Of the 3 games that came with my GBA, Castlevania is by far the one that I've played the most. Unfortunately, I never experienced the SNES and PSX adventures of the Belmont clan, so I can't make any comparisons. Even so, I think this new GBA version is shaping up to be another classic Castlevania adventure. It's a great example of how fun 2d adventure/platform games can be.

The graphics are nice, particularly the backgrounds which nicely set the dark feel of the game, though I've seen other GBA games that looked better. The game's sound is top notch, as good or better than any of the other GBA games I've heard. The high quality Midi tunes and solid sound effects show that Konami gave the audio as much care as the graphics. And then there's the gameplay; this is what's keeping me away from F-Zero and Mario. The control is tight, the level design is excellent, and the character improvement (via experience points, magic items, and special items) is finely tuned so that you want to keep playing "just a couple more minutes" so you can take the next step forward.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon has the right level design and gameplay mechanics that reminds me of Super Metroid (the large map that tracks your process is also a reminder). And while it's not the most visually impressive of the GBA's early games, it's still no slouch...and the sound and killer gameplay more than make up for it. I'm guessing I'm about a third of the way through with the game, and everything looks great so far. Look for a review when I finish, though barring a dramatic shift in quality, I think I can already recommend that you keep an eye out for this when it hits U.S. shores (import if you must, but there's a lot of Japanese text so it may be best to wait).