Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was one of the first Game Boy Advance games and is Konami’s second attempt at the Metroidvania-style. Thankfully for them, lightning struck twice.

Circle of the Moon not only succeeds in repeating a formula but is also a great game on its own. Circle of the Moon introduces a new system and takes on a refreshing plotline to the long-running series. While the music is a tad weak and the graphics may become choppy, Circle of the Moon is an impressive game.

Circle of the Moon creates its own story and new gameplay features
Circle of the Moon takes place a few decades before Bloodlines and stars vampire hunter-in-training, Nathan Graves. Graves is embarking on his last training session with his mentor Morris Baldwin and Morris’ son, Hugh. Upon entering a dark castle, recurring villain Camilla appears to kidnap Morris. Hugh and Nathan are separated, and players take control of Nathan to find Morris and Hugh. Unfortunately for him, his last test of training involves taking on a resurrected Count Dracula!

Circle of the Moon keeps the emphasis on non-linearity and exploration found in Symphony of the Night but manages to change up the core gameplay. Dracula’s castle is still a massive one and will take more than a few hours to explore it. The portions of the castle have a heavy emphasis on platforming. Thankfully, jumping and attacking are quite fun thanks to the GBA’s control set up. While certain sections of the Count’s castle may appear samey and will have the player questioning if they have been there before, the level design is overall good.

Circle of the Moon begins a trend with the GBA Castlevanias

Instead of a huge variety of weapons, Nathan is equipped with a Castlevania staple; he combats the forces of evil with the whip. Players can upgrade the whip with the card-based Dual Set-Up System. Enemies will drop cards after being defeated by Nathan. From there, the player will collect them. From the status menu, players will set up whichever ones they want to use. Certain cards can change the whip attacks or summon monsters from magic. It’s an intuitive system that allows for creativity and mixing things up.

For a launch title on the Game Boy Advance, Circle of the Moon shows off what the system is capable of doing. Unfortunately, this also shows the system’s shortcomings as well. The graphics within the game are crisp and colorful, but not quite as animated as they were in other games. The music is catchy and full of atmospheric anthems, but some of them are repetitive. Although, the remixes of classic Castlevania tracks are quite good.

For too long, fans were given mediocre, or outright terrible, Castlevania games on handhelds. Circle of the Moon managed to change that, thanks to engaging and entertaining gameplay. It’s a shame Koji Igarashi removed the game from the series canon, as Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is easily one of the franchise’s better games.