 Castlevania Circle of the Moon was a launch title for the Game Boy Advance, and a game that's gotta be considered one of the best launch titles ever made. Now before I totally get started here, I have to acknowledge that I have not played Harmony of Dissonance or Aria of Sorrow or any of the other handheld Castlevania games that came out around the same time frame. I only own Circle of the Moon, so I'm not sure how it would compare to its peers. All I know is that this game is the embodiment of the term Metroidvania. Whether you see that as a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. Some people prefer the old school side-scrolling Castlevania with the difficulty cranked up to 11. And yeah, some of that is here, but Circle of the Moon is like Symphony of the Night for PS1. It takes all of the typical Castlevania stuff, and weapons like crosses, holy water, all that junk, and adds a leveling system and lots of RPG-like statistics, not to mention more abilities like double jumping, sliding, and the wall jump. Also the level design here is immense, to the point that you eventually find rooms that can teleport you across the map so you don't have to backtrack so much. But yeah, the Metroid comparison is apt, not just because of the level design on the map, but because you eventually obtain new items that allow you to explore areas you couldn't reach before. There's also this weird magic card system, no, not these magic cards. You can collect 10 cards from two different sets, one of Greek gods and one of Roman gods. Combine one from each set, and that opens up another universe of abilities you can obtain. Everything from increased strength, turning enemies to stone, fireballs, all sorts of stuff, and since there's 10 cards of each, that's 100 possible combinations. That's pretty frickin' cool. So yeah, there's different ways you can approach the game yourself, but the game also gives you different ways to play, which is kinda neat. For example, once you finish the game the first time, it has you start from the beginning of the game with all 20 magic cards. Hey, that's cool. The only problem is that the rest of your stats suck, so you gotta pick and choose your spots as you work your way through the game more meticulously, and finding out what enemies are weak to what spells instead of just hacking and slashing. You can also eventually unlock a fighter mode that does the opposite, where you've got no cards but your stats are through the roof. Things like this when done right are just so much fun, and Circle of the Moon gets it right. This game reminds me of something like Mario Paint, but as an action platformer, and what I mean by that is that the game offers so many different ways to approach the basic gameplay, that it's got something for everyone. You can speedrun, you can go for 100%, and the game even offers other modes to you after you finish it. However you want the gameplay, the mechanics, and the layout here are flexible enough to adapt to whatever you want to do, except for when the story gets in the way. This is the story, except this time you play as Nathan Drake instead of another Belmont. His parents were killed by Dracula, but Nathan's still all powerful and stuff, because this other guy, Morris Baldwin, has tutored him, much to the chagrin of Morris's son Hugh, and that gives the game an excuse to have him pose all moody and pouty like. Anyway, Dracula is revived of course, they're on their way to stop him, and the floor gives way, whoops, Hugh is like see ya, so you gotta battle your way out from this underground castle, hey kinda like Brandish, only this game doesn't suck. Anyway, yeah, I didn't care much for the story, it just kinda got in the way for me, I just wanted to find new ways to smash enemies and beat bosses. Castlevania Circle of the Moon is a perfect example of Metroidvania, and that's not just a generic trope, that's really actually like the best way to describe it. The gameplay mechanics, level design, your character's range of motion, the ridiculous amount of abilities at your disposal, everything here works in harmony to provide what's gotta be one of the best Game Boy Advance games ever made.