Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth

Set forth in search of Castlevania and the destruction of Dracula!

JP release: 27th October 2009
NA release: 28th December 2009
EU release: 26th February 2010
Developer: M2
Publisher: Konami
NGamer Magazine Review: 3/5
Platforms: Wii
Version Played: Wii

With the advent of WiiWare, Konami decided to create reimaginings of some of their classic games, including Gradius and Contra. For Castlevania, I guess Konami finally realised that they’d redone Simon’s first adventure enough times, so they decided to try something different: remake a bad game. The first Game Boy outing for Castlevania gets a new attempt. Really, calling it a remake of The Adventure is downplaying it a bit.

This is effectively a completely new Castlevania game that retells the story of Christopher Belmont, who actually gets named in this version. It has classic style Castlevania gameplay and a 2D graphical style. It looks rather lovely, with some really nice lighting effects. My only issue with the graphics are the large totems to depict if a door is a way forward or a backwards route.

The five levels (plus final boss) are all completely new, with alternate routes to find and a little bit of exploration, giving you a reason to play though multiple times. There are lots of moving parts, keys to find to unlock bonuses and minibosses throughout. It’s all really good.

There are some nods to the original game, such as the eyeball enemies (they don’t explode and damage platforms), climbing skeletons (you don’t climb yourself) and a flame whip power up , but it borrows many elements from later games, such as the giant skull enemies, Symphony style doors and just little touches. It ends up feeling like they had made a new traditional style Castlevania on PlayStation.

It’s a massive shame that the Rebirth line didn’t last longer, and the idea of remaking bad games is a great idea. It would have been nice for the other Game Boy games to get the same treatment. Either way, this game does deserve to stand alongside the other traditional Castlevania games.

Fun

This is meant to be a tribute to the series’ past – a pixely ‘treat’ for anyone who gets inexplicable goosebumps when a 16-bit sound chop parps out remixed tunes that they vaguely recognise.
Geraint Evans, NGamer Magazine #47

Remake or remaster?

This definitely deserves a re-release.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth