This release in Konami's
long-running franchise marks a bit of a detour for the Castlevania series.
Judgment on Wii isn't a traditional 2D side scrolling adventure title but
a kind of open-ended 3D fighting game starring many of the familiar
characters. Players can choose to play as one of 14 different characters
and battle against each other. These include well-known faces Simon and
Trevor Belmont, Alucard, and Maria along with newer characters like Eric
Lecarde and Shanoa from the recent DS games. Two main modes of play are
offered in single player mode - arcade and story. These allow you to play
through the game with a single character. The game also includes practice
and training modes. You can choose to battle against a friend locally in
verus mode, and can also connect via wi-fi to fight online. This gives you
plenty of options, though no matter which way you play, there are some
similarities. Players fight against another character until their life
bars are depleted. There are an array of standard attacks that can be
used, most of which are intrinsic to that character, such as the Belmonts'
iconic whip attacks. There are two basic attacks, ones that can be used at
close range and others where you can inflict damage from a distance. As
you fight the other characters, you can move around the stage in full 3D,
which allows you to dodge attacks and take cover as well, which makes this
a bit more elaborate than most fighting games. In addition to the
fighting, players can collect a variety of items, such as hearts and other
weapons by running over them. Collecting these before your opponents can
gives you a big advantage in battle. You also need to be careful when
running around the game's environments, because they have traps that you
can fall off, which will end the game immediately. This can be somewhat
frustrating at times, since you can lose when you're far ahead of your
opponent. However, the other side is you can win when it looks like defeat
looms. Most of the levels see you fighting one of the standard characters,
but you'll also face other sections where you have to battle against waves
of zombies or face off against a usually much larger and more powerful
boss character. This style of play is modestly entertaining for single
players, though generally underwhelming in terms of challenge and depth.
In
the one-on-one mode, you face off against a succession of enemies until
you defeat the final boss, but the game also includes a deeper castle
mode. It's a kind of a quest styled mode, where you travel through a
castle that's been divided into stages. In order to clear each stage, you
have to meet certain conditions before you can proceed. Some of this is
fairly standard, such as defeating a character while others require more
skill, such as using only certain attacks or collecting a number of items.
The Castle mode's structure makes it quite difficult, because you have to
defeat several stages before you reach a checkpoint. Failing to do so
means you have to go back to the last checkpoint, or the beginning of the
stage, where replaying the same stages again is mandatory. Adding to the
frustration of this is the fact that you can only use Simon in these
stages initially, with the other characters unlocked solely by defeating
all the stages. This is a tedious process that isn't really enjoyable and
makes the game much harder than it needs to be. It could have been a lot
more entertaining, but the developers have instead opted to make it
excessively hard, which is a shame because there was definitely potential
here.
The other big problem with Castlevania
Judgment lies in its controls. Trying to play the game with the nunchuck
and wiimote is an exercise in frustration and tedium. You wave the
controller around and sway with only sporadic success. It makes the game
almost unplayable in this mode. However, things improve dramatically when
you use the classic controller, which makes movement and special attacks
much better. However, this also shows the game's unbalanced nature as
special attacks, which can cause massive damage to opponents, can be
triggered with a single button press, significantly reducing the
challenge. Moving around the levels is much easier, though the game still
feels a bit choppy despite the improvements. Visually, the game doesn't
look that great even by Wii standards. The most problematic elements in
Castlevania Judgment are its annoying camera angles which get in the way
of the action. This isn't helped by its dark levels make it hard to know
what's going on at first. The game's music and soundtrack are decent with
many familiar Castlevania themes scattered throughout its levels. This is
undermined by sub-par voice acting and a hard-to-follow plot that's more
distracting than interesting. Finally, the numerous special attack
sequences are repeated frequently during the battles, which makes for an
extremely repetitive experience. Overall, these production values lack the
polish and style Castlevania fans have come to expect, making for a flat,
uninspired experience overall.
Despite
its numerous design flaws, Castlevania Judgment doesn't end up being as
bad as it could have. As stated earlier, trying to play with the wii-mote
and nunchuck is an exercise in frustration, but using the classic
controller for more standard play makes for a big improvement. The game's
awkward camera angles and trap filled levels make for some frustrating
battles and it's overall feel is choppy. Visually, the game's design is
average at best, with some nice character renderings of classic
Castlevania characters. While it's not as bad as you might think,
Castlevania Judgment isn't a great game by any means. It's fighting is too
unbalanced and simplistic to hold your interest for very long, it's lack
of playable characters in its needlessly difficult quest mode make you
work harder than you should. There are a few elements that might please
Castlevania die-hards, but the overall production values are marred by
poor voice-acting and an incoherent plot that makes it hard to get into.
Overall, this diversion from the Castlevania saga isn't horrible, but it's
many problems makes for an unappealing that won't please either fans of
either fighting games or Castlevania.
-
Michael Palisano
