Having come to the realisation that most games covered by pre-2010's YouTubers are nowhere near as bad as they are made out to be (see: Daikatana, Simon's Quest, Takeshi's Challenge, Sonic R, etc.) it continues to astound me how reviled Castlevania: The Adventure still is. By no means is the game objectively great or anything, but it's spoken about in the same hushed whispers as Bubsy 3D and Superman 64. This feels a disservice to the first portable Castlevania and an outright overblowing of its shortcomings. My own rating of the game at five stars might be an over correction of this scorn, but I genuinely adore this game.

I first played Castlevania: The Adventure as a gaff when it was included in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. I bought it purely for the first NES game and Kid Dracula but dipped my toes in The Adventure's waters to at least see what the hubbub was about. Back in 2011, JonTron uploaded a 'Drunk Gaming' video on the game where he derided it just as he would Black people and medical realities in the years to come. His misrepresentation stuck with me as I worked through The Adventure and found his criticisms to be either unfounded or hyperbolic. And when Dracula was felled the only thoughts in my head were 'what's the problem here exactly?' and 'that kicked ass.'

What people get caught up on the most for The Adventure is its movement. Christopher Belmont moves laboriously at a pace identical to most of his enemies. His jump is a commitment, his swing so rigid as to betray the flexibility of a whip. In another game this would be a fair point of contention, but as Vee already highlighted in his excellent Castlevania review, "Belmont movement fucking rules." The name of the game here is intent rather than reaction. This is apparent from the first stage's floating bricks. The pixel perfect precision demanded for progress leaves no room for error even as an enemy swoops towards you. Should you fail, you tread back to the start of the section and try again. The enemy returns every time. This is not a cruelty on Konami's part, but a deliberate test of the player's skill and ability to stay calm under pressure. The stakes are low here, they will be debilitating later.

The Adventure does have areas of insidiousness, particularly in stage two's ropes. If the player chooses incorrectly at the first set, they meet a dead end and are forced to use a continue. I have little defence for this, but its position near the start of the level means little time is wasted; it feels like a little joke. The gauntlet in the third stage is downright dismaying in its scope yet remains one of my favourite parts of the game. Here too does The Adventure insist upon keeping your cool. There is room to make up for a few scant mistakes, but there is no time to dilly-dally. March forth with confidence, your leaden feet like the unceasing momentum of a steam roller. This need to persevere is seen as well with the few instances where the only feasible way forward is to use your limited invincibility powerup maximally. Reviews decry that these sections necessitate the pickups as poor design, but I see it as deliberate, conscious design. It operates similarly to segments in Mario titles where you pickup a Star and a plethora of enemies lie in your path. Certainly one could eschew this boon and risk harm, but the creators wanted the tool provided to be used.

The lack of subweapons might hurt the game if it weren't designed around their absence. The fireball shot from the whip effectively functions as a knife, however, so I don't believe we're missing out. The Adventure's reduction in the Belmont repertoire asks for a full understanding of the most basic elements of a Castlevania game: jumping, whipping, moving. Even the removal of stairs in favour of ropes is in service of jumping gameplay as seen in stage three. Having enemies generally perish in a single hit from the upgraded whip is in service of the intended unabated path. The hesitant player is hit, the hesitant player gets a weaker whip, the hesitant player has to abide by the game's stricture to get back to an optimal state. The bosses in The Adventure aren't amazing by any means, but they too crumble into dust if the player avoids letting things get too hairy. The Under Moles of stage two are a great example. They appear at a perfect pace where they can be dealt with individually without issue. Should the player dawdle or miss their mark, their problems have compounded and made the fight all the harder. This isn't a test of proficiency, this is a trial to see how steadfast a Belmont can be.

I love this game for what it is. I don't bemoan it for what it isn't.