Konami, hoping to help gamers forget the abhorrent disaster that was Castlevania Judgement, is working on a new side-scrolling Castlevania for WiiWare, if the ESRB is to be believed. Called Castlevania the Adventure ReBirth, the title has been given a Teen rating for Animated Blood and Fantasy Violence. This is far from an official announcement, but as far as I remember ESRB leaks have been fairly accurate, since no one at the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has anything to gain from pulling weekend traffic to their website. It doesn't hurt that Konami already has two other Rebirth titles under their belt with Contra and Gradius.

The "rating summary" lists even more about the game, and makes it sound a hell of a lot like the older enteries in the series. Flying eyeballs, bats, and Dracula are all pretty retro as far as Castlevania goes these days, meaning there's a chance this might actually be something worth paying attention to. The full description from the ESRB website is below.

One can't help but wonder why publishers submit games to the ESRB before announcing them, especially with their track record of blatantly ignoring the whole idea of secrecy. Granted, I don't know of Konami knows what to promote anymore after Castlevania Judgment, so maybe this is their idea of guerrilla marketing.

Castlevania the Adventure ReBirth
Platform: Wii
Rating: Teen
Content descriptors: Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence
Rating summary: This is a side-scrolling action game in which players battle against monsters in Dracula's castle. Players use a chained whip to fight their way through halls and dungeons filled with zombies, skeletons, flying eyeballs, and bats. The enemy creatures frequently shoot projectiles and attack players in hand-to-hand combat. If players sustain too much damage, they keel over and emit a burst of red blood. Some rooms in the castle also have spikes or spears stained with red, blood-like splotches.