Yes it was a Rondo of Blood remake, but it was not a very good port. It had 3D graphics on a 2D plane and it felt sluggish at times. It's a neat game for a few reasons. It's the first game in the series were you can actually see the Metroidvania style of gameplay taking form, and it has some of the first appearances of some of the now staple Castlevania enemies. If you are a fan I recommend checking it out, but don't expect to be floored by it.
It's more of the Castlevania 4 style like I said, but there are hints of the Metroidvania mindset, which makes it kind of an essential game if you are big on the history of the Castlevania games, and how they came to be.
By the way, here's an update on this story:
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/19/frust ... ave-konam/Apparently he left because his non-casual friendly games kept getting denied by Konami. That's a pretty stupid reason to chase away a guy with so much talent.