Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth Review

Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth is the third and perhaps most impressive entry so far in Konami’s arcade-style WiiWare titles (the first two being Gradius Rebirth and Contra Rebirth).  The title, available for download exclusively on WiiWare for 1,000 Wii Points ($10), retells the first adventure of vampire hunter Christopher Belmont in what is essentially an entirely new game.

Unlike the recent Castlevania titles for the Nintendo DS, Castlevania Rebirth ditches the Metroidvania style of gameplay where you unlock portions of Dracula’s castle and level up in a non-linear, RPG/Metroid-like format, and instead harkens back to the straightforward NES days where you progressed from one level to the next in a linear fashion armed with only your whip, your subweapons and nerves of steel.

The gameplay itself is simplistic but fun, giving an appropriate nod back to the series’ roots in arcade-based gaming.  You can whip only left or right and have your typical subweapons – the cross, axe, dagger, stopwatch and holy water – with which to venture through the six levels of Dracula’s castle.  The subweapons behave just as they did in the early Castlevania games, but Christopher’s whip retains a unique feature from the original version of The Castlevania Adventure – the ability to shoot fire.  Though unlike the 1989 game, this ability only lasts for a short while.  But thankfully, each enemy hit Christopher suffers from no longer annoyingly downgrades his whip.

Each level features a plethora of custom-drawn enemies – it was a relief to see some new character designs after so much recycling in the Metroidvania titles – as well as a final boss and even some sub-bosses to challenge your arcade gaming skills along with occasionally difficult platforming sections.  Defeat the boss and you’ll be rewarded not with an upgrade to your stats or a new skill, but with a sense of accomplishment and yet another challenge via the next level.

The levels themselves are surprisingly well constructed with a fair balance of enemies, platforms and even destructable environments (you can crumble statues with a crack of the whip or even drop chandeliers on top of unsuspecting enemies) that provide a constantly fun and challenging journey.  Konami has even given subtle nods to the original title with oversized, rolling eyeballs of doom (a common enemy in the 1989 game) and dangling ropes that mock old-school veterans such as myself who remember Game Boy title’s abundant use of rope climbing in place of stairs.