Welcome to a special removed from canon edition of Second Spin.

Circle of the Moon was the fourth handheld title in the Castlevania series, and the first on the Game Boy Advance. It arrived in the US in 2001 to great critical acclaim (retaining to this day the #1 spot on Gamespot’s list of GBA games at a stunning 9.6). Most will remember Circle of the Moon as the game that, in the GBA’s library, perhaps most seemed as though it was developed without the lack of an internal light in mind: the game is very, very dark, and even on the earlier GBA SP model… and even perhaps on the original Nintendo DS… can be a challenge to see.

It was with this in mind that I played part of Circle of the Moon on my SP, and part of it on my TV using a Gamecube and a Game Boy Player. Only recently did I plug Circle of the Moon into my DS Lite and was shocked to find out that it stands up very well, and looks far better on the Lite’s screen than it did on my SP, DS original, or even my TV.

Circle of the Moon is a great game despite Koji Igarashi’s removing it from Canon in an attempt to solidify the series’ timeline. For some reason it showed up in the timeline provided with the preorder bonus materials for Portrait of Ruin anyway. It stands alone in the franchise as the game with the most replay value by far. Completing the game the first time unlocks “Magician Mode,” where you begin physically weaker, but with all the spells in the game at your disposal. Beating Magician Mode nets you “Fighter Mode,” which makes you stronger, but there’s no magic to be found. Do it again, and you get “Shooter Mode” which makes subweapons stronger and consume less hearts, and introduces a new subweapon called the homing dagger. Do it yet again, and you get “Thief Mode,” which weakens you again but boosts your luck greatly.

Other games in the series have unlockable characters, but in Circle you always play as the same one, which could get boring I imagine. But there’s quite a bit to be said for the fact that Circle’s unlockable modes actually present a greater challenge, unlike the other games where you’re handed a much more powerful character to travel the same castle with. I remember beating Aria of Sorrow on GBA and flying through the castle a second time as Julius, quite literally, since you start with a super jump, among other abilities. It really made the experience pretty dry.

As a final note, the team at Konami behind Circle of the Moon is not Koji Igarashi’s team. They operated separately from his and all the subsequent games were done by him. Interestingly, the two teams were merged to produce Portrait of Ruin’s development staff, which went a great way to producing a nearly perfect Castlevania. I find it very cool that the team was brought in on a newer game after doing such a great job on this now relatively unknown title. Let’s hope we see this collaboration in all their future titles.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon at Gamespot.

See also:

Second Spin: Dawn of Sorrow
Mini-Review: Symphony of the Night XBLA
Castlevania alert: the original classic incoming.