Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth

is the first entry of Castlevania in the "ReBirth" series of Konami's WiiWare games. It is a reimagining of Christopher Belmont's first adventure in Dracula's Castle in Castlevania: The Adventure.
As of January 30, 2019, the Wii Shop Channel has been discontinued, meaning it is no longer possible to purchase this game.
==Plot==
From the game:
:Count Dracula, a demon king with a once great demonic power who seeks to hold the people of this land in the grip of terror!
:Time after time, throughout history, Dracula was defeated by the Belmonts, a family of vampire hunters who brought peace to this land.
:100 years have past since Dracula's demise, and with the fear of him gone, he rose again along with his castle to scourge the land with his evil.
:With such a tragic history repeating itself, Christopher, a descendant of the Belmonts, decided to stand up for humanity against the demon. He alone seeks to infiltrate the dark castle where demons run rampant.
From the instruction manual:
:This goes way back...before the era of Simon Belmont.
:The evil Count Dracula built his castle in the suburbs of Transylvania, summoning monsters from the other world by using innocent people as sacrifice.
:Now that Dracula has become a demon king, Christopher Belmont from a long line of vampire hunter ancestry set out on his journey to Dracula's castle in order to defeat him.
Ending:
:When the dust settled, Christopher stood tall. The evil scheme of Count Dracula was thwarted by a single vampire hunter. Peace has been returned to Transylvania.
:With this, a new legend in the history of the Belmonts came to pass to be talked about for generations, but this would not be the last...
==Characters==
==Gameplay==
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth plays more in the traditional style of the original Castlevania than the game it is based upon, Castlevania: The Adventure (for example, it features traditional stairs instead of ropes). The objective of the game is to guide the whip wielding heroic vampire hunter, Christopher Belmont, through six stages, facing a miniboss midway through most of them, and confronting a more powerful main boss at the end of each one, with the last boss being the main antagonist of the game, Count Dracula. The game also features five sub-weapons the player can use (Dagger, Axe, Cross, Holy Water and Stopwatch), while the original game had none. It also features Keys that unlock secret doors.
The whip upgrades are the same as those from the Game Boy games, meaning they come in the form of Crystal balls, with the first upgrade turning the Leather Whip into a Morning Star, and the second one turning it into a Fireball Whip. When this last upgrade has been acquired, a gauge located below the player's HP bar will fully fill up and will then start depleting in time, lasting only 30 seconds; once it has completely depleted, the whip will turn back to its Morning Star state and the ability to throw fireballs will end. The fireball upgrade can then be reacquired by finding another Crystal ball (while still in possession of the Morning Star). There is no way to replenish the fireball bar until it has expired, as no further Crystal balls will spawn until then. Contrary to The Adventure, the whip won't downgrade when damage is taken, only after its special power has burned out.
The game is characteristic for featuring lots of branching paths, which can take the player to areas that feature very different environments from one another within the same stage, but which all eventually lead them to fight the same end level boss (for example, the second stage mainly takes place in the castle's entrance, but if the player does not find the key to lower the drawbridge, then they'll traverse an underground cavern instead).
Additionally, many rooms are characteristic for featuring two separate paths within the same screen, one on the top and another at the bottom, often forcing the player to choose one while dismissing the other. In this regard, the player can also find Keys hidden inside some candles that can be used to open locked doors to reach these secondary routes. Most of the times, there isn't much difference between these paths other than finding different items in candles and different enemy arrangements.
The countdown timer has also returned in The Adventure ReBirth, shown in the lower right corner of the screen.
The rooms found within the stages are also characteristic for being very similar between them, where instead of presenting a uniquely designed scenery for the player to traverse like in previous games, in ReBirth, the same tiles and assets are often used to construct new layout configurations, resulting in some rooms looking very similar to each other. In this regard, as the game progresses, rooms eventually tend to turn more like obstacle courses, where each room presents a challenge comprised by its unique enemy placement and/or environmental hazards, where the player has to figure out how to deal with the "puzzle" presented in order to reach the exit door.
As in previous games, sub-weapons usage is fueled by Hearts; these are mainly acquired by striking the many candles and statues found throughout the levels (among other furnitures), with the former generally dropping Small Hearts, and the latter Large Hearts. Coins and Money Bags can also be obtained this way, which add to the player's score upon pickup, and once it reaches a certain amount, an extra life is awarded. Candles that burn with a green flame contain either a sub-weapon or a Key. If a Key is picked up, it will replace the player's current sub-weapon, disabling them from its usage until the Key has been used or lost and a new sub-weapon has been acquired.
==Reception==
The Adventure ReBirth garnered positive reviews, achieving a Metacritic score of 78/100 based on 22 critic reviews. Game Informer's Tim Turi praised its audio and noted that it was a better game than Castlevania: The Adventure though still felt it was "unforgiving". In 2011, Robert Workman of GameZone ranked it as the 10th best Castlevania game and complimented Konami for making this game in light of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.
==Notes==
*By returning to title screen during gameplay, Classic Mode will be unlocked. In Classic Mode, Christopher can't control his movement in midair and only two sub-weapons can be used (Cross, Holy Water) as well as keys. The Fireball Whip power-up will also end as soon as the player is hit.
*If the game is played on the Easy difficulty setting, the game will end after defeating Dracula's second form, thus players don't have to fight his third form.
==Trivia==
*Most of the music in this game is reused from other games, generally lesser known titles in the series (Bloodlines, Haunted Castle, etc).
*A remix of the music track "Battle of the Holy" from the original game can be found as a bonus track in the Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth & Contra ReBirth Original Soundtrack, alongside the track "Lost Painting", but goes unused in the game.
*According to a tool-assisted speedrun, this game has a glitch where, if Christopher touches a section door and takes lethal damage at the same time, the "area transition" process overwrites the "death" process, such that Christopher becomes invincible until he picks up any health recovery. This glitch is known as "Dangerous Zombie" in niconico community.
==See also==
*The Adventure ReBirth Bestiary
*Adventure ReBirth Inventory
*
===Related games===
*Castlevania: The Adventure - The original game this is a reimagining of.
*Gradius ReBirth - The first game in the "ReBirth" series of WiiWare games.
*Contra ReBirth - The second game in the "ReBirth" series of WiiWare games.
*Haunted Castle Revisited - A remake of Haunted Castle featured in Castlevania Dominus Collection, featuring similar gameplay mechanics to The Adventure ReBirth.
===Related music albums===
*Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth & Contra ReBirth Original Soundtrack - Includes the soundtrack for this game.
*Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth - Original Video Game Soundtrack - The vinyl soundtrack for this game.
*Music from Akumajo Dracula Kuro - Includes the soundtrack for this game on disc 12 and 13
==External links==
*Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth Confirmed By Nintendo at Kotaku
*MobyGames
*Preserved at Internet Archive
*Product page at Konami (archived: February 10, 2012)
*Product page at Konami Japan (archived: July 4, 2017 - Japanese)
*Product page at Nintendo WiiWare (archived: September 10, 2019 - Japanese)
*SPOILERS: Full game of Castlevania Rebirth on YouTube at Destructoid
*There's Castlevania Rebirth footage somewhere in here at Destructoid
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