Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (2009)
Konami
Impression published on Tuesday, 2010-01-05 | Videogame | 4 stars
I laughed out loud when I saw that Koji Igarashi decided to give himself top billing as the producer of this very excellent, very retro Castlevania title.
Very few games that have been released in recent memory could be further than this A+ study in compositional excellence, sentimental fidelity and design minimalism than Igarashi's lazily hashed-together button-mashers with their emphasis on gender-bending cosplay and the tedious collection of useless items. The idea that the same piece of trash who brought you Soma Cruz, Castlevania: Judgment and the PSX remake of the original NES game that portrayed Simon Belmont as a red-haired gym-rat in a strapy S&M onesie had anything meaningful to do with this game is...well, it's laughable.
And so I laughed.
Because really, what you've got in The Adventure ReBirth--which, to its inestimable credit, has no unlockable features, no alternate endings and, thank Christ, no magic spells or ninja swords--is a Belmont (Christopher) in a sleeveless maroon tunic (white breeches and riding boots) who shows up at Castle Dracula with nothing but the Vampire Killer and a burning need to go One-Man-Army on the Forces of Evil and whip dudes in the face. And, to kick this dead horse one more time for good measure, I can't think of anything that reminds me less of Igarashi's series of regrettable experiments with this once-great franchise than a protagonist who does not rely on his delicate features, keen fashion sense and twinkling toes to prance around the Throne of Chaos until a powdered-wig, silk-sashed, dandy-Dracula squawks flamboyantly, spills his apple-tini, keels over and dies of envy.
And, while we're on the subject of Dracula, C:AR's showdown with Dracula, like almost every other detail of this title, epitomizes that its developers, designers and planners understood from the first exactly what Castlevania has always really been about: raging out and furiously whipping dudes repeatedly in the face. In each of his forms, Dracula is only vulnerable, you guessed it, in his face. The three forms are these: classic fireballs-from-the-cape humanoid, giant bat creature and giant floating face.
The giant floating face, since it's the last form, obviously requires the most face-whipping of all.
The level design is classic, the platforming clearly meant to be reminiscent of Dracula's Curse and the mini-boss/boss pairings are complimentary in both an aesthetic and design sense: the slow moving, flying giant bat is paired with the fast moving, rolling giant eyeball; the very small, flying, projectile-hurling witch is paired with the very large, stomping, giant-fist throwing golem. The minimalism I mentioned above gives the progress through the levels a very "clean" feel: the march towards the Throne of Chaos feels inevitable and there are no baroque design shenanigans to distract from Christopher's prime objectives (i.e. "seek" and "destroy").
Which is not to say that the minimalism is punishing or that the game feels lonely or unintentionally stark: the music and the backdrops are lavish and layered, and there are, of course, some very choice homages in the bestiary to classic Castlevania titles. The high production values and tasteful fan service keep the "no frills, no new crap, nothing fancy" design philosophy from becoming over- or under-whelming and the incredibly solid control is just right.
Basically, a this game is about a Belmont who looks and (more importantly) handles like a Belmont, plodding through classic Castlevania environs, mercilessly whipping faces. And it is wonderful.
I'd say that the following quote from The Hustler sums it up nicely:
No bar, no pinball machines, no bowling alleys, just pool: nothing else. This is Ames, mister.This is Castlevania, mister.
