There's not much to say really. If you already know the story, this was one of the last Castlevania games released by Konami before leaving the franchise into oblivion, however, this particular game is even more unknown because it was exclusive to Wii and was only distributed in the digital store (currently closed).
In itself, this game is a return to the roots that retakes the most classic gameplay of the series. At the same time, in order not to mess with the official chronology, it was decided that the game would be a reimagining of the infamous Castlevania The Adventure for the GB, a game that I'm sure no one will mind being replaced by this one.
Talking more in detail about the gameplay, this is the basic one as always, the only notable change is that now you can redirect your jumps without restriction (although there is a game mode that retakes the classic control, which was the one I played by accident), this time there are no weird mechanics or balancing like in the original Adventure, in this game there are sub-weapons as well. I appreciate the attempt to recover those ideas and concepts from the Game Boy original, for example, the whip that throws fire projectiles is something that exists, but as it would be too broken in the long run, a time limit was added and it's also a power that you can lose when hit. My only big complaint, is that this game has no save system, no password system, so you have to finish it in a single play session, which is quite annoying. I for example, mistakenly opened the game in classic mode, and when I realized that the game was not completely designed for that control scheme it was too late, as I already had a lot of progress and did not want to start the game from the beginning, so I had to suck it up and finish the game in that mode which frustrated me at times.
The level design first starts off quite friendly even for casual gamers, it starts off as one of the easiest and simplest Catlevanias games in terms of difficulty, which makes you have a nice time because of how smooth it feels to control Christopher Belmont, however, once you advance to Stage 5 everything becomes considerably more difficult and tedious, so you will have to have a lot of patience and skill if you want to have a chance to beat the game. I like how in this section the game feels like a breath of fresh air, as there are alternate paths and doors that need keys to be opened, however, it's no big deal either, and most of the time the only thing you benefit from taking the alternate paths is in getting more points, and not as such in significant rewards.
The game looks too good in terms of its scenery, there I have no complaints, in fact I wish all games that want to mimic the retro era had this look. It's a detailed pixel art, but also stylized, there is one or two sprite reused from a past game, but in general all the other sprites are original from this game, and I quite like the use of colors given, it perfectly matches the kind of atmosphere I expect from a Castlevania game. I played this game in a modded Wii, so I used the option to disable the deflicker filter, which made the image look sharper and got an especially remarkable result on a CRT TV.
The music is just too cool. There aren't any new songs, as the soundtrack is made up of pure remixes, but boy are they really good remixes that take on some of the more obscure and underrated tracks in the franchise, just listen to this song.
Conclusion
Overall, it's a great title, although I must say that it doesn't present anything we haven't seen before, in that sense it's just another Castlevania adventure, that if you're in the mood for something with the classic formula will satisfy you.
In itself, this game is a return to the roots that retakes the most classic gameplay of the series. At the same time, in order not to mess with the official chronology, it was decided that the game would be a reimagining of the infamous Castlevania The Adventure for the GB, a game that I'm sure no one will mind being replaced by this one.
Talking more in detail about the gameplay, this is the basic one as always, the only notable change is that now you can redirect your jumps without restriction (although there is a game mode that retakes the classic control, which was the one I played by accident), this time there are no weird mechanics or balancing like in the original Adventure, in this game there are sub-weapons as well. I appreciate the attempt to recover those ideas and concepts from the Game Boy original, for example, the whip that throws fire projectiles is something that exists, but as it would be too broken in the long run, a time limit was added and it's also a power that you can lose when hit. My only big complaint, is that this game has no save system, no password system, so you have to finish it in a single play session, which is quite annoying. I for example, mistakenly opened the game in classic mode, and when I realized that the game was not completely designed for that control scheme it was too late, as I already had a lot of progress and did not want to start the game from the beginning, so I had to suck it up and finish the game in that mode which frustrated me at times.
The level design first starts off quite friendly even for casual gamers, it starts off as one of the easiest and simplest Catlevanias games in terms of difficulty, which makes you have a nice time because of how smooth it feels to control Christopher Belmont, however, once you advance to Stage 5 everything becomes considerably more difficult and tedious, so you will have to have a lot of patience and skill if you want to have a chance to beat the game. I like how in this section the game feels like a breath of fresh air, as there are alternate paths and doors that need keys to be opened, however, it's no big deal either, and most of the time the only thing you benefit from taking the alternate paths is in getting more points, and not as such in significant rewards.
The game looks too good in terms of its scenery, there I have no complaints, in fact I wish all games that want to mimic the retro era had this look. It's a detailed pixel art, but also stylized, there is one or two sprite reused from a past game, but in general all the other sprites are original from this game, and I quite like the use of colors given, it perfectly matches the kind of atmosphere I expect from a Castlevania game. I played this game in a modded Wii, so I used the option to disable the deflicker filter, which made the image look sharper and got an especially remarkable result on a CRT TV.
The music is just too cool. There aren't any new songs, as the soundtrack is made up of pure remixes, but boy are they really good remixes that take on some of the more obscure and underrated tracks in the franchise, just listen to this song.
Conclusion
Overall, it's a great title, although I must say that it doesn't present anything we haven't seen before, in that sense it's just another Castlevania adventure, that if you're in the mood for something with the classic formula will satisfy you.