Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Playthrough (Game Boy Player Capture) - Part 1

[Note: This video and description were originally posted on Youtube on October 9, 2015.]

This is part 1 of my capture of me playing through Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for the Game Boy Advance. This is not an emulator and was not played on the Wii U Virtual Console. This footage was recorded directly from my GameCube using my Game Boy Player with progressive scan mode enabled (you'll need the GameCube's component cables to do this and your model of GameCube must support component out as well).

Being the huge Nintendo fan that I am, I picked up an Arctic-color Game Boy Advance on its release date in 2001 as well as Super Mario Advance and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. Circle of the Moon single-handedly made the system launch worthwhile for me. I had never played a "Metroidvania" title before this, but I was a huge fan of action RPGs (such as Zelda II and Castlevania II), so it was really exciting going from the old-school Castlevania titles to this one. I played this game all the time back in the day and even leveled my original save file to 64 (it's still on the cartridge as you can see in this video).

Circle of the Moon is a really fun game, but there were complaints shortly after its release about it being too dark and too hard to see on the original Game Boy Advance, which caused Konami to make the next Castlevania game (Harmony of Dissonance) much brighter. Ironically, the Wii U Virtual Console version of this game appears to be slightly darker than the original cartridge version.

I compared my footage side-by-side with some Virtual Console footage and saw a noticeable difference in the brightness levels, which is something I've also noticed with NES Virtual Console games. Some of Nintendo's emulation is really good (the 16-bit stuff seems great from what I've experienced), but other stuff is not up to par. However, if you're interested in playing Circle of the Moon, the Virtual Console version is still the easiest way to go.

When the Game Boy Advance was released, Nintendo Power ran a quarterly special publication called Nintendo Power Advance that only covered Game Boy Advance games. The first issue provided complete maps for Circle of the Moon, so that's what I'm relying upon for this playthrough. Sadly, Nintendo Power Advance ended after just four issues, but the later Castlevania titles (Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow) were still covered in the standard Nintendo Power issues.

In this first part I completed the Catacomb area and obtained the Dash Boots and Double Jump.

Cerberus boss fight - 17:45

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and the GameCube's component cables at 60 frames per second. I'm using an original model Game Boy Advance as a controller via a GameCube/Game Boy Advance Link Cable.