Castlevania in it's original 2D Side-Scrolling goodness!
User Rating: 9 | Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth WII
They took Castlevania the Adventure from the GameBoy and revamped (or Rebirth-ed) it, and gave us another action-packed spooky morsel from Konami. Only qualms? It took too long to be released and it's kinda short. (Spoiler Alert: There's only 5 levels; the 6th is a couple of corridors leading to Dracula's room, where you can rack up loot from candles but there are no enemies to fight until you get to Drac. So it's a boss level only.) The gameplay is classic Castlevania-style - it's why fans are fans. The 3D releases in this series have always been a let-down. But now it's back to the side-scrolling goodness. The graphics are beautiful, the music is great (as usual), and the game-play is difficult and challenging. Sometimes, with the classic Medusa Heads flying about, the difficulty spikes - but these are to be expected. The great thing about that is that all settings can be modified and saved. If you don't like starting out with 3 lives, you can go to the options menu and set it to start with 9. The default Difficulty setting is "Normal", which can alternatively be set to Hard or Easy. Also in the options menu, the game-play style can be toggled between "Normal": A more forgiving and modern style, or "Classic" which starts the game with the older style where there is no jump-correction and you are tossed about if an enemy hits you (and an enemy will hit you... believe that). The game has no save feature, and unlike Virtual Console games that offer a save-state type function when you exit to the Wii Menu and return at a later time, this one has no such mercy. But, as stated before, the game has only 5 levels with the 6th being the boss battle with Dracula, so set aside around an hour to play the game to completion and you'll need no save feature.
ratings:
Graphics: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Difficulty: Difficult - To be expected of the series.
Story: Explained in a classic scrolling text at the start of the game, and summed up upon completion. Basically, it's as expected, you enter the premises and try to get to Dracula's room to destroy him.
Controls: 9/10 for the "Normal" mode. 6/10 for the "Classic" mode which is there only to frustrate you to insanity.
Duration: 6/10 - The game needs to be longer. Konami should have added a few extra levels in there. But there are some secrets and alternative paths to take on some levels which add to the replay value.
Replay Value: 7/10 - Would have been higher if the game was longer. The secrets and great game-play almost make up for it though.
Overall: Great game. I have been Jones-ing for some side-scrolling classic-style Castlevania for a too long now. It's nice to look at, has nice music and sounds, it's challenging, and you'll want to play it again. If you're a fan of the series, you'll love it. If you find difficult game-play to be frustrating, you'll probably throw your controller at the TV and look like a nut-case. I recommend playing it.
