MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania: Circle of the Moon"

...Dracula? Again?! Like every Halloween (except, y'know, last year), it seems that Dracula always comes back again to muck things up for the land of the living.  Traditionally, in these situations, it's up to the members of the Belmont plan to lay a smackula down on Ol' Drac.  This time, however, it's not a Belmont but young Nathan Graves who's destined to crack that whip.  Thirty-three years after Alucard defeated Dracula for the totally extremely finally time, honest, Dracula's back thanks to his smexy devotee Camilla reviving him. Before he can return to his full power, however, Nathan Graves, his best friend Hugh, and his mentor Morris Baldwin bust in to stop him.

Nathan and Hugh are almost immediately dropped down into Dracula's castle via a trap door.

Oops.

Nevertheless, it's now Nathan's task to journey through the home of Dracula in the traditional manner, whip and secondary weapons included. Gameplay-wise, if you've played any Castlevania game, you've played this.  However, it also helps if you've played Symphony of the Night, because it runs very similar to that in that someone chucked a bunch of RPG elements into the game.  Nathan kills monsters for experience, levels up, and can find new items lying around (and in the possession of boss monsters) to move himself through previous unreachable areas and on his way to take on Dracula in a final battle.

One of the big draws (or so the game would have you think) is a system based around magic cards that are based on Greek and Roman mythology that can provide Nathan with some minor stat variations and abilities.  All well and good, but not really necessary, per se.

But yes, keep yourself equipped and keep your whip and wits about you and eventually you will prevail against Dracula.  Nathan will be named a master vampire hunter and the day will be saved...and some new modes of play will be unlocked using special codes for the names.  Like with Symphony of the Night, which let you play as Richter by typing in his name after you completed the main quest at least once, you can unlock one of several modes that will play around with your stats and basically send you back through the game with a different playstyle.

Needless to say, I didn't have the want or need to play the game even a second time.

It's not bad, it's just got the same problem that most of the portable versions of Castlevania have had since Symphony of the Night...mainly that they're too much like Symphony of the Night.  Not that that's a bad thing, I loved Symphony of the Night and even said as much.  But lightning does not strike twice and doing the same thing over and over again isn't something one is known for having rousing success with...unless you're Nintendo.

It's not bad, by any means.  But it's really not that great.

Still, Dracula's defeated again...for now.  And as the sun rises to banish the terrible night...reflect on the malice that haunts us always...and have a Happy Halloween, dear readers!

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is available from Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe for the Game Boy Advance.

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