If you remember the 80s, there’s a good chance you spent some quality time with Konami’s Castlevania for the NES. You probably also had a cool Sony Walkman and ate lots of spooky Ghostbusters cereal while watching He-Man cartoons on the TV in your brightly colored Jams, but that’s not the point of this article.

Thanks to modder and YouTube user, M0rtanius, you can play the classic 2D side scroller in glorious Half-Life 2 3D. Get a glimpse of the level in the video below and download the mod here if you’re interested.

Konami revealed a next-gen Castlevania teaser trailer at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show. We reported on it yesterday, and now have video footage of it, so you can view it yourself.

The video features an ominous Dracula Slayer complete with glowing red eyes and a flame laden sword. It also clearly states that the game is slated for release on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. No other information is known about the game or its format at this time, but if I had to guess, my money would be on a 3D format of some sort.

Watch it quickly, before the scary figure with the red eyes slays you.

At the Tokyo Game show today, Konami held a press event for the Castlevania franchise, announcing a new entry to the hit series for both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Outside of a brief ten second clip showing a man wielding a lit red sword, not much else is known about the game, so it comes as no surprise that an actual release date is far from set.

Could this finally be a worthy 3-D Castlevania game? Let’s hope so, because the last one wasn’t all that.

Source: ps3.ign.com

Having made the only videogame movies that have so far been close to not sucking (those being the original Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil), Paul W. S. Anderson is also producing the upcoming Castlevania movie. The Internet was abuzz with early negativity based on the rumors that the movie would not feature the iconic whip or even a member of the Belmont clan. PWSA pooped on those rumors at the end of an interview on Attack of the Show, a clip of which we have so graciously provided for you.

PWSA chats about his just-released movie Death Race starring The Transporter. It features real cars! Yawn. If you don’t care about that (and you shouldn’t) you can skip to the 5:00 mark near the end where they start discussing Castlevania.

Enough whipping to be an S&M flick? Story revolves around Trevor Belmont? Might not be as hokey as Van Helsing? Color me interested. Hopefully the W.S. stands for “Won’t Suck”… except in Dracula’s case, in which he should suck… but only chicks.

That’s it, I’m going to go make a Castlevania movie myself.

October 21st will be the day BioShock for Playstation 3 and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (Nintendo DS) will be up for sale in North America; other countries, not so much. Thankfully, the wait they’ll have to endure will only be three and two days, respectively.

That leaves international launches for BioShock on October 24th and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia on October 23rd. Oddly enough, 2K has not announced any plans to launch BioShock in Japan, and conversely Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has yet to announce a date for the inevitable European release.

Castlevania gamers rejoiced when a new installment in the popular series was announced at this year’s E3. Fans then became less enthused when they learned that instead of a traditional action-adventure title like those the series is known for, the new Castlevania is going be a fighter for the Nintendo Wii.

In a recent interview with current Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi, Wired questioned the man on this bizarre transition, and his answers were a little worrying.
His first response to the change in format is that playing a traditional Castlevania game for hours on end could get a little tiring on the Wii, where you would use the Wii remote as a whip. This was his reason for wanting to create a game with a certain time limit.

However, certain parties don’t believe that that’s the full story. Jeremy Parish from 1up had this to say after experiencing the game at E3:

“The saddest thing is watching Koji Igarashi on the E3 show floor, hovering around the Castlevania Judgment kiosk for half an hour, knowing that everyone hates it, knowing that he knows they hate it, then realizing that it’s not the game he really wanted to make anyway because his publisher won’t give him two dimes to rub together to develop the really awesome games he does want to create.”

Later in the interview with Wired, Igarashi opened up more about the development.

“Wii is selling, but the ‘gamer’s games’ aren’t selling. That’s what I’m concerned about. I think there are two roads you can take: Create a game for the core fans with as low a development cost as possible, the other is to just find a different market for these consoles outside the core gamer. I have to adapt to the times, but I can’t alienate the core fans.”

We all know that Nintendo is going after casual gamers in a huge way. The benefit is that more people are being drawn to video games. The downside is the worry that Nintendo – and video game developers in general – are paying less and less attention to hardcore gamers, which is a sentiment that has been echoed by many fans.

Igarashi’s comments definitely support the latter theory and it’s disheartening to think that even big name developers like Konami – who just recently gave us the phenomenal Metal Gear Solid 4 – may be putting less effort into traditional games. If they’re willing to water down a fan favorite franchise like Castlevania, what hope do we have?

Source: Game|Life

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.

Aint It Cool News and CC2K have brought us the first ever script review of Paul W. S. Anderson’s new Castlevania movie, and it’s about as ugly as Medusa. The reviewer predicts, “I have no doubt it will crash and burn like so many of its predecessors.” Harsh words, and a bad omen for the director of the Resident Evil films, Mortal Kombat, and Aliens. vs. Predator.

Apparently this draft of Castlevania reads like a bad clone of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but even worse, the legendary chain whip plays almost no part. Instead, it’s been replaced by a sword. WTF?

This script analysis is definitely worth a read– if you don’t mind the heavy, heavy spoilers. This draft sounds pretty disappointing, but I’ll wait until we learn a little more about the movie, like who’s in the cast, and what kind of art style they go for, before deciding if I’ll see it in theaters or wait for it to be on cable.

Source CC2K via AICN

Castlevania: Judgment has been under heavy scrutiny since Konami announced the series would enter the realm of fighters. Screens revealed bt the company should put some of those fears at bay as the game looks quite solid for a console without many fighting titles.

With everything looking sharp thus far, adding another fighter to the Nintendo Wii lineup won’t hurt. The last to my knowledge was Guilty Gear Accent Core, which didn’t settle well due to its limited audience and complicated controls. Castlevania: Judgment might be the breath of fresh air fighter fans with Wiis need, while simultaneously carrying the series into an entirely new sub-genre.

Castlevania has always had engaging character models and it’s refreshing to see that they’ve not sacrificed their eye for detail. Dracula gives off quite an auspicious presence while Alucard maintains that “bad-ass” persona.

The levels also seem to be interactive, plus give players more maneuverability. I’m expecting a nice hybrid of Power Stone and Soul Caliber complimented with approachable, well-known characters within the Castlevania series. We can only hope that we’re provided with more at E3, since only playing the game will confirm whether or not Konami made the right move with the Castlevania name.

Castlevania: Judgement Screens

17 Photos

 

Jean Snow over at Game|Life fills us in a little further on the new Castlevania for Wii–which is, yes, a fighting game. Quite a departure, and with Wiimote whippings to boot? I worry the fun of this game will be determined almost exactly by how much motion-control we have to finagle through. Environmental specific items as weapons sounds nice, though. Online support is definitely the right move. And DS interconnectivity with Order of Ecclesia for unlockables? Word.

Also looking forward to seeing the character art by Takeshi Obata (as fans of Death Note and Hikaru no Go should be).

No screens until E3, Snow says, but hopefully that means we’re only a couple weeks away from checking them out.

Source: Game|Life

Konami has confirmed that Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia will be coming out for the Nintendo DS in both Japan and North America.

Order of Ecclesia will star a new female heroine, named Shanoa, who is a member of the (surprise!) Order of Ecclesia. Equipped with her holy whip, Shanoa and the Order are on a mission to destroy Count Dracula and his gang of demons. The game takes place in Dracula’s castle and, like other previous 2D portable Castlevanias, will feature multiple endings.

Konami also revealed that the game would use a new Glyph attack system allowing for up to 100 different weapons and spell attacks. This new Glyph system will allow players to unleash two attacks simultaneously. The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection will also be incorporated into the game with the buying and selling of items and weapons.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is slated for release this fall.

Source: Joystiq

Although said screenshots were allegedly thrown up by a member on the Castlevania team, the thread is now gone and the user deleted.

However, with the way the internet operates, somebody grabbed the shots while they were up and made them available for the world to see.

Details are scarce and many signs point to this being a fake, but if the screenshots are to be believed, it seems like it’ll be business as usual for Mr. Igarashi. At least it’s looks like it’ll be a departure from the fail that was the art direction in Portrait of Ruin.

Should we get any confirmation or more information, we’ll be the first to let you know.