Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (Wii) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Konami's 2009 action-platformer for the Nintendo Wii, Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth.

Played through on the normal difficulty mode.

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth is a "reimagining" of Castlevania: The Adventure, originally released on the Game Boy in 1989. It is also the final game in Konami's ReBirth trilogy, a line of retro-styled "throwback" sequels to the company's most popular franchises from the late 1980s. It was only ever sold as a WiiWare title - there haven't been any ports of it to other systems, and you can no longer buy it from the Wii Shop Channel.

(Alright Konami, wanna take a breather from your pachinko tomfoolery to release the series on the Switch for us?)

And just like the Gradius and Contra ReBirth games, Castlevania is an unbelievably solid and faithful tribute the series. It was produced by Koji Igarashi, who worked on many of the series' classics (Symphony of the Night, Chronicles, the GBA games, et al), and the soundtrack was all done by Manabu Namiki (an insanely prolific games composer - just look him up!), so there's was some really solid talent behind the game, and it really shows.

The most obvious draw for the game is the graphics and sound. Stylistically, it seems to be going for look that's distinctly 16-bit, though the number of colors and sprites being tossed around the screen at once far exceeds what you'd see on the SNES or Genesis. Maybe early 90s arcade hardware would be a more appropriate comparison.

Either way, it nails the look and the sound perfectly. It looks just like an early 90s Castlevania game, but it's upgraded just enough to look like you probably remember them - you know, how after enough time goes by, you start remembering things looking much better than they actually did? The music is comprised of remixes of classic Castlevania tracks that sound like they're playing on late 80s Konami arcade hardware - it pleasingly blares heavy FM synth and low bit-rate drum samples with all of the bombast that the company was famed for with their sound design back in the day. It's amazing.

The gameplay hits its target, as well. Being based on the original Castlevania: The Adventure, the mechanics are slightly different from the arcade and console games, but it all feels comfortably familiar. The level layouts are entirely different, but the game still casts you as OG Christopher Belmont running about destroying rolling eyeballs with his fire-flinging whip. There are a few things introduced too, including subweapons and multiple paths through stages. And, for real purists, there's an option to use the super-stiff NES style controls, and if you like a challenge, you'll probably want to use them. Otherwise, the game is a bit on the easy side for Castlevania.

I really, really liked Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth. The only thing that I can knock it for is that there's not much to it that's original. I appreciate how faithful it remains to the series, but they played it pretty safe. That's not really a complaint, especially considering how well-made it is, but I can't help but think that it could've been even better if only had they been willing to take a few more risks. It's an excellent game, regardless, and is far, far better than most throwbacks of its type. It feels like old Konami, and it feels great.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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