations modifies your basic whip into a number of magical variants, each having its own strengths and weaknesses. Actually, the card system is the game's biggest strength AND its greatest weakness (more on that later). The boss battles are good and tough, the maze is puzzling (perhaps a bit too puzzling for its own good), and there's some incentive to replay after you beat it.

The Bad
As I said, the card system is also one of CotM's biggest drawbacks. There are A LOT of card combinations - in fact, so many that I never had the time nor the capability to discover what they all did. Many of the combinations produce results that are not immediately apparent - you might be running around for thirty minutes or more before the highly specialized nature of your current combination reveals itself. This seems to me to represent a wasted opportunity - why make a game function more difficult to access than necessary? On the item front, SotN gave Alucard plenty of useful items that restored health, augmented powers, and so on all throughout the game. CotM, on the other hand, commits a terrible flaw in handing you very weak and ineffectual items from the beginning until the climax, especially in regard to health power ups. I can't understand why the designers didn't make the health items restore a percentage of your health as opposed to a set amount of points - anyone familiar with the old flat-tax scheme can tell you why this setup just doesn't work. Finally, the whole thing is just way too dark. Get ready to squint - and don't play unless you've got lots of sunlight.

The Bottom Line
It's classic, 2D Castlevania that you know and love. Not as good as SotN, but probably one of the best platformers available on your GBA.