(Or, more accurately, to his heart content, as this game requires you to collect expendable hearts from candles in order to use subweapons.) In short, this is assuredly a throwback to Castlevania days of olde. This feels more in line with Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, the pinnacle of the NES trilogy, where the vampire hunter hero climbs stairs awkwardly and tosses giant axes to his heart's content. Gone is the distinct LACK of any sub-weapons. Gone are the really narrow platforms for awkward jumping tasks. Gone are the endless supply of ropes for climbing. (The introduction cleverly features screenshots from old games to illustrate the long journey of the Belmonts.) Christopher Belmont is back, and he's finally getting the action he deserves with this re-awakening of his previous quest. If you've played one Castlevania game, you know the story: member of the Belmont clan takes on Dracula, kills Dracula with a whip, then looks buff outside the crumbling castle. Otherwise, it actually felt somewhat generic. In fact, the only brawl I found even remotely connected to the term 'mind-blowing' was a gigantic stone golem boss whose head I couldn't even see until I defeated him and his entire body collapsed. It's too bad most of the enemies are less than impressive. Many cool-looking special effects help the situation considerably. It's somewhat comparable to the SNES titles, but a little nicer and cleaner. This game's graphics don't look like any other game in the series. Unlike retro revivals like Mega Man 9, Castlevania ReBirth takes a different approach to its presentation. And it's not bad, if not a tad on the uninteresting side. Aside from the retention of a few memorable ideas, this is basically an entirely new Castlevania platformer, built from the ground up. Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth is a reboot of that old gritty Game Boy gutterball, but mostly in name only. Of all the games you could've pulled inspiration from, why did it have to be the WORST entry in the series? Then again, if there was ever a Castlevania title that needed a complete makeover, this was it. And then, finally, it came: Castlevania: The Adventure ReBi. Contra ReBirth followed suit, paying tribute mostly to Contra III: The Alien Wars on SNES. It was Gradius Gradius ReBirth ended up being a re-imagining of classic levels from the franchise. Then, two decades later, light burst from the clouds above, and its beams landed on the WiiWare platform, where Konami announced a 'ReBirth' of one of its classic franchises. And then, time slowly forgot it, save for a brief revival as part of a Konami compilation on the Game Boy Color (only in Europe and Japan).

Above all else, it was a quick cash-in on one of their popular franchises at the time, and it dragged that name through the mud. The gameplay was sluggish like a government mule and felt as though no one from Konami had ever seen, played, or heard of Castlevania while preparing it.

It made the neighbourhood cats hide for days. So Castlevania: The Adventure on Game Boy was pretty horrific.

Gradius rebirth gameplay