Konami’s Rebirth series sucks

Posted by stephen - 10/11/09 at 01:11:24 am

Somebody had to say it.

I’m a huge fan of classic games, especially classic NES games. I’ll admit that I approached Capcom’s 8-bit sequel Mega Man 9 with apprehension, but after playing it and seeing that it was the real deal – a true 8-bit sequel with old school difficulty to match – it was like I was 12 years old again.

So, when I first heard that Konami was planning on releasing remakes of some of their classic titles through Nintendo’s Wiiware service, I was thrilled.

Unfortunately, Konami’s Rebirth series is no Mega Man 9.

Contra Rebirth

I started out with Contra Rebirth. I’m a huge fan of the original NES Contra, Super C, and Contra III: The Alien Wars but to put it bluntly, Contra Rebirth did not impress me at all. It came off like a short, poor man’s “Alien Wars” that was thrown together at the last minute by a team that thought a remake would be too boring, and trying something new would be too risky.

The music is annoying. The classic tracks have been remixed poorly, and the new tracks are not bad, just not memorable. The graphics don’t have the charm of 8-bit, nor the style of 16-bit. They’re somewhere in between, but nowhere interesting, just like the game itself: bland and uninspired. The result is a boring, unnecessary addition to the series.

To make up for the game’s obvious half-assedness, Konami seemed to try and add some sort of a campy, over the top story. This story is narrated between levels through nonsense dialog and still-frame one image cut-scenes. Several reviews seem to appreciate this, but not I. The Contra series has always been over the top with ridiculous action (e.g. hanging onto a missile in-flight with one arm while firing a huge automatic rifle with the other), yes, but it never mocked itself over it.

Gradius Rebirth

Disappointed, I decided to give Gradius Rebirth a shot. I was never a big fan of the Gradius series (Life Force being the exception), and this remake did nothing to change that.

Like Contra Rebirth, Gradius Rebirth is not a remake, but instead takes elements from several games in the series (Life Force/Salamander included) and puts them together with “updated” graphics that are not old enough to be retro, and not good enough to be impressive (even for 16-bit). Graphics aside, the problem with Gradius is that as a shooter, it has not aged well. Your ship, the Vic Viper, is incredibly slow and useless unless powered up. Even when it is, compared to other shooters in the shoot ‘em up genre (including ones much older) Gradius is tedious at best, frustrating at worst, and the rest of the time just boring.

Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth

My last bit of hope was saved for one of my all-time favorite Konami franchises, Castlevania. This game isn’t released in the West until November 30th, so I’ve been playing the Japanese version. The game doesn’t have much of a story or text, so aside from the one page intro text, I’m assuming the NA/EU release will be identical.

Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth is a remake of the old Gameboy title of the same name sans Rebirth suffix. Unfortunately, aside from the miserable 3D titles in the series that I will not mention (and refuse to link to), “The Adventure” is probably the weakest title in the Castlevania series. Also unfortunate is that this Rebirth title did little – aside from adding more new but bland 16-bit style graphics – to try and improve on that.

The level design is completely uninspired and easily the worst in the series. Virtually every stage consists of walking all the way right and going up stairs, followed by going all the way left, and going up more stairs.

All the familiar enemies are there (skeletons, hunchbacks, medusa heads, mermen), but they’ve never looked worse. Considering this game is a remake of a B/W original Gameboy game, and that all these sprites are new, I would think some effort would have been made to have them look at least as good as the recent GBA or DS games.

Why, Konami?

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh on this series, and maybe “sucks” is a bit too strong. More accurate would be “mediocre.” But I’m only being harsh because it’s disappointing to see something with so much potential to be great turn out to be so generic. The biggest problem with these remakes is that one common element is absent: love. I’m not sure how to define it, but I get the feeling these games are very disconnected from their predecessors. It’s almost as if the development team either weren’t huge fans of the franchises, or of classic gaming in general.

I love seeing old 2D games getting some attention, and despite these flaws, I hope this series is the first sign of more to come. The current old school gaming revival trend that we’re seeing in the industry is exciting, and it proves that there is room in the market for both classic games and latest-greatest big budget titles. That said, classics like this need to be handled with care.

November 10, 2009 | In Gaming | 2 Comments

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Pretty bad review. It seems like you were complaining about the games just to complain about them. These are 10 dollar games man,. For 30 bucks the rebirth series is a pretty good deal, and obviously most people agree or we wouldn’t be up to 3 titles in almost less than 2 years.

It’s a good introduction to the series for some noobies. I would NOT recommend anyone to play the previous Contras before playing this one.

Comment by rockman — December 29, 2009 #
I am Konamiman. You may remember me from Goonies II on the NES. I hate to say it, but you are correct. The first three editions of Konami’s rebirth series is a sad waste of time. The franchises are classic, and they either need to makes this series better or just do a complete sequel. I almost wish my name was Capcomman now.

Comment by konamiman — February 7, 2010 #

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