Castlevania: The Adventure
GALLERY
RELEASE INFORMATION
Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Konami
Released date(s)	October 27, 1989 (Japan) December 1989 (United States) September 28, 1990 (Europe)
Platform(s)	Game Boy
Media(s)	512-kilobit cartridge
Rating(s)
CREDITS
Director(s)
Designer(s)
Composer(s)	S. Fukutake Norio Hanzawa H. Funauchi
GAMEPLAY INFORMATION
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player

Castlevania: The Adventure (known as ドラキュラ伝説; Dracula Densetsu lit. The Legend of Dracula in Japan) is the first Castlevania game for the Game Boy. It was released in Japan on October 27, 1989 and in North America on December, 1989.

StorylineEdit

Count Dracula resurrected in the year 1576, one hundred years after his death at the hands of Trevor Belmont and his team of heroes. At that time, the Count's one hundred year resurrection cycle became evident. Christopher Belmont's blood called for him to challenge Count Dracula, and seal his evil nemesis away for another one hundred years. Christopher battling through Dracula's army in a cemetery.

With Vampire Killer, the very same whip that Trevor used to first destroy the Count, Christopher set off toward Dracula's Castle, passing through a graveyard, cave, and booby trapped tower before reaching the Dark Lord's dwelling. Christopher met and defeated Dracula in battle, and afterward escaped the castle before it could crumble atop him.

On a hillside cliff, Christopher watched the Castle decimate into rubble and walked away from the site of his victory, reassured that he had destroyed the Count. Unbeknownst to Christopher, Dracula escaped destruction by turning into mist. The vampire would eventually fly away in bat form from the ruins of his castle and patiently lie in wait for an opportunity to strike back against the Belmont Clan.

CharactersEdit

Characters
Image	Name	Information
	Christopher Belmont (Christopher Belmondo)	The hero of the game. He faced Count Dracula one hundred years after Trevor Belmont's first adventure in Castlevania, and killed Dracula one century before Simon Belmont confronted the Count. In Simon Belmont's time, Christopher was a legendary hero for his deeds.
	Dracula	The Prince of darkness, main villain and final boss of the game.

GameplayEdit

Castlevania: The Adventure consists of four timed stages, each ending in boss battles. Unlike other games in the series, hearts are not used to power Sub-Weapons. Instead, they refill Christopher's energy bar. Christopher's whip can be upgraded with magic crystals, but contact with an enemy will regress it to a weaker form. When the whip is fully powered, it can fire projectiles straightforward. Rather than collecting money bags to increase the score, giant coins are used instead. A notable difference from the Nintendo Entertainment System games is that stairs are absent. Instead, ropes are present for Christopher to climb to progress further into stages. Adventure is often criticized for controlling sluggishly.

MusicEdit

The soundtrack of the game was composed by S. Fukutake, Norio Hanzawa, and H. Funauchi.

The music of this game has been commercially released several times as part of CDs like Akumajo Dracula Best 2 (1991), Castlevania 20th Anniversary Deluxe Music Collection (2006) and Castlevania Best Music Collections BOX (2010). Some of the tracks are rearranged and featured in CDs like Dracula Battle Perfect Selection Vol. 2 (1991) and Dracula New Classic (1992).

The theme of the first game Battle of the Holy was later remixed for the Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth and Contra ReBirth OST (2010).

Storyline ConfusionEdit

When The Adventure first came out, it was released as a sequel to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest in North America. The back of box states "After getting his wings clipped in Castlevania and Simon's Quest, the death defying count has risen again. Desiring revenge even more than blood, he'll descend upon your Game Boy, with fangs glistening by the light of the silvery full moon." None of the text on the box, manual, or in-game mentions the name of the hero of this game and it was assumed to be another adventure of Simon Belmont. The official Game Boy Nintendo Player's Guide also "confirmed" that the hero was Simon Belmont, and he was named such in a magazine ad. When this game's sequel Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge was released, which had a more developed plot, it was realized that the hero of The Adventure was not Simon, but rather, a new character no one in America had heard of - Christopher Belmont. It was still figured that The Adventure was a sequel, however. The American manual for Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse had placed Dracula's Curse to be 100 years before Simon's time (it states "The time is 100 years before Simon Belmont's birth.") and it was also stated that Trevor was the first warrior Belmont (it says he was the "origin of the Belmont Warlord Chromosomes"). With Dracula's 100 year cycle already established, this game was reckoned to take place 100 years after Simon's games and Christopher was considered a descendant of Simon.

In Japan, however, it was always clear that this game featured Christopher Belmont and took place ages before Simon's time. The Japanese manual for the original Castlevania game mentions the "Legend of Christopher" and Simon was considered the heir to Christopher's legacy. This game was created to tell the story of this legendary warrior. In Japan, Christopher Belmont was considered the first Belmont to face Dracula (see a translation of the Japanese manual), until this idea was retconned when Dracula's Curse came out. For a time in Japan, both The Adventure and Dracula's Curse were considered to be the "first" fight against Dracula and to predate the original Castlevania game by 100 years. When Iga created his timeline, he corrected this discrepancy by placing Dracula's Curse 100 years before The Adventure, which itself was 100 years before Simon. Castlevania: Legends also had a claim to being the first fight against Dracula, but Iga removed this game from the official timeline.

Most fans in America now accept the Japanese order of events and follow Iga's timeline that shows The Adventure takes place between Dracula's Curse and Castlevania. The story in the American manual of Castlevania Chronicles, is very similar to the original Japanese Castlevania game's, showing that Christopher indeed does predate Simon, now even in North America.

With both the American and Japanese manual storylines for The Adventure having been retconned, not much is left of its storyline canon-wise. Dracula rose from the grave 100 years after being defeated by Trevor Belmont. Christopher, a descendant of Trevor, takes up his ancestral whip and defeats Dracula. The rest of the story is revealed by its sequel, Belmont's Revenge, which tells that Dracula escaped after his battle with Christopher in the form of mist, but is too weak to do anything, so he waits for an opportunity to get his strength back. The timeline entry included in the pre-order bonus of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin sums it up neatly:

1576 The Castlevania Adventure - Count Dracula, slain 100 years before, is reborn. It is here where the legend begins - once every 100 years, Dracula will come back to life. Christopher Belmont, in another fight with Dracula, apparently succeeds in vanquishing Dracula... But Dracula was not destroyed and in 15 years a dreadful tragedy will occur.

LegacyEdit

Castlevania: The Adventure has a direct sequel that continues the battle between Christopher Belmont and Count Dracula titleg Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. It also received a comic book adaptation from IDW Publishing titled Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy. Furthermore, its story is retold in Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth, with new stages, bosses, and enemies. Homages to The Adventure include the item Bullet Tip (Christopher's Soul in the Japanese version) in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, which allows Juste Belmont to shoot projectiles from his whip like Christopher, and the game over music in both Belmont's Revenge and Harmony of Dissonance is the same jingle heard in Adventure, but using different synth voices.

Related PagesEdit

• Castlevania: The Adventure Bestiary
• Category:Adventure Locations
• The Adventure Inventory

Related ProductsEdit

• Akumajo Dracula Best Vol. 2 - Contains the original soundtrack for this game
• Game Boy Nintendo Player's Guide - Contains stage maps and original enemy artwork for this game.
• Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge - The game boy sequel to this game
• Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth - A reimagining of this game for WiiWare.
• Castlevania - This game was made as a prequel to the original Castlevania game, describing the legend of Christopher that was first mentioned in the Japanese manual.
• Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - This game was initially released in America as a sequel to Simon's Quest and was presumed to feature a third battle between Simon Belmont and Dracula (until Belmont's Revenge came out)
• Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy - An American comic book adaptation to this game
• Castlevania Best Music Collections BOX - Contains music from this game on Disk 1
• Famitsu Dracula Densetsu Guide - A Japanese guide for this game

External VideosEdit

• Speed Run on Easy Mode

External LinksEdit

• Castlevania: The Adventure at Castlevania Fan Wiki
• Castlevania Realm
• GameFAQs