Wednesday, March 13, 2013

WiiWare Wednesday! Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth - Hours spent in Transylvania?


Coffee Beans
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth released for Nintendo's WiiWare service on December 28, 2009 in the U.S., at 1,000 Wii Points (which is $10). The game was developed by M2 and published by Konami, and received an ESRB rating of "TEEN" with "Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence" listed as content for parents and gamers to be aware of.

A brief description for the game on its Nintendo Channel page reads, "The classic Castlevania game is reborn for the Wii with all-new upgrades."

How many U.S. Wii owners have reported playing Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, and how many hours have they reported playing it? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!


The Brew
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth has approximately 16,044 U.S. Wii owners with gameplay data that has been reported through the Nintendo Channel. The game has just over 60,000 hours of gameplay reported, as the image shows, with 1,169 days possibly reported.

The average reported play-time is 3 hours 50 minutes "Per person", which averages to be about 44 minutes played per day/session.

The game has a "professional" critic review score average of 81.40%, based on 20 reviews on GameRankings.com. It has a customer review score, or "User Score", on MetaCritic.com of 9.3 out of 10, based on 31 ratings.

Based on the approximate number of players with reported data and the game's $10 price point, Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth's U.S. WiiWare release has made Konami about $160,440, since it released.

Caffeinated Thoughts
I played either the original Castlevania or Super Castlevania IV at a cousin's house when I was younger, but not since then. I don't remember which game it was, but I do remember using the whip in the game, and I thought it was really cool at the time.

If you haven't seen footage for Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, the short video below will give you an idea of the visual style for the game and some of the gameplay mechanics as well:

While Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth has a lower reported average played "Per person" than some other WiiWare games I have reported on before, I think it's interesting that Konami allowed M2 to remake the game for the WiiWare service.

Why? Well, Konami had already released the original Castlevania through the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2007, and had a few other Castlevania games on the Virtual Console service as well. Apparently though, Nintendo fans are Castlevania fans, and Konami probably saw some early sales numbers from the Virtual Console Castlevania titles and thought a remake would do well on the WiiWare service.

If you own a Wii or Wii U, and are interested in Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth you can still purchase it through the Wii's Shop Channel under the WiiWare section. You can also find the original NES Castlevania and Castlevania II Simon's Quest games, and the SNES Super Castlevania IV, on the Virtual Console section of the Wii's Shop Channel.

Questions
First, if you're a fan of the Castlevania games, do you have a favorite?

If you have played Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, what did you think about the game? Was it a solid enough remake of the original, and worth its asking price?

Also, while I may not own a Nintendo 3DS, I am aware of the new Castlevania game that released for it earlier this month, Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate. If you have played it, what do you think about it?


You can see a few Castlevania games below:

28 comments:

  1. I've never played this one before, but the trailer looks promising. Thanks for the informative post Coffee.

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  2. I haven't played this one, but I have played several Castlevania games over the years. For whatever reason, Simon's Quest is a sentimental favorite. Of course, I had an old Nintendo Power to get me through it, not really appreciating back then how difficult and unfriendly the game design really was back then, but that was my first Castlevania title. The most recent two I have played was the Lords of Shadow one on 360 about a year ago, and also the multiplayer online one, which was a neat idea but without the community behind it, made it almost unplayable. My son and I both tried the 3DS demo and liked it, though the critic reviews have been down on it for the most part. I have been buying a glut of games lately though, so this one is probably not a pickup for right now.

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  3. Some seemed to really enjoy it, and are hoping for other games from M2 in the future.


    Thanks for the comment!

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  4. "For whatever reason, Simon's Quest is a sentimental favorite."

    I looked at the data for all the games, and Simon's Quest had more Total Hours, but a lower average "Per person" reported.

    " also the multiplayer online one"
    Was that the Wii one, Judgment? Or, was there one also on the 360/PS3?



    As for the 3DS one, I haven't checked out many reviews on it, just some in passing. I read from either one comment or review, that it's a pretty long game compared to the older ones, but that's all I really know.

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  5. I'm a big Nintendo player, and have always been a Castlevania fan. ReBirth was on my radar from the minute it was announced, and I probably bought it the day it finally hit the U.S. I personally loved it, as it was the first classic style game in the series in almost a decade, and was just generally a great game, especially considering it was a Wiiware exclusive.

    As far as Mirror of Fate goes, I thoroughly enjoyed it, both as a step towards a more cohesive Castlevania experience from the new development team, and as a fitting modernization of the metroidvania formula everyone seemed to think was stagnating. Hope to see more on handhelds from Mercurysteam.

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  6. Howdy!

    Yeah... Simon's Quest was one that I got one year for my birthday and it had more of an adventure feel with some RPG elements that really appealed to me back then. It also was one of the first games - if not the first - that I recall having different ending stories (though none of them were amazing, but it gave me a reason to replay back then)

    Hm... that online one. One moment as I look it up (it was for 360). Here it was, Harmony of Despair:

    http://chalgyrsgameroom.blogspot.com/2011/07/castlevania-harmony-of-despair-xbox.html


    I loved the idea behind it at the time, but it was designed for multiplayer and I just couldn't find other players. if I could have even done local co-op, my son and I probably could have had some success with it, but it didn't allow for that even.

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  7. "I'm a big Nintendo player..."

    Do you have a Wii U by any chance?

    Being that you have played Mirror of Fate, do you remember how many hours it took you to finish that one? I've read it's a lengthier Castlevania game, but not sure how fast a fan of the series might get through it, versus somebody that hasn't played one in several years (or decades).


    Thanks for the feedback, and for stopping by!

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  8. " It also was one of the first games - if not the first - that I recall having different ending stories..."

    That's very interesting. Makes me wonder which game was the first with multiple endings, there goes my next 5 hours googling/researching...just kidding. BUT I did just do a quick google search, and didn't find a quick "list" of them. Could be interesting to see how many have multiple endings.


    I know you seem to enjoy fighter (Tekken, Dead of Alive) type games, so I thought maybe it was Castlevania Judgment.


    Kind of odd about Harmony of Despair not having local co-op, just online. Wonder why they didn't patch it, or perhaps that would have been too much work after it released.


    Thanks for the feedback again!

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  9. My favorite Castlevania would have to be Super Castlevania IV for SNES. I played that for the first time on the Wii (one of my first VC titles!)


    This was one of the Wiiware games I always wanted to get but never got around to it. I think I might have to invest in it sometime soon.


    I would like to also play Mirror of Fate for 3DS as well, but I feel like ReBirth might be the route for me right now since I'm more of a Classicvania type of guy.

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  10. I'll be honest - I always meant to pick Judgment up, but just never got around to it. As you mentioned, I do enjoy my fighters (I've played a glut of them in the last three weeks actually) - but it just never quite made the purchased list.

    I suspect that the design just didn't initially account for it. So basically in Harmony, there's no split screen. You can see the other players on a map, but you get the whole screen to yourself, so that's probably why local got left out since it would have sort of been a rebuild on how the visuals and display are handled, but that would have helped me out a ton personally since my son liked it, and I liked it, but it just doesn't make for a good single player experience.

    It's funny you looked that up, since I did the same thing yesterday! I read one forum post that mentioned Metroid as being the first game with multiple endings. I suppose that's technically true, and I didn't think of that when I posted, since depending on your performance in that title, you got to see Samus in differing amounts of armor - though there was no changing text of different 'storyline'. Metroid was in 1986.


    Simon's quest didn't come out until 1987. Like Metroid, the ending was based on how long it took you to beat the game. I believe I found 3 different endings to Simon's Quest back then - I'm not sure if there were any others or not.


    Sorry - this comment got a bit longer than expected! :)

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  11. Being that you have a Wii U, do you still have your Wii as well, or did you get rid of that when you got the Wii U?


    I'm really hoping the Virtual Console Wii U update goes smoothly, and that perhaps Nintendo can figure out if they're bringing over the WiiWare titles as well. Then games like Rebirth could be purchased and played on the GamePad (assuming they have standard controls).


    Thanks for the comment and feedback, and for stopping by again! Also, I don't know if your comment on the Alice story got eaten by the comment monster, but I checked last night the "pending" and there weren't any comments there.

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  12. "It's funny you looked that up, since I did the same thing yesterday! I read one forum post..."

    You got further than me, I was just looking at the links that appeared without clicking any. If the title/text doesn't catch me, I just keep on skimming.



    As for the comment length, it's interesting that Disqus did some update last week (I think) that automatically shortens longer comments and puts in a "read more" or "see more" button. I was like, "Just because I can write walls-o-text, doesn't mean they had to add a new feature!"


    Thanks for the comment/feedback again, also I did comment over on the link you posted up, yesterday.

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  13. Yeah I still have my original Wii, however, the disc drive doesn't work and coincidentally, the AV cables stopped working the day I got my Wii U (eerie :P). But as far as digital stuff goes I can still use it for that if I can get either the cable working again or buying a new one. But I would love for Wiiware games to be able to be played on the GamePad, it'd be really cool if they did that!


    (And I'll look into that post)

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  14. "Yeah I still have my original Wii, however, the disc drive doesn't work..."

    Seems that was a problem for many Wii consoles. Just read a post the other day on it, about a person's going out and them debating on sending it off to Nintendo, or trying to fix it on their own.

    "...the AV cables stopped working the day I got my Wii U (eerie :P)"

    Wow, that is pretty crazy. You can find a few "off-brand" cable on Amazon for under $10:
    1) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0011E4J2Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0011E4J2Y&linkCode=as2&tag=coffeew-20

    2) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000M4KIME/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000M4KIME&linkCode=as2&tag=coffeew-20



    Thanks for the feedback, again!

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  15. I really enjoyed this game. The Game Boy original is a game that many people love to hate, but for me there is a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in it - it was my first Castlevania game and first game I ever bought with my own money, and so I have fond memories of it (and on it on the 3DS Virtual Console).


    So when it game time to play a remake of it, with gameplay that wasn't so bad? Yeah, I couldn't say no to that.

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  16. Being that I don't own a 3DS, I'm not very aware of the games on the 3DS Virtual Console, but is the Game Boy collection a decent size?

    Seeing the eShop (on the Wii U) already having sales on games, really makes me hope that Nintendo figures out how to integrate the WiiWare titles with it, and perhaps let develops throw up some "sales" on them as well (though, that's gotta be a tricky aspect of it right now).



    Thanks for the comment and feedback!

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  17. Yes, there's a decent virtual console range (NES, Game Boy and Game Boy Color) on the eShop - it's probably my favourite 3DS feature right now.

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  18. Good to know the 3DS eShop isn't too shabby! There are some incredibly great prices coming up on the 3DS and 3DS XL systems here in the U.S. these next few weeks...very tempting to upgrade Bean 1 to the new system.

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  19. Great prices for the 3DS XL? when? I want to upgrade my day one 3DS :)

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  20. The 3DS XL (at least the new Pikachu one) should be on sale next week for $160 at Target, and rumored to be $150 at Toys R US. I think it's either starting this Sunday (March 24th) or Monday (March 25th).

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  21. Ohh! Thanks I will have to check that out :D

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  22. I'm getting my 3DS XL tomorrow at Target for $159.99 :D and will get 2x Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon on Toysrus with the Buy 1 get 1 40% off.

    By the way my 3DS L button stopped working (I'm going to try something later, i read that by blowing at it may helps)

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  23. Well, I hope you don't have any problems finding a 3DS XL in stock today (might want to check the site before heading out).


    Are you planning on keeping your current 3DS as well, or trading that one off?


    Thanks for checking back in!

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  24. I'm planning on keeping my current 3DS, to play MH3:U with friends. (WiiU<>3DS)

    By the way there's plenty of near-to-me Target stores showing "In stock" :D

    BTW
    # 3DS: 1676-3727-5141
    # NNID: Fedorenko

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  25. Ah, good reason to have some extra 3DSs around.


    Did you end up getting the new Pikachu one, or one of the regular 3DS XLs?


    Also, being that you own a 3DS, have you played Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate?

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  26. A regular Blue one, I just can't see myself holding a YELLOW pikachu one in public O.o hahaha

    Today or at least this week I'm getting 3 games for the 3DS (FE:A, LoS:MoF and MH3:U) and 3 for the WiiU (NFS:MWU, LCU and MH3:U)

    I played the demo of Castlevania, a 9/10 for me :D

    And also just got on a local store the one for DS Order of Ecclesia for 16 bucks :) Its hard... and rewarding haha

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  27. Castlevania Bloodlines is my favorite. Love this game though, picked up earlier in the month and don't regret it.

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