We've said a lot about Castlevania Judgment -- some good, some bad, some after giving it a go. But the time has come to see what's really going on with it, now that it's in circulation. And so, with bated breath, we present ... other people playing Castlevania Judgment, and then talking about it.
Nintendo Power (70/100) says not to expect Castlevania from thisCastlevania: "If you forgo your expectations of what a Castlevania game should be--or are simply looking for a respectable 3-D fighting game--you should have a good time with Judgment."
1UP (16/100) kind of, well, hated it: "Beyond the strange art direction, Judgment suffers from jarring mechanics that disregard established fighting conventions. The uncompromising camera displays the action in a bizarre, disconcerting manner that tracks players in a 3D area filled with environmental hazards. And in combat, the camera's way too difficult to control. "
IGN (75/100), however, did not: "The combat is deep and entertaining, the characters are well balanced and very unique as a full-on roster, and everything from sub-weapons to specials, combo attacks, in-level traps and monsters, and epic super attack animations are well done and true to the source material."
Warning: this trailer for Castlevania Judgment, out this week, may have the unexpected side effect of making you want to play Castlevania Judgment. Until now, we've been insulated by our Castlevania fandom -- we love Castlevania so much that it's painful to see it as an anime-style 3D brawler/fighter with silly character designs (Eric Lecarde doesn't just look like a little boy -- he is a little boy for some reason).
But between the top-notch CG and the surprisingly exciting gameplay, we fear that Konami has us under a spell. Oh, look, there's the castle. There's Alucard doing something badass. Oh, they're playing "Vampire Killer." There is officially no hope for us.
Just as we all found out last week, today marks the release of the fourth episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. Oh, and we're also getting a bunch of other games. This week, seriously, has a lot of games. Head on past the break for the full list.
Also, our apologies. There likely won't be a VC Monday Madness video today, but we'll try to get it up as soon as we can. Sorry!
The last three playable characters in Castlevania Judgment's cast (hit the break for a full list) have been captured in screenshots and await your perusal in our gallery. Sypha Belnades is located ... somewhere in the messy explosion above, which is being caused by Legacy of Darkness protagonist Cornell, who appears in his werewolf form. The trio is rounded off by Grant Danasty, who, in true Castlevania Judgment tradition, looks nothing like his former self. Now, we wait for the game with ... not-so-bated breath, actually.
Hey, it's ... Castlevania Judgment's version of Trevor Belmont? He's got an eyepatch now for some reason! Our guess: to teach kids a valuable lesson about the importance of whip safety. The official explanation is that his injuries are the result of a Dracula fight.
Actually, the brown-and-black leather armor Takeshi Obata put him in kind of fits with the coloring of his Castlevania III sprite. It's a lot closer to our idea of Trevor than Ayami Kojima's thigh-high boots, anyway. We've got more screens of Trevor, and of the other two recently-announced new characters, Carmilla and Golem, in our gallery. No sign yet of Sypha Belnades or Grant DaNasty, so we don't know to what degree they've been shoehorned into anime archetypes.
Will Castlevania Judgment actually be any good? Heck if we know, though recent hands-on previews have labeled it as superior to Soul Calibur Legends. We thinkthat was meant to reassure us.
Anyway, this new trailer is trying its hardest to turn our stubborn, Metroidvania-obsessed heads. The music will always makes us tingly inside, and if you squint hard at this latest video -- squint really hard -- you might detect a spiritual 2008 update to Power Stone.
This week marks the release of the highly anticipated Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Poised to be more than the usual Metroidvania-romp, Ecclesia's glyph system coupled with great diversity in environments and level layout (we're apparently not stuck inside the castle anymore) has all of us whip-enthusiasts drooling with anticipation. To be honest, Konami could slap the word "Castlevania" on a box of assorted animal feces and we'd still pre-order. Here's the part where I'm supposed take a cheap shot at Castlevania Judgment, but admit it: no matter how many times we all spit on the brawler, we never seem to stop checking out movies or screenshots. Castlevania has us whipped; pardon the hideous pun.
Assuming I haven't lost all credibility after the Mega Man list, here's another stab at ranking the best of a legendary franchise. Unlike most other Top 5's, this list is not necessarily Nintendo-specific. Take a gander, and try to pretend that you don't know what number one is.
The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
Camilla seems like a minor character in the Castlevania storyline, one of the "other" vampires who appeared as a boss in a few games. She's typically portrayed as a nude, winged woman atop a giant skull. And Golem makes Camilla seem vital -- Golem is nothing more than a vaguely memorable normal enemy! You know, the big guy from Aria of Sorrow who looks like he's made out of logs.
Well, they've both been honored with places in the Castlevania Judgment roster. Camilla's been redesigned so that she's in some clothes, though barely, and Golem is a giant, grotesque science experiment with ampoules sticking out of his back. We have screens of both in action in our gallery.
That transcript also notes that the GameCube controller and Classic Controller will both be supported by Judgment. Considering how much it relies on motion controls, using one of those should basically turn it into a different game.
Oh, if only we could always start the morning with hot Death on Death action ... well, we'd at least be more inclined to like Castlevania Judgment. Alas, it's only shiny and new this once, and hereafter, all Death v. Death deathmatches will be, as they say, played out.
But for a moment, for one bright, shining, purply-explosions moment, Castlevania Judgment was beautiful. Now we're back to bursting muscles, wacky shorts, and flawed gameplay. But buck up, little campers: there's a bit of news on the Order of Ecclesia/Judgment DS-Wii connectivity front. We knew the DS title's heroine, Shanoa, was unlockable in Castlevania Judgment, and as we speculated, so is Aeon -- both through the DS/Wii game connection. In the DS game, Wii connectivity adds a hard mode and raises your level cap in one mode to a whopping 255. Do we need to be so badass? Oh yes. Yes, we do.
Konami appears to be really pleased with Simon Belmont's little shorts. They have -- well, he has, we suppose -- become an unofficial mascot for Castlevania Judgment, first as a rather expensive figurine sold through Konamistyle, and now as the focal point of this "laser cel" being given away as a preorder bonus by GameStop.
The background, featuring Aeon, certainly looks cool, as does the color scheme in general. You can see Alucard in his new finery standing back-to-back with Simon. But it's clear that the star of the show is Simon Belmont and his shorts. And his big apelike arms.
The official site for Castlevania Judgment has profiled two new characters for the fighting game, adding an obscure hero and one of the most common baddies to the cast.
Eric Lecarde was playable in only one Castlevania game, Castlevania: Bloodlines for the Genesis (though he did pop up as a helpful ghost in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin), and in Judgment he'll look every bit as effeminate as he did in the character art for Bloodlines. What is a man? Answer: not Eric Lecarde.
The second new combatant is familiar foe and all-round cheery chap Death, whose design in Judgment actually looks totally badass and is our favorite rendering of the character so far, even beating his design in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. We're guessing you can expect to have many a spinning scythe lobbed at your face.
The little shorts. The multi-buckled, open vest that looks kind of like an empty life preserver. The Gene Simmons boots. After all the cool Castlevania characters, dressed in various finery, it is Simon Belmont (or "Belmondo" as he's known in Japan), dressed in Takeshi Obata's newly-designed Castlevania: Judgment style that Konami has decided to make into a figure. Although, of course, the other most recent Simon look wouldn't have been much better of a choice. And it's not Dracula in his dress.
We must admit that the sculptors have made Simon look damn cool, even if he is dressed like a Tetsuya Nomura Final Fantasy hero. Japan's Konamistyle store is taking preorders on (the final painted version of) this figure, to be released on February 6 for 7,140 yen ($66.50).
It's been a while since we wrote anything about Castlevania Judgment. You might think this has something to do with the lack of news on the subject, but oh no, that isn't the case. Really, we're just embarrassed for everyone on the fashion front. Oh, and kinda by the game in general. It'll be just like Konami to actually make it good and force us to buy it.* Jerks.
There are all-new fashion disasters (okay, really, new shots of old disasters) and a lot of explosions of bright, streaky lighting in the gallery below.
*Probably not, but we're afeared of this possibility.
The latest Castlevania Judgment screens, fresh from the Leipzig showfloor, feature a new character not previously seen in the title. "Aeon" is probably one of the fighters produced by manga artist Takeshi Obata, who was drafted in by Konami to provide character designs. Alternatively, he could be from the DS's Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. "Aeon" is not a name we're familiar with from previous instalments of the franchise, and neither Google or the Castlevania Wiki could shed any light on our confusion. Shanoa, the heroine of Order of Ecclesia, is already accessible in Judgment, so we wouldn't rule it out.
Whoever Aeon is, you can see more of him here, here and here. In other news, Koji Igarashi confirmed to IGN that the title will now ship to the U.S. in 2009. Grab your stake, hit up our gallery for new shots, and then trek past the break for a new trailer.
Another E3 interview with Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi has surfaced, this time from Nintendo World Report. After justifying Castlevania Judgmentyet again, Igarashi gave a tenuous, noncommittal, but still interesting statement regarding future Castlevania games: "With regards to WiiWare, I'm evaluating that right now, and to be honest, I think a 2D Castlevania game on WiiWare might be the right approach."
He has previously said that he was interested in how things turned out for Mega Man 9, and he has said that WiiWare was an interesting service, but this is the most direct Igarashi has been yet about a WiiWare entry in the franchise. He also confirmed the nature of the Order of Ecclesiaconnection bonus: as we expected, Shanoa is unlocked in Judgment by connecting with a DS running Order of Ecclesia.
Talking about Castlevania is a bit of a cottage industry for Wii Fanboy. Not only do we want the 2Dgames on Wii, we've made it happen -- though not the amazing Dracula X, which Japan has on VC. We've expressed our bemusement about Judgment and tried to gauge yours. In fact, we pretty much bring up Castlevaniawhenever possible.
