Castlevania Judgment

Sometimes you think you know a game as soon as it’s announced. Other times, that game is Castlevania Judgment. From its unveiling right up to release, this Wii fighting game was regarded as the red-headed stepchild of the Castlevania series. How could Konami take such a focused property and shoehorn it into an unsuited genre, asked fans? Why would they overhaul the character designs to the point where they barely resemble their retro origins? And why take a genre as precise as the beat-’em-up and strip all of the strategy out of it with waggle controls?

Some of these questions were fair, others were not, but when E3 attendees played the half-finished, half-baked version this summer, all negative assumptions seemed justified. Until the unthinkable happened… Six months on, Konami has taken the criticisms and turned Judgment into both a good fighting game and a great entry in the Castlevania series.

The first thing you should know if you intend to play Castlevania Judgment is that under no circumstances must you ever play it with a Wii Remote. The Classic Controller is fine, but the dusty old GameCube pad is preferred. And if you don’t have one of these then go out and buy one now. If a Wii game supports them it’s usually an indication that the Wii controls are terrible, which is definitely the case here. With basic attacks set to a waggle of the Wii Remote, Castlevania Judgment’s combat soon becomes tiresome. But with good old-fashioned buttons under your thumb, a needless veil of tedium is lifted to reveal a surprisingly enjoyable fighter.

Though some may draw unfair comparisons with such modern greats as Soul Calibur and Virtua Fighter, Castlevania Judgment actually has much more in common with Capcom’s sublime Power Stone: characters can be moved swiftly in any of eight directions; showstopping special attacks are as important as strings of combos; and the environment plays a huge part in the dynamics of combat.

The number of standard attack buttons is limited to light and heavy, with variation supplied by block breakers, jumping attacks, rushing attacks, environment interaction, and powerful specials with a small window of opportunity. Stringing these moves together into an unbreakable stream of hits is the fastest route to victory, though it does take time to get used to the necessary inputs for each. Presumably as a result of transferring Remote controls to joypad, some of the moves require some unorthodox commands. The A-button does nothing alone, but combine it with B and you’ll perform a strong attack; combine it with Y and you’ll interact with scenery. It’s difficult to remember at first, and has no apparent logic, but eventually it ceases to be an obstacle.

With 13 characters plucked from the whole 22-year history of the Castlevania series, Judgment is a game that relies on its timehonoured personalities and generous variety of fighting styles. All of the combatants come equipped with their own weapon and a distinct moveset that makes each a unique fighter who it takes time to get to grips with. Konami has packed each character with a series of trademark moves and individual attacks that have plenty of personality but do tend to unbalance the game during two-player versus matches. A few characters – particularly the zippy Grant DaNasty and the overpowered Maria Renard – dominate any other fighter with just a few high-priority moves, leaving multiplayer feeling a little bit unfair without a gentlemen’s agreement in place. Sadly, such agreements have no place in the no-man’s land of the internet, and we’ve yet to find a player who doesn’t repeatedly pick Maria to cynically and dispassionately boost their win rating.

The single-player story mode has no such problems, however, and this is where Judgment comes into its own. Starting with just Simon Belmont and Alucard unlocked, the game limits your choice of protagonist, dripfeeding new characters as you play and forcing you to learn each one properly. Opponents are tailored to your choice of character and play through a series of encounters that take that fighter’s own history and interpersonal relationships into account. Alucard, for example, must fight his way to a confrontation with his father, Dracula, while Simon Belmont longs to battle his ancestor Trevor to determine who best wields the Vampire Killer whip.

Snippets of dialogue flesh out the personal narratives of each character between rounds, as many of the series’ strongest personalities meet each other for the first time and should prove a rare pleasure for Castlevania fans. As a pet project of series godfather Koji Igarashi, Judgment is a canonical chapter in the Castlevania story and its dialogue has been written with total care for continuity and consistency. And despite our initial reservations, the gameplay also proves to be true to its origins. Collectable items found around the arena take the form of the series’ trademark secondary weapons; regular enemies such as skeletons and zombies make an appearance as pesky distractions in-battle; and the backgrounds have interactive hazards often taken straight from Castlevania’s bestknown locations.