Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001)
Action - RPG

Publisher	Konami
Developer	Konami
Series	Castlevania

Circle of the Moon is the only game on the Game Boy Advance to bear the "Akumajo Dracula" title, as subsequent entries adopted the "Castlevania" name, even in Japan. This continued until Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, for the Nintendo DS.

The gameplay in Circle of the Moon is similar to that of other post-Symphony of the Night Castlevania titles, in which the player must explore a gigantic castle filled with undead enemies and evil aberrations in a non-linear fashion. Generic enemies defeated by the player drop useful items and equipment, and also provide Experience Points (EXP) that increase the player character's power. Boss enemies provide plot progression, and their defeat allows the player to acquire new abilities to progress further in the game. An example of this is the "double-jump."

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was originally present within the series' chronology from its original release until 2002, when a timeline published on the official Japanese Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance website omitted it - as well as several other Castlevania games - from the series' continuity.[1] The others also included Castlevania Legends for the Game Boy, and two Castlevania releases for the Nintendo 64.

In 2006, series producer Koji Igarashi stated that "These games were taken out of the timeline [...] not because I didn't work on them, but because they were considered by their directors to be side projects in the series".[2] Since the 2002 removal, the events of Circle of the Moon have occupied an ambiguous place in timelines published by Konami of Japan, Konami of America, and various gaming publications. Morris Baldwin was mentioned in the English Xtreme Desktop Timeline[1]. The most recent English language timeline, distributed with preordered versions of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin in North America by Konami of America, includes the date for Circle of the Moon though the events are not described.[3] In 2008 at least Castlevania: Legacy of Darknesss has been confirmed to be part of the timeline through Castlevania Judgement (Legacy of Darkness, Cornell and his sister Ada are referenced by the game).

IGN gave Circle of the Moon a 9.0, or "Outstanding", citing "deep gameplay" and "very long quest" as its chief positives.[4]. Gamespot.com gave it 9.6 out of 10, leaving Circle of the Moon as the best rated GBA game.[5] It was rated the 108th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Powers Top 200 Games list.[6] On the review aggregate site Metacritic, it is the seventh-highest rated GBA title.[7] GamePro rated the game 5.0, their highest rating, stating that it closely mirrored the most highly acclaimed Castlevania, Symphony of the Night with its rich graphics and branching story.[8] Many players commented that they find it difficult to see the action on the screen because of the dark graphics of this game and the lack of build-in light source before the arrival of later GBA models.[9] Subsequent GBA Castlevania games use brighter colour schemes to avoid this problem.