AHHH I want to see, but I don't want to ruin it...I'm just going to pretend I never saw this.

I'll take any decent-to-great Classic Castlevania game over those sheeps in wolves clothing that have been calling themselves Castlevania any day!

Release date, Please!

@GEM
I do not like SOTN or its spawn. However, my problem isn't with the games themselves. Their existence doesn't bother me. What did/does bother me is that they basically stopped making the Classic Castlevania's (which I vastly prefer (and whose gameplay I associate Castlevania with)) once SOTN became a success. All Classic Castlevania fans got were very distant releases (2 of which were mainly remakes). As such, I'm ecstatic to see the classic-style return with Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth. I'm hoping that it ends up successful, so that the Rebirth won't just stand for Konami's dipping their toe into WiiWare, but also for a Rebirth of the classic-style games themselves.

Hot. Looks like my kind of Castlevania!!!

@ Brandon- You just pooped on my party.

:(

Christopher's sprite looks kinda funny. I think his walking animation is too smooth compared to how he jumps or cracks the whip.

That sure as hell won't stop me from downloading it, though. I'm liking the re-used Bloodlines music. It'll be great to play a Castlevania where enemies can actually kill you again. One where nothing is scarier than a bunch of bats and a non-swimming pool.

For those that have been sleeping - Order of Ecclesia meets classic and post-SOTN Castlevania in the middle, which I feel is actually better than either. I don't mind the SOTN style or classic style, but I do object to the lack of mobility in the classic games, something they seemed to have strive to maintain rather than fix in most Castlevania remakes so far. That always disappoints me.

Ninja Gaiden on the NES was based on Castlevania's design, but Ryu Hayabusa had all the speed and agility the Belmonts save for Richter and Julius have lacked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=_lc2rgNXL7Q#t=27

Kinda strange that they ripped the stage 1 music from Bloodlines :o Nwm its AWSOME!

Yeah i knew they would work on this game, it looks so interesting so i won't spoil myself, i'm glad it got epic music.

Maaaaannn! They don't make Konami soundtracks like that anymore! I mean, besides this.

This looks so fun! I can't wait. Just played through Dracula X Chronicles this week, and I'm on a massive CV kick again. Good times...


Good times.

Looks entertaining. And the music is awesome! Michiru Yamane, I heart you.

About the SON vs. The Old Guard argument, and what Fistfulofawesome just said about it being all about forward movement - i`m not so sure. To me, playing the explorative Castlevanias post SON IS in fact all about foward movement. I`m a big 2D platformer fan, and the post SON `vania games offer this up in abundance.......just not in a linear fasion like the earlier games. Playing Aria Of Sorrow, or Portrait Of Ruin, i`m constantly thinking about getting to the next zone, to see the graphics, and hear the next bit of cool `vania tunage. The exploration is more of an illusion of sorts. It's still a 2D platformer where you advance, left to right, or right to left, it is still 'forward movement'. Or are you specifically saying you prefer moving left to right? Surely that`s a kind of directional prejudice. And kind of illusory as far as incorporating it into an argument saying the SON games are about exploration rather than forward movement. They are about non-linear, explorative forward movement, but mainly just forward movement (even if its right to left). Point being, you rarely explore THAT much in the SON esque titles. You might do it at some points, or if there are tasks to do so (side quests of sort), but the bulk of the game is just 'forward' movement.

I`m sure if you cut your teeth on the older `vanias, then you surely hold them in higher regard. But, clearly, SON was a (highly successful) creative attempt to improve on and expand the Castlevania template. People talk as if they are so different. It is still mainly about forward movement in SON, just that the design of the game realised the frustrating, linear approach of the death-sends-you-back-to-the-start style could be improved upon by save n` health replenshiment points. Then i`m sure they realised if they are doing that, they could do back-tracking, and optional routes, and exploration. All just expansions of the formula, for the better, surely. I totally get that people want to stroll down memory lane, but, come on, the formula was definitely improved with SON. You`re still getting what you got into Castlevania for, but a more multi-dimensional helping of it. Basically, lots of pretty gothic platformy zones to explore and progress through fighting demons and beasties, to aweseome music, until you reach a boss and move on even further. ALL castlevanias do this. The SON style just makes it last longer, and makes it deeper and less frustrating.

SON Got me into the whole thing, after failing to really click with `vania in its previous incarnations. I used to listen to the Castelvania 4 soundtrack on a loop, but was never that interested in playing it to the end, because it seemed a little wooden and backward, and linear, even in the SNES days. Surely, more control, fluidity, and nimble-ness is better as far as control goes? Alucard controls like a dream. Perhaps, when they came to play SON, a lot of Old Guard lovers were so dissapointed in the movement away from their beloved formula that they didn`t quite notice what a phenomenal platformer SON was, and a lot of the GBA and DS games have been since. It`s like, i`m sure there are people out there who have let their retro-goggles get in the way of them enjoying neo-shooters like Ikaruga, just because of the pace and fluidity and slickness of the new shooters. People bemoan the anime-ness of the DS games, then moan when the more gothic Order Of Ecclesia is too hard. People are just too hard to please! Order of Ecclesia is a top, top Castlevania game, and it is incredibally unlikely this Rebirth title will be anywhere near the quality of it. Seriously, I feel sorry for anyone who loves `vania and hasn`t played OOE, Aria Of Sorrow, Portrait Of Ruin et al, because they are all incredible games. Just saying. I think if people are trying to argue that the old style `vanias are better, then, we have a serious retro-goggle issue going on. That`s just my opinion, of course. And i`m nearly 30, so am not some whipper-snapper, before someone quips at me.

If you really do wanna play as a constipated, achingly slow muscle man who can barely jump, then that`s your bag of fish and, er, not mine. Gimme Shanoa or Soma Cruz any day. Saying that, i`m still up for this game, `cos i`ll take what `vania I can get.

But, alas, hooray for Castlevania, old and new ^-__-^

@FistfulOfAwesome

I completely hear you. And on you highlighting the platforming pureness of the older games - I mostly agree. For sure, the older `vanias rely on more platforming. But not THAT much. It`s more just move right and slash with the whip(And yawn while the constipated git takes half a day to get up a flight of stairs that Alucard would just double jump in seconds!). In this sense, apart from the directional-change-up of SOTN, the old and the new guard are still similar. And, no matter what way you look at it, SOTN is still at least half (if not more) a true platform game, and its offspring even more so. There are areas in SOTN, Aria Of Sorrow, POR and especially Ecclesia that demand platforming skills. And in Ecclesias case, hardcore platforming skills. I just don`t see them as different as you do, but, clearly, you love that slow burning whip-cracking grind of the older games.

I totally disagree, though, that SOTN et al are 'like being stuck someplace you don`t know and trying to find out as much as you can'. Hmph? It is a progressive actiony platformer (like shinobi) with RPG esque explorey ELEMENTS to me. You seem to feel the exploration is all that is occurring, when, clearly, it is about action and progression, and in a far more linear fashion than you make out. The game is still designed with a difficulty curve that pretty much dictates only one or two routes through the castle. To take the older modality and make it explorative in this way would of been painful, purely because the character control is so sluggish and heavy - which, incidentally, I just see as a limitation of the era, with the more nimble, controllable Alucard as the ushering in of a sleeker, more refined and controllable version (which also thus allowed for said explorey elements to be woven into the `vania fabric).

But, both clearly have their fans, so that`s that. And i`m not saying anyone`s an old fogey - `cos i`m near enough one myself! 30 in a few months...

Alucard vs. Simon Belmont? ;)

Well, I`ll feel that, in all fairness, I couldn`t continue to debate this, as I really haven`t played much of the older games, whereas you have clearly played all the newer ones in their entirety. Plus, i`ve jumped in here to defend what I saw as some negativity towards the post SOTN games, but really this is about Rebirth and the older modality rearing its head again, and I don`t want to be a buzz kill. So, I`ll take your word for it - that the controls etc. were all intentionally rigid (and the jumping etc). I will try and get round to playing some of the older ones at some point. And this Rebirth title could be a good place to start....I`m loving the mega-drive esque chip sound to the music. And the music itself is clearly aweseome. What is the track name for the theme in level one?

I guess I just love the whole Castlevania vibe (which is something ALL the games share), but prefer the more fluid controllable, more gentle levelling up style of the latter games. And if i`m completely honest? For me the music is nearly 50% of why I like these games. The adventure through the 2D castle, to Michiru Yamane`s tunes, with some nice nimble anime jumpy/slashy action and lots of odd beasties. Oh, and the challenge. Ecclesia was a BITCH.

This is all subjective anyway huh?

Happy vampire hunting back atcha!

Excellent, excellent. I`ve briefly played Super Castlevania and it`s sequel on the SNES....but my main connection with the former is the music, which I used to listen to over, and over, and over. That was my first realisation at the immensity of Yamane`s awesomeness.

Nice. I love that tune. Thanks for the link! Will be keeping my eye on this game, waiting to pounce when it arrives. In the meantime, i`m halfway through replaying SOTN, ironically. But, fear not! I am indeed going on a classic Castlevania mission soon. Time to not download a not emulator and raid the roms. Or dust off my SNES and find a second hand copy of SC. That would be sweet...Actually, that`s what i`m gonna do. And replay Secret of Mana while i`m at it! Oh yesssssss.

A bomb just got dropped! I`m off to discover the composer of the Super Castlevania soundtrack. I know Yuzo Koshiro (also frickin excellent) has contributed to the scores on some of the DS games (in union with Yamane), but I`m unaware if he did the older games pre-Yamane...

Yikes!