Retro Review: Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth

A Nostalgic Return to Old-School Whipping Fun

If you’re a fan of “modern” takes on retro gaming, or classic side-scrolling Castlevania, Konami’s Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth might be the perfect throwback for you.

Released for WiiWare (Nintendo Wii‘s equivalent of the modern day eShop), it’s the third entry in the ReBirth series, following Gradius ReBirth and Contra ReBirth. While based on the original Game Boy title of the same name, this remake brings numerous improvements and tweaks.

A Modern Take on a Game Boy Classic

The Adventure ReBirth isn’t a direct copy of its Game Boy predecessor—it’s a reimagining that preserves the essence of the original while introducing new challenges, updated visuals, and smoother gameplay mechanics. Fans of the series will appreciate the familiar yet fresh experience that honors its roots without feeling outdated (even in 2024).

This also happened to be the first Castlevania game I’d ever played to completion. That’s not because I disliked the franchise—on the contrary—I’d just never dedicated the time to master what are widely regarded as some of the toughest games ever made. But when The Adventure Rebirth launched on WiiWare, I finally gave it a download and committed to seeing it through.

A Rewarding Experience for New and Veteran Players

The game offers multiple difficulty settings, making it approachable for newcomers while still providing options for seasoned players seeking a challenge. If you’re new to Castlevania, I’d recommend starting on the easy mode. The gameplay can be tough at first, but thankfully, the game allows you to continue from the beginning of the stage where you died, rather than forcing you to restart the entire adventure.

Hardcore fans might find the overall difficulty less punishing than classic entries in the series. However, you can crank up the challenge by tweaking the settings in the options menu, reducing your lives, or selecting a higher difficulty.

With only six stages, the game might seem short, but at just $10 (at the time of launch), the package offers a great value packed with classic Castlevania gameplay.

All the Essentials of Castlevania

Everything you love about the series is here:

• Whipping enemies, and even walls to uncover hidden meat for health restoration.
• Utilizing a variety of sub-weapons to defeat challenging bosses.
• Carefully timing jumps across precarious platforms.
• Dealing with the infamous bats that make platforming even trickier.

While it doesn’t add any groundbreaking features, it serves as a faithful homage to the franchise. In fact, I’d take this over the Lords of Shadow (PS3, Xbox 360) entries any day.

A Visual and Audio Upgrade

Visually, The Adventure Rebirth is a significant improvement over the monochrome Game Boy original. It boasts colorful, detailed graphics that rival those of the Super Nintendo era, possibly even surpassing them in some areas.

However, perhaps due to its old-school aesthetic, the game doesn’t support 16:9 widescreen. If you’re playing on an HDTV, you’ll need to decide whether to stretch the image or stick with the classic 4:3 aspect ratio for an authentic feel.

The soundtrack features remixed tracks from earlier Castlevania games. While they get the job done, they aren’t particularly memorable compared to some of the franchise’s most iconic music.

Check This Out: Listen to the soundtrack for the game below.

Hard to Love

The game is easy to love…but only if you can find it. Unfortunately, it’s hard (if not impossible) to legally play this game these days. That’s because the game was limited to the WiiWare service on Wii, which has been shut down since January 30th, 2019.

Thankfully, fans can play the spiritual sequel to The Adventure ReBirth, the remake of Haunted Castle, in the 2024 release Castlevania: Dominus Collection on Nintendo Switch. The graphics, sound, and gameplay in that remake are extremely similar to this release.