Castlevania meets Street Fighter?

by Trevor A.

I love the Castlevania series. It’s had its hits and misses, but what franchise hasn’t? Of course, it’s known for it’s action/adventure oriented design. Heck, you can even throw in a little RPG into the game. Well, guess what. For this latest version on the Wii, the Castlevania team decided to enter new waters and make a fighting game.

Does it work? Surprisingly, it does. To a point.

Ayami Kojima has done the character design for the series since Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Her artwork is amazing. I never liked it when they would alternate to the anime design, as the level of detail isn’t anything near to Kojima’s work. It just fits the Castlevania atmosphere. Now, I am familiar with the Death Note manga and anime. I happen to like the series. It was news to me when I found out that Takeshi Obata was going to be the character designer, let alone that a console Castlevania game was going to be a fighting game. Some of the characters actually don’t look too bad. Death looks retarded though. I have a couple complaints with the designs, but this is a review about the game. I could have gone without Trevor Belmont wearing an eyepatch, though.

The list of characters is quite impressive. There are 14 in total, spanning from the original Castlevania to the newest Nintendo DS title, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. These playable characters are Simon Belmont, Dracula, Trevor Belmont, Grant DaNasty, Sypha Belnades, Alucard, Carmilla, Death, Maria Renard, Golem, Eric Lecarde, Cornell, Shaona, and Aeon.  They each have their own story and have different final boss battles. If you play as Simon, the last battle will be against Trevor, as he wants to prove to himself that he is a true member of the Belmont Clan. All of this is done because of a time rift. Aeon is the ringleader of the time rift, as he hopes to prevent evil from consuming the land by summoning a true hero. Galamoth, the antagonist in the game, sends his minion, the Time Reaper, to rid the world of Dracula and take his throne. Dracula isn’t the bad guy this time around. Good for him.

It’s a Wii game. That means you aren’t going to see anything that will blow your mind in the graphics department, but for what it is, they aren’t bad. The game runs smoothly and it isn’t haunted by slow downs. The game is kind of like Powerstone, giving you the ability to run around in a 3D environment instead of being subjected to a 2D plain. Some levels have hazardous environments, such as spikes and a swinging guillotine. The graveyard, for one, has zombies popping out of the ground and will interfere with your fight.  There are also barrels that conceal hearts and subweapons, like any other past Castlevania game.

There is a meter you can fill up by attacking or defending or taking damage. Once it is filled, you can execute the character’s special ability. It only takes one push of a button, but the opponent can counter by hitting you while you try to get in their general direction, or you can miss them entirely. Even though it takes half the HP of an enemy, you still have to be able to hit them before it performs. And the special abilities are one of Judgment’s strong points. They are all different from each other and are very unique.

Getting used to the controls of the game can hinder your experience. I know it did for me. It really stinks you can’t customize which button you want to do what. The game comes with a couple preset controls, and all of them take a while to get used to. If you have a GameCube controller, I recommend using that. The Wii Remote just feels awkward. I don’t have a Classic Controller, so I can’t say how well it performs on that.

Because this game has different generations of Castlevania characters, you will find music related to their game. I find that to be very cool. They aren’t the greatest remixes, but the fact that they are included at all receives a thumbs up from me. The sound effects are all right. I don’t really think the step sounds your character makes while they are running are really in sync, but whatever. As for the voiceovers, they are pretty awful. I haven’t heard everyone’s VO, but the one’s I did hear were pretty bad. Konami was kind enough to give you the choice of English or Japanese VOs, which is nice.

I haven’t played through the entire cast of characters. I have only finished five of the character’s stories. There are other features besides Story Mode, such as Arcade Mode. I haven’t tried Castle Mode yet, so I will definitely post an update if I ever get to it, including anything else I might unlock in the process.

Castlevania Judgment is rated Teen.