In concept, Castlevania: The Adventure is really remarkable. This early gameboy adaptation explores mechanics that continue to be taken for granted in the console releases, and has the most interesting level design in the series up to that point. One problem though, the game is broken.

I really love the whip concept here. I've always felt that the whip powering up in Castlevania seemed like an afterthought. You're never left with a depowered whip for more than a few seconds, and since there is no way to lose it, why shouldn't the player simply spawn with the full power whip? The Adventure answers this, by making the whip's individual stages each feel remarkably different, and making losing your power an active threat.

The stages are also really cool. Each comes with a full suite of elements that make them feel distinct. A specific highlight is stage 3, with it's focus on crushing spike traps.

Sadly, all of these interesting ideas are functionally worthless in the face of The Adventure's performance. The game is in near constant slowdown. This leads to inputs being constantly dropped by the game. With The Adventure having the slowest Belmont so far, this directly caused me to die many times. It's a shame, really.