Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth (Wii) Playthrough

A playthrough of Konami's 2009 action-platformer for the Nintendo Wii, Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth.
In this video, I play through the game twice, each time taking different routes through the stages. The first, beginning at 0:45, is played on normal with "normal" controls. The second, beginning at 54:53, is played on hard with "classic" controls.
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth is a reimagining of Castlevania: The Adventure ( • Castlevania: The Adven... ), originally released on the Game Boy in 1989. It is also the final game in Konami's ReBirth trilogy, a WiiWare-exclusive line-up of retro-style sequels for the company's most popular franchises of the late 1980s
Like the Gradius and Contra ReBirth games, Castlevania is a thoroughly solid and faithful tribute the series. It was developed by M2 with Koji Igarashi in the role of producer, and the soundtrack was handled by Manabu Namiki (an insanely prolific game composer - just look him up!). There was quite a bit of talent behind the game, and it shows in the quality of the final product.
One of Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth's biggest draws is its aesthetic. Stylistically, it aims for the look and feel of the 16-bit era, and though the number of colors and sprites being tossed around far exceeds what would've been possible on SNES or Genesis hardware, the highly detailed, low-rez graphics and the synthed-out soundtrack make it a dead ringer for an arcade release circa 1990.
The music is a remixed collection of classic Castlevania tracks, and the heavily layered FM horns and organs blaring over crunchy orchestra hit, guitar, and drum samples hit with the same level of toe-tapping bombast as Konami's eargasms of yesteryear - games like TMNT, Sunset Riders, and Super Contra.
The gameplay also nails the mark dead on. Being based on the original Castlevania: The Adventure, the mechanics are slightly different from the arcade and console games, but it all feels comfortably familiar. The game still casts you as OG Christopher Belmont, a dude who climbs ropes and destroys eyeball boulders with a fire-flinging whip, but it also incorporates elements from the later 16-bit games, like its subweapon selection, locked doors, and stages that feature multiple paths.
And, for the true purists, there's an option to toggle between two control styles: "normal" gives you the same level of flexibility as you'll find in the 90s console CV games, while "classic" reverts to the super rigid NES-style controls. Between the control and difficulty options, the game caters to both newbs and pros alike, and the hidden paths and unlockables give it quite a lot of replayability.
I really, really liked Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth. It's an excellent game that stands far above most throwbacks of its type, and it feels like a long-lost Konami game that someone unearthed two decades after the fact. It's awesome.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocom...) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!

[@NintendoComplete]

Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth is an incredible throwback to Konami's glory days. Why is this not on the Switch yet?

[@therealseanw.stewart2071]

'Tis but a dream, but I'd also love to see Konami release the Castlevania DS trilogy some day. I adored those games as a kid. We have seen DS games work on Switch before like how Capcom handled the Mega Man ZX games in the Legacy Collection, so it can be done.

[@jblue88hoodgamer54]

I missed this game.

[@AndrewSouzaGames555]

Yes

[@DavideGendo]

One of the last moves of the Konami of old. I love that soundtrack clearly based on the style of their games, especially arcades, in the first half of the 1990s. A damn shame that it can't be played legally nowadays. Only observation I have, the astethics are more "32 bit" than "beefed up 16 bit".

[@MurseSamson]

Well that's interesting. I've never even heard of this game, and it doesn't look too bad! Thanks for the playthrough ⚰️🎃🏰🦇

[@85futureshock]

The Rebirth games are absolutely amazing. They sound and look like games that could have easily been on the Konami hardware of the late 80’s and early 90’s. Some of M2’s finest work. Shame they are locked behind WiiWare. They deserve to be seen again.

[@AltairEgo1]

And yet we somehow get a Haunted Castle remake before Rebirth ever sees the light of day again 😂

[@therealseanw.stewart2071]

This is nostalgia like no other. Not many things in this world are more sacred than the Wii menu.

[@wallacesousuke1433]

🤢

[@J1R629]

That New Messiah remix is one of greatest pieces of music I have ever heard in any video game. Manabu Namiki is an absolute genius.

[@jacobh9268]

Yeah! I totally agree with you

[@alexh2790]

I wish they kept "Battle of the Holy" that music was the one thing in the original that didn't totally lack. Maybe even include more tracks from Belmint's Revenge, that games ost is flawless.

[@coomtothebroom778]

Bought this game day one of its release and loved every bit of it. Lots of paths to take and a great tribute to the classic Castlevania style. Nice job on this playthrough!

[@nelsong4254]

kinda cool that these people are the same developers of the haunted castle revisited game that is on the dominus collection.

[@AltairEgo1]

Of course. I'm not surprised my boys from M2 could deliver a second time. Hopefully they can get a crack at porting their other titles over to modern hardware. Especially Castlevania Rebirth.

[@beng6149]

This game was awesome. Amazing soundtrack too. God I miss classic Wii Ware. Going home from school excited to see what dropped each week. I didn't get a ton but it was always great.

[@NintendoDude888]

To me, this is Rhondo of Blood 2!

[@SonicTheHedgehog17]

They turned one of the weakest Castlevania games from the GBC and turned it into an awesome remake. I wish they could give a similar treatment to another title in the series as well, Castlevania 64

[@derpyguytheshygamer3283]

Just asking, if i were to want to play 64, should i get both 64 and legacy, or just legacy since i heard its just 64 but with two more characters to play as?

[@SonicTheHedgehog17]

@@derpyguytheshygamer3283 legacy is the expansion of basic 64. I think the two original stories of Reinhardt and Carrie are still there, the new ones are for Cornell and Henry, so yeah, Legacy is better

[@derpyguytheshygamer3283]

@@SonicTheHedgehog17 ok, then, if i can hunt a copy i'll give it a shot. Thanks.

[@Don_Porculio]

They just did this with Haunted Castle

[@thecowboy2]

8:17 Eye'm impressed how fast you took that thing down.

[@0utrunner237]

The Wii was practically the Retro Revolution. Of course we had the Rebirth series, but plenty of games that hadn't been seen in forever were being revisited. Excitebike, Bubble Bobble, Blaster Master, freakin Adventure Island!! So many series were being given another chance whether they still had a dedicated fanbase or not. I guess that was the benefit of Wiiware games being quick and cheap to make. Like hell you'd see Star Soldier ever being given another chance on PS5...

[@AltairEgo1]

That's what I've been saying. Wii was retro revival. I think Switch is sort of like a second home for those types of games, what with its weaker hardware. I use it to play a lot of them ported over it.

[@MasterRBertLink]

I still have no idea why this game wasn't included with CastleVania Anniversary Collection.

[@SuperWillixD]

i played this game for the first time a few weeks ago, and it's such a great game

[@MisterPancake778]

This is honestly one of the best WiiWare titles that went _poof_ with the Wii digital store closing down, excellent game.

[@Lady_Graham]

You can actually still access the game if your up to homebrewing it

[@Kykai3212]

Couldve been better if drac said the exact same lines as the one in SOTN

[@skunknuts1]

Really wish Konami would release a Rebirth Collection...

[@chiarosuburekeni9325]

Would be super easy to do. It’s free money

[@beng6149]

I'd laugh if they lost the source code

[@BlueAizu_]

​@@beng6149 A Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth-ReBirth may be necessary

[@bigoof9654]

​​@@beng6149 M2 most likely still has the engine to make the game since Haunted Castle Revisited plays very similar to ReBirth. EDIT: For some context, M2 is the developer of the Konami Rebirth games.

[@mikedski9698]

Christopher Belmont Is At It Again! CASTLEVANIA THE ADVENTURE REBIRTH! On Nintendo Wii! From Konami! Christopher Belmont: I'll Kill You AND The Night!

[@lc3212]

I feel completely stupid. I had a Wii for the longest time loved it and somehow I never knew about this castlevania game/remake. My close friend and I were discussing our hopes for another castlevania collection specifically a collection of the 3d games on the ds and ps2 (lords of shadow to us would be it’s own trilogy remaster if Konami ever did those) sotn ported to switch with rondo of blood and when talking about bonus games he mentioned this to me. I swear if I knew this was on Wii I would have been playing it lol. Can’t believe this. It looks awesome.

[@nightmarearcade2663]

I'm surprised they never added this game to any of the castlevania collections. They've been more than willing to add more obscure titles before such as kid Dracula and haunted castle including a straight up remake of it as well. I don't see why they've ignored this for so long especially when it's nearly impossible to play legitimately.

[@mikeg2491]

The new Haunted Castle brought me here

[@SomeOrangeCat]

This game felt like an earnest apology from Igarashi, for that horrible Castlevania Judgement fighting game.

[@NintendoComplete]

😂 I loved Castlevania Judgement. Not a great game, but I really enjoyed it.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@NintendoComplete Compared to what the 360 and PS3 were getting, it was a slap in the face.

[@Geneolgia]

Castlevania Dominus Collection just came out recently, it's an amazing collection of the DS games but it also has a remake of Haunted Castle, which gives me hope that there could be a re-release of Adventure Rebirth in the future if there's another collection.

[@deandresinclair]

I can hardly imagine if they added a war zone in the background. That would be great

[@ElWeyChingon]

Wish this was on one of the collections…the OG game boy version was hell

[@starshipchris4518]

I would strongly consider sacrificing various parts of my anatomy for Nintendo to open up their library more fully, especially for rare games like this...

[@alexh2790]

I forgot to mention, did anyone tell the sound team that this isnt a TMNT game 😋

[@RaidenRkD]

I remember really enjoying this one when it first came out. A fun game with a fair and satisfying challenge that definitely hit that "classic Castlevania" itch I needed back then. And what a missed opportunity to not include each of the Rebirth titles in the Anniversary Collections, especially since they were all handled by M2.

[@Prime-1111X]

Haunted Castle Revisited brought me here

[@Guilherme-cw3rh]

This game has a lot of references to Castlevania Bloodlines

[@SENTRYXX]

Needs a collection this Castlevania

[@Soddarkryder]

1:49:04 nice clutch

[@ElFreakinCid]

I missed out on this game and no one has successfully emulated it, nice to see such a great playthrough so I can at least watch how cool the game is! Also, great job taking so little damage and keeping the good ol' Jesusrang (as I like to call the cross subweapon) on hand so often!

[@ElFreakinCid]

And now I get to add an update, it seems someone out there finally got a rom of this game to work!

[@p6mkq]

16:12 Stage 3 is the best!

[@thecowboy2]

7:18 ♫ Giant eyes, are chasing you ♫

[@GuillermoDelTotoro]

Missed opportunity to call it the Wii-Birth

[@thecunninlynguist]

It's a shame that without piracy this would be lost forever. Wish Konami would re releases all 3 rebirth games

[@Paccyd33]

how did you make the graphics look so good, i'm playing on original hardware and all of the colours are so light

[@AndrewSouzaGames555]

Cool!

[@NinjaxShadowXx]

I wish they continued with series and remade Belmont's Revenge for the Game Boy in this style

[@The80sGuy]

Hello @NintendoComplete ! How are you ? I'm trying to reach you but I don't know or where to send you a message. Thank you :)

[@NintendoComplete]

You can get me at the channel name @ Gmail

[@deandresinclair]

​@@NintendoCompleteI already subscribed to your channel

[@AndrewSouzaGames555]

Castlevania Snes ❤️

[@SNKBossSyndrom]

I didn't know the game is that good. Only got Contra Rebirth back then. Well, time for some emulation ^^

[@maestrolodahl8681]

That unique Konami sound/music is initially recognized by us Konami fanboys :) (feks. arcade music/sounds from Sunset Riders, Vendetta etc :) :) ) And on and on :) Frakkin`LOVE it! :) :) :)

[@amso7169]

did you record this off a real wii with an upscaler of some sort, or was this recorded via emulation?

[@NintendoComplete]

It's emulated. I was using settings that matched the real Wii's output and I nearest neighbor-upscaled the footage from 480p to 4k.

[@derpyguytheshygamer3283]

​@@NintendoComplete if possible, is it ok for you to explain how to emulate this game? I never emulated a game before and would like to try this game.

[@LM77va]

I never knew this game existed 😱

[@superstaramyrosethehardcoreyt]

Super video.

[@evildeadmitch]

Awesome! Thank You!

[@theraymunator]

This game fucking rocks. It sucks that it's abandonware.

[@Trucnguyen-yf1ii]

castlevania symphony of the night ?

[@RgxSnowy]

:( sadly its not on Castlevania collection i always want to play rebirth

[@AkiraJoelPerez]

Yugioh vs cardcaptors

[@LM77va]

Fully playable on Dolphin emulator. It even works on mobile devices ;-)

[@brentcanfield8883]

Yeah, but with the excessive slowdown it's almost like it doesn't even matter😥

[@lordcolinb]

😊❤

[@southbronxny5727]

Meh....it was ok.

[@angelwest398]

Muy infantil

[@ThatNoizyChild]

Bruh why do you waste time killing things that don't need to be killed? If it's not in your path don't waste time and possible life.