Castlevania Advance Collection

Dracula Lives Again…

NA release: 23rd September 2021
EU release: 23rd September 2021
JP release: 23rd September 2021
Developer: Konami, M2
Publisher: Konami
Nintendo World Report Reveiew: 8/10
Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One
Version Played: PC

With the success of the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Konami decided to make some more compilations of Castlevania games. As the name implies, this focuses on the Game Boy Advance games: Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow. It’s not as many games as the previous collection, but they are beefier games.

There’s not many visual options: one that maintains pixels, full height or a nasty stretch. There’s no LCD grid filter or anything. There are, however, some nice extra features, such as save states and a rewind function. There’s also an encyclopaedia which lists lots of collectable, such as cards and souls, along with combinations. You can also add a tooltip which lets you know you’re in an area with something you don’t have.

There’s one bonus game this time, Castlevania: Dracula X, which feels like a cruel reminder that they skipped a celebratory multiplatform release of Rondo and Symphony. It feels less like a bonus game (like the English translation of Kid Dracula) and more like they just forgot about the game when they made the Anniversary Collection.

The game does some with additional stuff, including a ton of concept art, box art and manual scans. It’s all in a single massive list with no organisation, but still a nice inclusion. There’s also the soundtrack from all four games, which is always nice, and you can choose between Japanese, North American and European versions of the game.

This is a collection of three great games, and Konami and M2 are improving on the additional features. I think the encyclopaedias for each game can reveal too much for people that haven’t played the game before, but it’s still a nice addition. It’s a great collection, with the biggest weakness being how some of the games had small niggles they romhacks sort out. Those changes would have been great for this.

Fun

So while the bells and whistles aren’t necessarily anything to write home about, the GBA games at the core of this Castlevania Advance Collection are easily worth the price of admission. I remain flummoxed and annoyed that Konami is holding Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night hostage for the time being, but hopefully that will be resolved someday.
Zachary Miller, Nintendo World Report

Remake or remaster?

It would be nice for this to be updated to be more in line with the the Dominus Collection, and some LCD filters added

Official Ways to get the game

Castlevania Anniversary Collection is available on all major platforms.