Striking onto your Wii with all the fury you would expect from an entry in the Contra series, ReBirth doesn't exactly break the mold, for the most part looking, sounding, and playing exactly like it came straight from 1990. And if you're a fan of Contra, you're gonna love that, and this will be one of the best WiiWare purchases you'll ever make.

Sure, there's a bit of a story here, which is brought to "life" via some old-school style static cutscenes, but really, like any Contra game, ReBirth is just about blowing the hell out of tons of alien invaders. There's nothing fancy here -- no HD graphics, custom soundtracks, online play, online scoreboards, or anything like that. But the gameplay succeeds.

If you're a fan of the "run and gun" genre, ReBirth is definitely one of the better entries on WiiWare and the Virtual Console. But it is a dead simple game, and with only five levels, it's a short one as well. There's other nit-picks present as well that will probably irritate some, such as the loss of any overhead levels and special weapons like smart bombs.

But for hyper-kinetic blasting action, especially when you have a buddy to bring along with you, ReBirth delivers the double-shot of adrenaline to your brain stem that only the hardest of the hardcore shooting games can truly deliver.