If an Australian Classification Board rating is anything to go on, it appears Castlevania’s Game Boy Advance entries are going to find a home on new systems. The Castlevania Advance Collection has been rated for a multiplatform launch, and the listed developer should have fans very excited.
The rating page on the Australian Classification Board website, which was just published June 18, gives the collection an M rating, which is not the same as the ESRB’s M rating–it’s more in line with a T rating and doesn’t require any sort of restrictions on purchases.
No individual games are listed on the page, but a compilation with this name will almost certainly include Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow–all of which original released for the Game Boy Advance. The three acclaimed games were built on the metroidvania formula established in Symphony of the Night, which would become the standard for the series for about a decade.
Konami, naturally, is listed as the publisher of the collection, and M2 is listed as the developer. M2 has done excellent work on porting retro games for years, and it partnered with Konami to create the software for the TurboGrafx-16 Mini console, which itself included a Castlevania game, Rondo of Blood. That game is, for some reason, even getting a re-release on the long-discontinued TurboDuo console via Limited Run Games. M2 also developed the Castlevania Anniversary Collection back in 2019.
Though we haven’t gotten information on any brand-new Castlevania games since Lords of Shadow 2 released more than seven years ago, the animated Netflix series has received critical acclaim over its four seasons and it’s getting a sequel series, as well. Still, we sure would like to pick up the Belmont family’s famous Vampire Killer whip again, ourselves.
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