E3 08 Hands-On Preview: Castlevania Judgment

by Rangebar Merani on July 16, 2008 at 1:02 am

Earlier today I got a chance to play the first Castlevania game for the Wii, Castlevania Judgment.

Judgment is the first Castlevania fighting game ever, placing generations of vampire hunters, including the Belmont Clan, against Dracula’s most fearsome cronies.

When I first took a look at the game, I wasn’t really impressed too much with the graphics. But after I thought about it, for a 3D Wii fighting game, they weren’t too bad.

The level I played in was some sort of cemetery looking area, complete with undead zombies that could attack you. The scenery was dark and spooky, perfect for a Castlevania game.

There were only three characters playable in the demo: Simon, Alucard, and Maria. The full version of the game will include 14 characters from the last 22 years of Castlevania games.

All three characters were finely detailed, but didn’t have that realistic look to them. It was more like an anime-style artwork and I thought it worked well.

The gameplay was what I was most interested in and, surprisingly, it was pretty good. The demo had the Nunchuk and Wii Remote controller setup, which is probably my favorite control scheme with fighting games on the Wii.

The Nunchuk joystick controls your characters movement and shaking it will cause them to perform a roll or dodge. The Wii Remote is used to attack just by shaking it, which could lead up to some pretty nasty combo attacks. You also press the A button to throw projectile items at your opponent, such as knives, crosses or holy water.

Konami has also confirmed that Judgment will have full online head-to-head battles over the Nintendo Wi-fi Connection, which will surely keep many Castlevania fans pleased.

You can expect Castlevania Judgment to hit stores in North America sometime this fall.

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