Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
- May 30, 2001 08:53 AM PST
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The first Game Boy Advance incarnation of Castlevania takes a note from Symphony of the Night and a lesson from Belmont Family History 101.
Sometimes old school is good school. Just take a look at Konami?s Castlevania series for proof. The original 8-bit Castlevania titles made for some of the NES?s finest hours, and outings on the Genesis and SNES are remembered just as fondly. When the inevitable time came for a PlayStation version, Konami had the gall to release it as a 2D Super Metroid-style platform adventure when bringing your franchises into the third dimension was the en vogue thing to do. And, whaddya know, Symphony of the Night is heralded as one of the PlayStation?s greatest games.Bring up the 3D-?enhanced? Castlevania for N64, however?or the half-formed Dreamcast version, killed before it even had a chance to see the sun?and you may as well have brought up Contra: Legacy of War or the third Godfather movie. Speak of them only in whispers. Experiments gone awry. Remember instead the sweet Symphony of the Night.
That?s why fans are bound to eat up Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. This Game Boy Advance incarnation brings the series back to its roots?complete with a guy whipping candles, travelling in two dimensions, hurling boomerangs and collecting hearts?and combines it with the large-scale exploration and RPG elements that made SOTN shine. In COTM, it?s your job (once again) to make your way to the heart of an enormous castle, offing monsters, collecting power-ups, and fighting big ol? bosses, with the ultimate goal of giving Dracula the whipping of his un-life. Aside from the wide range of weapons you?ll uncover throughout the game, you?ll also collect cards that instill your character with magic and the power to summon gods. History has proven that vampires suck. History leads us to believe that this game won?t.
