I am new to the DS and Castlevania series...

[syzygy]

I just got a DS and I would love to have a few more great looking GBA games to play on it.

In seeing the previews for Castlevania DS I am definitely getting this game. I know this is a long running series, so my questions are. What is/are the best looking Castlevania game? Is there a specific order I should play them before getting Castlevania DS?

What other GBA games look really good on a DS?

[kainemaxwell]

Order they came out:

Circle of the Moon
Harmony of Dissonance
Aria of Sorrow

[junglehunter]

Make sure to get the original Castlevania on GBA, unless you already have the NES version. :P

[blissfulnoise]

The game that revitalized Castlevania in the states was Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the PSX. All three of the GBA games are derivative of it (which in itself was derivative of Super Metroid).

I'd recommend starting there assuming you have a PSX. Most people would say SotN is in the top 3 PSX games anyway.

Of the three GameBoy Advance games, Aria of Sorrow was probably my favorite since it was more like SotN than the others, but Circle of the Moon has more than a passing likeness to the original Castlevania, so you won't go wrong with any of the three.

Don't worry about getting lost on the plots, they're all rather thin anyway and each can be played and beaten on its own without losing anything in translation.

But, if I were to pick an order to play them in, play them in the order of release, but start with Symphony of the Night if you can. You can get it new at Blockbuster for 9.99 in it's Greatest Hits release. Well worth it.

[GaijinPunch]

I like the last GBA one for some reason. It's got a lot of "new" stuff in it, which I liked... namely no whip, and picking up different swords. I know that had to make a lot of fan's asses pucker up, but I enjoyed the game immensely. I popped it in, and couldn't put it down, and I'm not a huge Castlevania fan.