The
Castlevania series has come a long way since its introduction to North
American audiences via the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since then, we have
followed the legendary Belmont clan through a number of games as the quest to
rid the world of Dracula once and for all. Oh, what a wonderful and exciting
ride it has been and, thankfully, the Castlevania series sees no signs of
slowing down. Castlevania: Judgment for the Nintendo Wii takes us out of
the 2D plane and into a 3D fighting game that just doesn’t do the series
justice.
As a
loyal fan of the Castlevania series, I don’t mind the fact that
Judgment has taken an interesting fighting game route. It’s a rather
interesting addition to the side-scrolling fun we had with past games in the
series. You see, Judgment contains all the elements found in a fighting
game including an Arcade mode, Versus mode and even a Story mode. The various
characters also have their own unique fighting styles as well as finishing moves
and combos. You can even play against a friend online thanks to the Wii’s Wi-Fi
connection.
Judgment’s Story
mode contains a story for each of the available characters but don’t expect a
deep and involving tale. Yes, different characters have different motivations
for fighting but the main theme is always the same. You see, a mysterious man
named Aeon claims that he has opened the portal between space and time so that
different characters can go through it to face off against foes from the past or
future. Simon Belmont, for example, doesn’t want to use the portal to kill
Dracula but rather wants to go back in time to prove that he’s better than his
ancestor, Trevor Belmont. Yes, the stories in Story mode are nonsensical and
uninteresting.
Of
course, we don’t play fighting games for the stories. We’re in it for the fights
and – in this aspect – Judgment doesn’t fail. Thankfully, there are
numerous characters you can play in the game as well and checking out their
fighting styles and abilities is actually quite fun. Simon and Trevor, for
example, might use their famous Vampire Killer whip but both of them have their
own style of fighting. Taking a page straight out of the Soul Calibur
games, there are even characters that wield bladed weapons such as Alucard and
Carmilla (from Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest). Oh, and there are
characters that use magic such as Maria Renard, Sypha Belnades and Shanoa.
Speaking of Soul Calibur, there’s even a Voldo-like character named Grant
Danasty.
While
it’s great to see various characters from past Castlevania games, the 3D
fighting and an awful camera just make for some frustration. There are too many
times in the game where I would swing at nothing seeing as my character just
couldn’t lock on to the enemy. This becomes even more evident and annoying when
you waste your throwing weapons at nothing when the enemy is right in front of
you. It’s good to see that the characters that have the ability to summon
powerful allies Final Fantasy-style don’t have to aim the spell in the
direction of the opponent or we would have to suffer even more frustration.
Apart
from the awful camera that doesn’t give the best angles, the opponent AI is
unpredictable so you will encounter some challenging battles early in the game
then some rather easy ones later on. This fact is more noticeable in the game’s
Arcade mode as well as Survival mode as you attempt to survive a wave of
opponents. Castle mode has you attempting to move from room to room to get to
Dracula all the while you go up against enemies or scores of minions along the
way. Like in the game’s Story mode, there are Power Up items that grant you
everything from health to weapons such as holy water bombs and throwing daggers.
As far
as the controls are concerned, using the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk attachment
makes for an awkward time. Thankfully, the game allows the use of a GameCube
controller or the Nintendo Wii Classic Controller and this is a far better
alternative than simply waving the Wii Remote to slash.
Visually, Judgment looks good on the Nintendo Wii. The backgrounds look
great and there are some objects you can smash along the way such as icicles or
the glass in a stain-glassed window. The character models look very different
from recent games in the series and this is mostly due to the fact that the
character models were designed by famed Death Note and Hikaru no Go
manga artist Takeshi Obata. They don’t look bad at all, actually, and
watching the characters in motion actually works.
The
sound, on the other hand, suffers thanks to the voice acting that will not fail
to make you wince. Each character’s phrases become repetitive and overused
throughout the game. Sure, the sound effects work but they’re overshadowed by
the sound the characters make during battle. The music is actually good, with
some music sounding better than others. Oh, and don’t get me started on the
tunes with the bad guitar riffs.
Castlevania: Judgment
for the Nintendo Wii is a
fighting game that doesn’t pull any punches but isn’t able to land them well
either. Sure, the collection of fighters are interesting and they have their own
cool fighting style, but this doesn’t matter when the game suffers from a number
of problems that hold it back from being a competent fighting game with an
interesting Castlevania twist. If you’re a true fan of the series, a
rental is in order but other than that this is one game in the series that
should be skipped.
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Gameplay: 6.0
Thanks to a
number of issues that make the Wii Remote controls feel completely awkward,
Judgment is best played with the GameCube or Classic controllers instead.
There’s nothing compelling about the story either and the camera is not your
friend. Still, there is some fun here but in limited bursts.
Graphics: 7.0
The backgrounds
aren’t bad at all and the character design might be a bit different from what
Castlevania fans are used to but it’s good seeing as they’re based off
Obata-sensei’s art.
Sound: 6.5
Sadly, the voice
acting will transport you back to the day when dialogue translation was poorly
handled and voice acting very amateurish. There’s some good music here mixed in
with some cheesy bad heavy guitar riffs.
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
The difficulty
level is actually very erratic and nonsensical at times. How is it that Alucard
can kick around Trevor and Simon when you play him and then get ripped apart
without landing a single blow when you play against him?
Concept: 6.0
It’s
Castlevania as a fighting game and the idea isn’t bad but it just doesn’t
come together as smoothly as could have considering there are enough characters
to use in the game. You can unlock loads of extras (some of them even by hooking
up the Nintendo DS to the console) and there’s online multiplayer.
Multiplayer: 6.5
You can play
against a friend online via a Wi-Fi connection and it runs smoothly enough.
Playing with others fixes some of the AI problems but the bad camera still plays
a role in making the battles awkward.
Overall: 6.0
We don’t mind a
Castlevania fighting game when it’s done right but Judgment just
isn’t able to pull it off well thanks to a number of problems that make this a
unimpressive fighting game. All is not bad, though, seeing as the collection of
characters bring something different to the battle, but it’s not enough to
recommend this one.
