Spirits & Spells (Game Boy Advance)

Spirits & Spells
Also known as: Castleween (EU), Mahou no Pumpkin: Ann to Greg no Daibouken (JP) Developer: Magic Pockets Publishers: MTO (JP), Wanadoo (EU), DreamCatcher Interactive (US) Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: April 24, 2003 Released in US: November 2, 2003 Released in EU: May 30, 2003 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences.

Hallovania.

Build Info

Game	ROM Address	Text
Castleween	0x3F89B0	HALLOWEEN Sep 24 2002 18:10:13
Spirits & Spells	0x3EAAF0	HALLOWEEN Jan 30 2003 18:41:51
Mahou no Pumpkin	0x3F19D4	HALLOWEEN Mar 11 2003 16:48:04

These build infos that are similar to other games by Magic Pockets can be found in the ROMs for all versions, Castleween, the earliest build, was compiled 2 months before the original PS2 version was released and 7 months before it was released on GBA. Spirits & Spells was compiled a whopping 9 months (!) before the game was released. Mahou no Pumpkin was the last version to be compiled, just a month and 2 weeks before it was released.

All of these build infos refer to the game as Halloween, this was the original title for the game.

Unused Graphics

Hidden Images

The following JPEG format images were extracted from Spirits & Spells. The first two images also appear in Road Rash: Jailbreak whereas the second image appears in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. The third and fourth images are unique to Spirits & Spells. The images appear in all releases of the game. It is currently unknown if there is a code that will cause the game to display these images or if they were simply used for padding or testing.

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The first picture has クレモン (KUREMON) written in Katakana. Going by the credits for the game and other hidden images from F1 2002, it may be Clément Cordé, an in-house programmer. Weirdly, in Castleween only 21 out of 25 images can be extracted, one of the images that can't extract is the menu background, which is used in the game. The only hidden image that can be extracted from Castleween is the fourth one.

Title Screen Backgrounds

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While these graphics are used they can't be seen in full normally. The mountain background has a hidden part that looks like the sky background.

Regional Differences

Publisher Logo

America	Japan

• Mahou no Pumpkin and Spirits & Spells have their respective publisher's logo before the Wanadoo and Magic Pockets logos.

Wanadoo Logo

International	Japan

• In Mahou no Pumpkin the copyright date was updated to 2003. Despite this though all versions of the game were released in 2003.

Language Select

Europe

• Castleween has a language select screen that is completely absent from Spirits & Spells and Mahou no Pumpkin, which only have English or Japanese text repectively. The background image is present in all versions of the game but it goes unused in Spirits & Spells and Mahou no Pumpkin since they only have English or Japanese respectively.

Title Screen

Europe	America	Japan

• The title is completely different in every version of the game; Castleween in Europe, Spirits & Spells in America and Mahou no Pumpkin: Ann to Greg no Daiboken (魔法のパンプキン 〜アンとグレッグの大冒険〜, Mahō no Pankin 〜An to Gureggu no Daibōken〜, Pumpkin's Magic: Ann and Greg's Great Adventure) in Japan.
• Mahou no Pumpkin has another sprite in the title screen for it's subtitle (Ann to Greg no Daibouken), this sprite is completely static unlike the main title which has a scaling effect.

Main Menu

International	Japan

• Load Game and Options switched places in Mahou no Pumpkin's main menu screen.

Save Feature

International	Japan

• Mahou no Pumpkin has a battery save feature, Castleween and Spirits & Spells use passwords instead.

Training Mode Message

International

• In Castleween and Spirits & Spells the training mode has a message saying that the explanations there work with configuration nº1. This message is not present in Mahou no Pumpkin.

Cutscene Text

• The cutscene text in every version has different speeds, in Castleween when the text appears and dissapears it does it slowly unlike Spirits & Spells and Mahou no Pumpkin where its way faster.
• When you scroll the text in Castleween and Mahou no Pumpkin its a lot slower than Spirits & Spells. The font also has minor graphical glitches when it scrolls in Castleween and Mahou no Pumpkin.

Collectables

International	Japan

• Mahou no Pumpkin replaces the Sparks from Spirits & Spells and Castleween with Crystals to match the console version.

Difficulty

International	Japan

• In Mahou no Pumpkin, the Normal mode was replaced with a Easy/Beginner mode where you start with 5 lives instead of 2 and the levels have fewer enemies.

The Doorway to the World of the Dead

International	Japan

• In The Doorway to the World of the Dead the starting position is slightly different in Mahou no Pumpkin.

The Frozen Crypts

Europe

• In The Frozen Crypts you can go through a wall in Castleween, it isn't possible to do in Spirits & Spells and Mahou no Pumpkin.

The Tall Tower

Europe	America/Japan

• One platform in The Tall Tower has a missing tile in Castleween, this was later fixed in Spirits & Spells and Mahou no Pumpkin.