The boss battles are at least reasonably well designed, with the Coat of Arms ghost (originally appeared in Dracula X and has shown up in other games) finally being promoted to full boss status, as well as a new vampire chick, appropriately fulfilling the "sexy bad girl" quota started around Dracula X. But because they're so long, and the graphical design so similar, it never feels like there's much distinction. Each usually has some kind of theme - the first stage is outdoors, the second has an underground segment, the third is full of dungeon-style traps, and so forth. The stages themselves aren't poorly designed, but they all tend to blend together. You can sort of fix this by bumping up the difficulty level, but even that doesn't solve the larger problem.
It requires more skill than your average Metroidvania, but only barely. Like all of the other Rebirth games, this game is pointed more towards a casual audience, and is therefore quite a bit easier than any average Castlevania titles. The original NES Castlevania certainly isn't as feature rich as its successors, but it still remains not only extremely challenging, but also very tightly designed. In many ways, it feels like a regression even back before the 8-bit games. The only real concessions to progress are the ability to change directions mid-jump (which can be disabled) and the branching paths, which offers slightly different ways through certain parts of each level, in some cases avoiding mid-bosses.
These go beyond the little things, like the inability to pick up dropped subweapons or jump on or off stairs. It's weird, then, that the Castlevania Adventure Rebirth is a step back from the 16-bit games. Other than some similarities between the NES game and the X68000 one, these are all entirely different games.) (The original NES game, Super Castlevania IV, Haunted Castle, and the X68000 game. The only real reason it's associated with this title, probably, is so it can fit easily into the Castlevania timeline, something which IGA seems to take very seriously, and the original Castlevania has already, technically, been remade four times. In the Gameboy games, this was downgraded if you got hit, but here it's just powered up for a limited time, regardless of how much damage you take.
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The only elements it retains are a few of its distinctive enemies, particularly the rolling eyeballs, and the ability to upgrade to a flame-shooting whip. Castlevania Adventure Rebirth has stairs and subweapons, and six totally new levels with completely new bosses. The Castlevania Adventure was an oddity, removing the traditional stairs and replacing them with ropes, and removing subweapons altogether. Well, none of that actually matters, because Castlevania Rebirth patterns itself after The Castlevania Adventure, the first Gameboy game. You'll even find a few sadomasochistic people that love the X68000 Castlevania/PSOne Castlevania Chronicles because it's so damned challenging. Still others like Dracula X, with its bright anime graphics and expansive branching paths. Others like the griminess and setting of Castlevania Bloodlines. Some prefer the moody atmosphere and friendly controls of Super Castlevania IV. No one can really agree about the "best" 16-bit Castlevania game. As a result, it just felt like a step backward. On the other hand, Gradius Rebirth felt more like Gradius II - a decent game in its own right, but pretty much everyone agrees that Gradius Gaiden was its pinnacle (at least, as far as classic Gradius is concerned).
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Contra Rebirth took after Contra III on the SNES - again, usually deemed the high point of the series - and turned out excellent. Konami's Rebirth series hasn't been quite as consistent.
It was intentionally patterned after Mega Man 2, since that release was largely considered the pinnacle of the series, even though it lacked some of the features from the later games. Since they're obviously built to trigger a sense of nostalgia, they really need to put some effort into the actual design so it doesn't smell like a cash-in. The recent trend of retro updates is trickier than it initially seems. Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth (2009)
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