Castlevania Advance Collection

Collection of some of the best games in the entirety of the franchise (and also Dracula X). Let's break these down one by one. Circle of the Moon: The weakest of the Igavanias, and given he wasn't involved with this one, that makes sense. The actual level design is excellent, with the sprite work and music also being top-notch, with the Zombie Dragon boss and "Awake" being especially standout. The real issues with this game come with how Nathan actually plays. The double tap to run becomes REALLY annoying late game with some of the bosses, and Nathan's fall speed is frankly absurdly fast. It leads to a lot of annoying times of taking damage due to the controls being difficult. It's pretty much the only reason this is a harder game in the franchise. The DSS system is, on paper, really awesome, if it wasn't for the fact that you obtain them from enemy drops. As well as the fact that, due to a lack of a shop, all equipment you can use is also gained that way. It leads to an obnoxious amount of grinding. The story is also pretty forgettable for the most part. It exists just to set up a single "rival" boss fight, and that's it. Still feel bad this game was decanonized though. The alternative game modes, like Magician, are genuinely a great time that do make the game feel more fun though. It's still overall a good game, but these issues do make it the weakest of this style of Castlevania. 8/10. Harmony of Dissonance: Criminally underrated game in my opinion. The gameplay in this one is excellent, as the magic system, Juste's dashes, and enemy design all make this one of the best-controlling games in the series. The music in this game is very much love it or hate it, but I'm more in the camp of love it. The sprite work is a very fun mix of psychedelic horror with some of the classic gothic look, with one of the best Death designs in the series (in my opinion). Speaking of Death, this game's story is pretty good, with positioning Death as the main antagonist this time. I appreciate that even the "perfect" true ending has elements of melancholy, with Juste being unable to really accept what happened in the castle. The dual castles' level design definitely can be hit or miss, with some of the rooms being exact reskins with different enemies, but some are also genuinely different in cool ways. The only real issue the game has is due to it's difficultly. It's a pretty easy game, but thankfully there is a Hard Mode you can instantly enable when you start the game by submitting "HARDGAME" as your name, which I absolutely recommend you do. It makes the game way more balanced. The Maxim game mode is pretty fun, and the collectables of furniture are also a decently fun way to explore the castle. The boss rush also lets you play as NES Simon if you input the Konami code which is a cute easter egg. Overall, this game is a 9/10 for me, below SOTN, but above Circle of the Moon and Dawn of Sorrow. Aria of Sorrow: Yeah, this is the masterpiece of this collection. Easily in the top 2 games in the franchise. The level design is basically flawless, Soma is a joy to play as, the music is excellent, and the story actually pulls off one of the most edgy-sounding ideas in the series. It's kinda hard to really explain much about this game that hasn't been said before. The Julius game mode is also super fun, one of the best playable characters to really play as in the franchise. The Soul Grinding can be annoying at times, but the odds are way better than Circle of the Moon's, and it is probably the easiest Igavania. But there are so many positives, they outweigh this in every way. 10/10, it's practically perfect. Dracula X: Listen it's an objective downgrade of Rondo of Blood in every way. It's ok, it's not as awful as some people say it is. But it's far from the best Classicvania for a multitude of reasons. 7/10.

Nostalgia classic all day.

Tanta Roba

手柄 RT + ← 长按 有惊喜

A must play collection for any Castlevania fan.

Ok, first things first: Hey Konami... [b]Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on Steam WHEN??!![/b] Now, with that out of the way, there is not much I can add to which other reviewers have explained here more thoroughly. The Castlevania Advance Collection is an excellent collection of Castlevania games from the GBA era, with [i]Castlevania: Dracula X / Vampire Kiss[/i] as a nice little "eh why not" bonus. A bit of a negative point is that in Circle of the Moon, the movement is a bit awkward since you initially walk very slowly, and once you get the Dash Boots you have to double-tap to the right or left every time you want to run... but you kinda get used to it. Adding a way to toggle running on and off would've been a great Quality of Life feature. On the two subsequent games, your standard speed is a middle-ground between walking and running. But besides that, every GBA game here is awesome in its own right, with tight controls, cool environments to explore, varied enemies to beat, and different skills to obtain. The DSS system in Circle of the Moon has some pretty cool combinations, although the Souls system in Aria of Sorrow was my favorite - very varied and original! And in the future, I very much look forward to playing Magician Mode in Circle of the Moon, and the Extra-Character modes in Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. Oh, and Dracula X is... and ok and thankfully short game. Definitely has some cheap/unfair enemy placements, but I still beat it. Some excellent additions to this collection are 10 different save-state slots per game, and a rewind function. These features make this collection [b]much[/b] more worth it to buy, and should have been included in the first Castlevania Anniversary Collection. There is also an encyclopedia of enemies and items for each game, a gallery with concept art and scans of the game manuals from different regions, and a jukebox with all the music from the games. So, should you get the Castlevania Advance Collection? Well, with all the extra-features included, and If you enjoy exploration-action-platformers (you know... Metroid[b]Vania[/b] games), I would say getting this collection IS worth it [b]on sale with a 50%+ discount[/b]. And hey, if you actually buy this collection instead of just emulating the games, that should encourage Konami to keep making Castlevania games, and one day port or remaster Symphony of the Night on Steam... one can dream, right?

An excellent collection of old metroidvania castlevania games from the GBA era. All great games really. Aria is the goat tho. Would recommend. (Although you could always Emu)