After weeks of rumors, the Castlevania Advance Collection will launch for the Nintendo Switch later today. Like its name suggests, it includes the three original games released on the Game Boy Advance: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. It also features Castlevania: Dracula X, an SNES title based on Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
Circle of the Moon marked the iconic Castlevania series‘ debut on the Game Boy Advance in 2001. Harmony of Dissonance followed in 2002 and Aria of Sorrow in 2003. The three titles were popular enough that they rereleased on the Wii U in 2014. However, the Castlevania Advance Collection will be the first time they come to newer consoles.
M2, a studio that already worked with Konami in the past on its Castlevania Anniversary Collection, is handling the new GBA collection. This includes implementing the newly announced rewind, quick save, and button-mapping options to improve gameplay for new players. Regional versions of the games, along with a gallery of never-before-seen artwork, also sweeten the deal.
Castlevania is one of the most iconic platformers from the early 2000s. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night especially stuck in gamers’ minds with its mix of platforming and RPG elements. It even inspired part of the term “Metroidvania” — a type of platformer adventure game. It’s a different protagonist most of the time, though the vampire-filled, supernatural setting stays the same. Count Dracula haunts the world, whether he happens to be up and about in that particular game or just affecting it through history.
Castlevania leaks sprang weeks before the official announcement at the recent Nintendo Direct. According to its ESRB Rating, Castlevania Advance Collection will also come to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in the future. Konami just hasn’t announced it yet.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.