Switch Limited Run #198: Castlevania Advance Collection Ultimate Edition

The GBA Castlevania trilogy gets the oversized treatment it always deserved. Switch Limited Run #198: Castlevania Advance Collection Ultimate Edition for Nintendo Switch packages Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, and Aria of Sorrow into a collector's set that makes your old GBA cartridges proud. This Ultimate Edition is massive in both scope and shelf presence.

The oversized GBA collectors box sets the tone immediately. Inside, you'll find a shadowbox that lights up and plays music, a SteelBook, a classic silver box with metallic ink, hand-drawn GBA game maps by Jeremy Parish, an 18"" x 24"" reversible poster, mini cart keychains (They don't work but they tickle the nostalgia muscle, know what I mean?), lithographs, dual set-up system cards (If you love Circle of the moon that is a dream come true), all alternate cover sheets for the game, and more. Every piece connects back to the GBA era in some meaningful way, from the cart-shaped keychains to Parish's meticulously crafted maps.

The Advance Collection represents a golden age for portable Castlevania. Aria of Sorrow alone is regularly cited as one of the best GBA games ever made, and Circle of the Moon was the game that sold many of us on the GBA hardware in the first place. And if it was your first Castlevania, that rendition of "Kyrie Eleison" is forever burned into our minds as a gothic classic. These were the games we played under lamplight and squinted at on the original non-backlit screen, and they've earned every bit of this premium treatment. The shadowbox and silver box give this set serious display credentials, while the maps and lithographs reward closer inspection. For Switch collectors and Castlevania devotees alike, the Ultimate Edition is the crown jewel of the Advance era.