Castlevania Judgment

Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Release Date: Nov. 18, 2008
System: Wii
ESRB Rating: T
Official Web site

In a nutshell: The Castlevania fighting game you never knew you didn't want.

0:00 I found Castlevania: Judgment nigh unplayable in the roughly five seconds I spent with it at E3, so that bodes ill. Then again, with the bar set this low, it may just beat my expectations.

0:01 An overly serious voice invokes the title on the preview screen. "Castle-VAN-i-a ... JUDGMENT!" Oy.

0:02 An effeminate guy in a white overcoat walks slowly down a bridge. Cut to a white owl in a forest and two guys fighting fiercely, one with whip and one with sword. Neither lands a single blow, they're both so good at deflections. A pentagram appears below them and the owl flies off to a castle set against a mountain ledge. He lands on a little girl's staff. The guy in white has a sword with a large clock in it and uses it to reverse time or something. The sword guy in the forest gets some wings while a cross on the back of the whip guy glows. Abrupt cut to the title screen. What the hell was that?!

0:03 And on the title screen, a woman speaks the name in the same super-serious manner: "Castle-VAN-i-a ... JUDGMENT." Dude, it's not even that great of a name...

0:04 After setting up the save file, it's off to Tutorials to "learn the game's various controls and techniques." Maybe that was the problem at E3 ... I just didn't know what I was doing...

0:05 "I sense the power of a Belmont within you, but you do not yet seem to grasp the fundamentals of combat," says ... some guy, I dunno. A cool remix of the Castlevania theme plays in the background, marred by some awful grinding noise. What the hell is that?

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer