Castlevania Judgment Review (Nintendo Wii)

Throughout the years, Simon Belmont has always been a lynchpin in the world of Nintendo. His 2D games were legendary on the NES. And many will remember the outlandish rendering of him on Captain N the Game Master back in the glory days of cartoons.

Unfortunately, in the last decade, there haven’t been any Castlevania console titles that have stood out. We had Castlevania for the N64 in 1998, which was ok, but nothing special. Sure, the DS has released two solid Castlevania titles: Dawn of Sorrow in 2005 and Order of Ecclesia in 2008. Alas, on the Gamecube and the Wii, there has been nothing to write home about.

Enter Castlevania Judgment for the Wii, a stark break from the traditional 2D Adventure style Castlevania games.

Now there are fighting games, and there are FIGHTING games. And Castlevania Judgment is neither. From the moment you start playing the game, you’ll wonder why you did.

Some games can get away with presenting a weak backstory (if the gameplay and visuals are up to snuff). CJ doesn’t shoot for the stars; it throws a text-based story to open up. With a franchise nearly two decades old you would have expected the design team to take a little longer creating some descent animated cut scenes to draw you into the Castlevania mythos. So unless you’re a fan of the franchise, you’ll find yourself with little reason to follow the story. As a sidebar, this is one thing that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe did in spades. It created a well-structured story, with strong animations that seamlessly shifts right into the fight was a great gift for gamers.

Unfortunately, there’s also no real reason to get drawn into these characters anyway. The characters are unbalanced beyond belief. Simon Belmont, Alucard (son of Dracula), and Maria Renard (distant Belmont relative) worth fighting with. The rest of the lot have an appalling list of moves with an even poorer sense of design.

Fighting games as a genre tend to be games you can dive into without having to suffer through a long manual. Combine that with a Wii Remote and you should have yourself one hell of an intuitive game. Not the case with CJ. The controls are unresponsive and just overtly annoying. You would think that with the Wii-Remote and nunchaku attachment, you’d have some similarities between what you do and what happens on screen. Not the case. Top it off with jarring camera motions that adjust at precisely the wrong time.

The final verdict is that Castlevania Judgment is a game that can be easily passed on. Konami would have done better to dedicate its time and resources making a title fitting of the one that drew us to the franchise so long ago.

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