Last Thursday, our own Brad Nicholson broke the rumor that a new Castlevania fighting game titled Castlevania Judgment was announced in the latest issue of Nintendo Power, with pics to prove it courtesy of JeuxFrance. This morning, I managed to track down said issue of Nintendo Power, and I can confirm that this new Castlevania game, as well as Mega Man 9, are, in fact, the real deal. I can also confirm that there is more to "WUT" about over the game's announcement than just the fact that it's a fighting game.
Hit jump for my three big WUT moments in learning the details of Castlevania Judgment.
WUT #1: Character Design
Castlevania Judgment will feature characters from games spanning the entire series, with Simon Belmont, Alucard, Maria Renard, Shanoa (from the forthcoming Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for the NDS), and Dracula being the first to be confirmed. Thing is, they don't look anything like they ever have before. All the character designs for Castlevania Judgment are by manga artist Takeshi Obata, and the results are jarring at best, disturbing at worst.
As seen in the above linked images hosted at JeuxFrance, Castlevania Judgment's Simon Belmont is shirtless, clad in nothing but a buckle-packed leather vest and a tight pair of running shorts. With whip in hand, this new Simon looks more like a male dominatrix than even the much-maligned Soul Calibur creep Voldo, quite a change of pace for the legendary Castlevania protagonist. If it were not for the fact that I was told that this was Simon Belmont, I would have never recognized him, and probably just assumed he was a discarded character from Thrill Kill.
Dracula, adorned in a skin-tight gold one-piece leotard with six golden nipple-like protrusions on his chest, doesn't fare much better. This is the least scary, most Liberace-like depiction of Dracula in the character's hundeds of years in existance. At this point, Bram Stoker's body must must be so dizzy from turning in its grave that it's ready to vomit.
Maria looks a little less outrageous, with the only truly weird visual touches on her design being her enormous, exposed, Chun-Li-esque thighs, the random "X's" all over her outfit, a giant wand with an owl in it...wait, this is pretty outrageous. Indeed, Maria's new outfit maybe the very definition of "truly outrageous". The only tie between the new Maria and the old is that they both wear pink. Beyond that, there is zero resemblance.
Don't get me wrong, these character designs are technically very well done, and with all the boobage shown in most 3D fighting games, it's only fair that fans of Beefcake get their turn to gawk. The thing is, an "All-star fighting game" with completely redesigned characters completely negates the purpose of the all-star experience. If I don't recognize this Simon Belmont, this Dracula, and this Alucard as being the same guys I've seen in Castlevania games for years, why would I care about seeing them all together in the same game? With visual re-designs this drastic, they all become Castlevania characters in name only.
What if Super Smash Bros. Brawl featured redesigned characters like "altered" Mario and Luigi seen above? With visuals like that, would the game have had the same nostalgia-inducing, universal appeal, or would it just become a WTF-fest? Because that's the level of change Castlevania Judgment's characters have gone through in being re-made for this new game. They aren't Simon, Alucard, and Dracula anymore. They are just erotic fan-art pretenders.
WUT #2: Gameplay
Here's what Castlevania Judgment's producer Koji "Iga" Igarashi has to say about Castlevania Judgment's gameplay.
"In traditional Fighting games the timing of the moves needs to be very precise for them to work correctly. For Castlevania Judgement, we are making the controls more simple and the moves more dynamic, which we believe will translate into loads of fun for the user."
So, the game will be an imprecise waggle-fest? Did that work for Soulcalibur Legends? Have imprecise controls ever worked to improve any game? When has any action game on the Wii benefited from tacked-on motion controls?
This "WUT" is really more of a "I thought I was done with you" frowny face of disappointment. I had thought No More Heroes had showed developers how to do motion controls for action games on the Wii. Keep it simple, use the A and B buttons for most actions, and save the motion controls for dramatic finishing moves. Looks like Iga doesn't agree, as all attacks in Castlevania Judgment will be done by swinging the Wii-remote.
Why waggle why?
Since Iga was first starting to be asked about the possibility of a Castlevania game on the Wii, he has consistently stated that he understands that motion controls in a Castlevania game wouldn't work, as they would only make the game more tiresome. Does Iga think that just by making Castlevania Judgment a fighting game that this somehow makes tiresome motion controls OK? Would Super Smash Bros. Brawl have been as successful if its controls called for imprecision and exhausting waggle? I don't think it takes a genius to answer that question.
WUT #3: Graphics
More than all the other "WUTs" in this list, this last one may speak the most of my own glaring naïvete about the way 3rd parties think about the Wii, but it's still the "WUT" that I exclaimed the loudest. The graphics for Castlevania Judgment, as shown in the new NP, look like a mid-gen PS2 game.
WUT?
The Wii is more powerful than the GameCube, which, in turn, was more powerful than the PS2. There is no excuse for any high-profile 3D Wii game this far in the console's lifespan to have visuals any less pretty than the GameCube's Resident Evil 4. It's just not acceptable.
I am again reminded of Soulcalibur Legends, a game that completely failed to take advantage of the power of the Wii. Going by the few screenshots thus far made available, Castlevania Judgment and Soulcalibur Legends seem to be extremely similar in terms of visual detail. That's not a good thing. Just loot at the pic below, which compares Soulcalibur Legends to the now last-gen Resident Evil 4. The difference between the two is nothing short of depressing.
I get the same feeling looking at the graphics for Soulcalibur Legends and Castlevania Judgment as I would looking at girl asking me out on a date whose teeth are coated in soft, yellow plaque. Looks aren't everything, but seriously, if you're not even trying to look your best (or even your medium-best), how can you expect me to want you? Visuals this uncared for send only one message: "I don't care about myself." This kind of laziness is un-befitting of the Castlevania name, and smacks of the kind of uninspired lack of love that eventually transformed Sonic the Hedgehog from an A-list franchise to gaming's biggest laughingstock.
Conclusion
If Castlevania Judgment is fun, then I will love it. However, the decision to go in this direction with the series will forever leave me baffled. It's understandable that Iga didn't want to make another 2D, action/RPG-style Castlevania for the Wii this year, as such a title would go in direct competition with the upcoming DS Castlevania of the same genre. But an all-star, low-tech, 3D fighter featuring bondage-ified versions of the Castlevania cast? It just doesn't compute. A 2D fighter, a 3D RPG, or even a completely idiotic mini-game collection would make more sense than this.
Does anyone out there understand what the hell is going on with Castlevania Judgment? Is this rant unwarranted? Or after learning the news of this game, were you also ready to make your own "Cats and Dogs" speech, ready to break into mass hysteria
Contest:
12:51 PM on 06.28.2008
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It will feature online battles, which I guess is sort of awesome?
I hate the fact that its a fighting game, even if they decide to go the extra mile and add online play... I dont think its going to go anywhere. Sounds cheap and gimmicky... remember Double Dragon and their VS fighter game? Yeah... stay away from this one.
My main concern with the future of Castlevania right now is two fold and you touched on them both.
1) We don't need waggle
2) We don't need 3D
But at least it looks like we'll get one more great DS game before the great minds behind Castlevania lay another egg.
And like I said, the character designs for this game are good, just not for there characters. Just because I wouldn't endorse casting Kevin Spacy as the Hamburger Pimp in a remake of Dolomite doesn't mean I don't think he's a good actor, or that I don't like white people. It's just wouldn't be right for the character.
Can you picture Kevin Spacy saying "I could kick my own ass twice"? I sure can't.
@ bluemeep- I hadn't even thought about Soma! He's betting they put him in a thong.
There are too many good fighting games coming out this year for me to care about this game.
If this game ends up surprising people and getting good reviews I might get it, but right now I'm not impressed.
Time to put the malt liquor down for a little bit.
Castlevania + Wii + Effort = Bucks
Castlevania + Wii - Effort = BIG bucks.
(and 2, I'm not a fan of the Death Note art style)
That does it for me... I am in no way interested in waggling imprecisely to make a gay version of Simon Belmont try to give Alucard a bear hug. *sigh* And I was excited about the news initially.
Ah, must have just been my initial impression of that blurry screenshot, then.
Maybe Castlevania has more brand power globally than Soul Calibur or Dragon Quest (Not in japan, but generally in the world).
Look it's 3D (bad omen for CV games), not from IGA and it's a fighting game to begin with?!
I don't really mind the look of it, but give me a 2D Metroid-vania on the PS3 that looks like that, not a fighting game on a system that I hardly touch anymore. I'll be buying the new Castlevania for DS. I won't be buying this.
It's like when a director known for his dramas tries his hand at an action movie. WTF happens more often than not.
FAIL Iga. FAIL.
is the industry getting stupid or something?
This change in style does not demote them to Castlevania characters "only in name", as you suggest. Moving from the archaic Simon we saw on the cover art of the original Castlevania to the one we saw in Chronicles (wtf simon doesnt have sissy red hair give me my simon back) didn't suddenly make him Simon Belmont "only in name" because he wasn't how we were used to seeing him. Simon survived that age-old jump, and he's done fine for himself with this one as well. Genya Arikado was still Alucard in Dawn of Sorrow.
Also, I don't Dracula applies either. Dracula actually changes a lot in appearance from game to game. My only real complaint about the character design is that Alucard has freakishly huge shoes.
As far as the controls go: There will probably be an option to use the Classic or Gamecube controllers.
For the graphics: They didn't even announce a release date, man. They gave you, like, ten screenshots-- a few of which were character art-- just to let you know that they were working on the game. A game's look changes and evolves a lot during the development process. Don't just jump all over it and assume that it's going to look exactly how it does now come launch day.
Your rant is extremely silly, but my counter-rant is just as silly-- possibly [/b]much sillier[/b] than your own.
With Simon, it's not just the shirtlessness. It's that he just doesn't look like someone who could exist in the time, in the world when his Castlevania games exsited. That goes double for Dracula. Golden one peice? I haven't seen that in any of the history books. It's not that his redesign looks bad, it's that it looks nothing like Dracula, not the Dracula from the Castlevania games, the Dracula movies, any Dracula I've ever seen.
As I think I said, all these character designs are actually pretty cool. But you just don't redesign characters for crossover games. If they redesigned Simon with this look for an all new Castlevania adventure, then maybe. If you're moving a series forward, but staying true to the gameplay of previous games in the series, a drastic visual overhaul can work. However, in a game that is about bringing a bunch of characters you know and love together, you want to make them all feel as familiar as possible, exactly what Konami is NOT doing with this game.
Gameplay wise, I will be pleased as bunch if they give the option for classic controls, but they didn't in Soulcalibur Legends, No More Heroes, Dragon Quest Swords, or Twilight Princess. In fact, the only two Wii games I can think of off hand that give you the option for motion controls or classic controls are Mario Kart Wii and Gyrostarr. It's not something developers are in the practice of making an option to us.
As for the graphics, you are a more hopeful person than I. This game is coming out this year, meaning in less than six months. If it looks much better than these current screenshots when it's released, I'll be extremely surprised.
But why not be optimistic? There are a million things that still could be revealed about this game that could help make it great. I could do a whole other peice about just that, about how an adventure mode, or more Konami characters, or tons of unlockables that pay tribute to the Castlevania games before it, or just damn good gameplay could make Judgement a fantastic fighting game.
Actually, maybe you should write a peice like that. The c-blogs are that a-way. Get to it!
@ Mich- You big silly! Haven't you heard? There is this game now called Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It's only on the Wii, and it's the most popular fighting game to hit home consoles in years.
Go play it!
I'm most disappointed in Iga for allowing this game to happen. After the whole deal about waggle not working, he makes a game with waggle. WTF?! All many of us want is a 2.5D Castlevania game with traditional controls. I don't care what system it's on, just fucking make it!
I won't completely burn the bridge, in some hope that maybe this game will be better than it sounds, but I need a lot of convincing to give this the time of day.
Big, fat, WUT.
I tried, but it didn't drop any. Pic mob must be bugged.
Also, I am glad for one design change they made. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most, if not all, of Simon's games were 2-D, and Konami tends to draw their 2-D heroes' in-game sprites without faces. They're completely feature-less, not even a nose bump there. As long as Simon has a face, I''ll be happy.
I cannot wait to see the other characters and their horrid design.
"Next Castlevania game could be the final STAKE in the series!"
...But thats because I'm a tremendous douche.
Hopefully, anyway.