As I write this my thumbs are sore. I woke up around 1:00 today (God I love summer vacation). I took a shower and went right down to Best Buy to get my GBA goodies. I picked up Castlevania, F-Zero and a Link cable. When I got home the first thing I did was plug in Castlevania. I'd be waiting to play this game, after hearing so many great things about it. Well let me tell you, every one of those things is 100 percent true. This game is awesome. After playing for 2 hours straight I'm fully sucked in.

The graphics are phenomenal. Everything is quite crisp, even though the the sprites are a little on the small side. The animations are all very fluid. The game starts right in the middle of the action. It opens with Dracula rising and you, Nathan Graves, your Master, Morris Baldwin, and his son, Hugh Baldwin, bursting in to put him back in his place. Drac decides he wants a one on one fight and the floor opens up beneath Nathan and Hugh,casting the two into the catacombs. Hugh runs off to save his father and tells Nathan to get the hell outta the castle. Nathan instead decides he needs to help save Morris and the game begins right there.

The gameplay is excellent. You cast the whip with the button and jump with the A button. L is used to turn the DSS effects on or off and R is used for, according to the instructions, a special attack which I have yet to receive. The controls are tight and don't ever let you down. The game is all around a solid platformer. You level up when you kill enough enemies, which makes you stronger so you can take on harder baddies. Oh and by the way, this game is pretty hard. Going through the castle itself isn't very hard but the bosses are quite hard. The DSS system is really cool. The only effect I have right now is the fire whip. It basically adds more damage to your whip. Currently, I've beaten the first boss, which was quite hard to do. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, is a must have title if you own a Game Boy Advance.