OLD REVIEW: Castlevania Judgement

READ THIS BEFORE THE REVIEW: since in the past I posted other reviews
with the wiikly news reports I'm gonna post them here too, so that you
won't miss them. I'll post an old one each day until we are caught up
with the current ones ^^

Keep in mind that those reviews are
old...I did this one almost one year ago, so my writing and my way to
explain things may have been quite a bit worse back then (and were also
shorter than now), but I figured it would be interesting ^^

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WII GAME OF THE WEEK: Castlevania Judgement
Genre: Fighting game
I should say that this game really surprised me, since there were many
different opinions about this game (although I ignored all the opinions
about the game being bad just because the art style wasn't the original
one of castlevania).

The game takes around 14 characters from the castlevania series placing
them in this fighting game to get out of a weird time void caused by a
misterious guy named Aeon, who dragged all of them into this trouble.

The game allows you to use either the wiimote and nunchuck or the
classic/GC controller, thing that will also be appreciated who doesn't
like to waggle the wiimote instead of bashing a button (thing that
doesn't bother me honestly, but oh well.. X3). The gameplay lets you
move freely around the stage, kind of like games like Powerstone or
Saint Seiya: Hades. Despite not having a HUGE set of combos and moves
to make like Soul Calibur 4 it haves a nice variety of moves and ways
to combine them. normal combos, special attacks, hyper attacks and even
alternative weapons that you can pick up destroying objects around the
stage that will either give you said weapons (like the good old cross
boomerang and the holy water) or little hearts that are your MPs to use
them.

beside the heart container and the HP bar, there's the hyper gauge that
when filled up will let you unleash a hyper attack, or, in the case of
certain characters will let you use special abilities, like the berserk
mode for Cornell. The characters are very well varied, each of them
have their own attacks, specials, hypers. they also have different
speed, strenght, way to move and dodge the attacks and also the way
that they can get the hit (Dracula will never fall down, but he can't
make combos, even if his attacks are devastating and will damage you
very much if they hit you).

overall, the gameplay will probably be appreciated if you like
technical fighting games, where you have to learn each character's
moveset to use him/her at his/her full strenght

the stages are very well-designed too, some of them are simple stages
to move around, but many of them are full of dangers, like good old
spikes, edges, swinging blades and even monsters trying to get at you
(zombies, skeletons, tritons and even a huge kraken on the ship stage)
and there is a nice variety of them, even if not too many.

the story, obviously isn't a strong point of the game, using the time
void excuse to justify the presence of the different characters at the
same time, but afterall fighting games never had a deep plot, except
for a few ones.

the graphic look is very nice too, though there might be some aliasing
problem on some HD TVs, but it will depends by the model of your tv,
really. beside that, the models are beautiful and well made, and the
stages are also quite impressive. the game moves quite smoothly without
framerate problems and the hyper moves are a pure show for the eyes X3

the soundtrack aspect of the game is great too, taking many of the
famous themes from the games of the series and remixing them into a
rocky, fast-paced style that fits very well with the action going on in
the game. japanese voice acting is quite good too and I just have to
quote one of Death's intro sentences: "if you wish for death...here I
am!" X3

the flaws I'm gonna notice are, like I said, the aliasing effect on
some HD tv and a few camera problems that might affect the game now and
then.

so, to close this, the game haves also a lot of things to unlock, being
them characters, clothings and equipments, so if you are a castlevania
fan who isn't one of the many disgusted ones (I seriously don't find
the character design bad, I found it great ^^; ) you'll probably like
the well-done attempt of this game to pull castlevania characters into
the fighting genre.

people who also liked Powerstone and are fighting game fans will
probably appreciate this game too and have fun with it, especially with
the online mode, that is technically flawless with no lag unless you
are playing with someone who is litterally on the other side of the
world X3

so, if you got friends to play this game and you want an alternative
game beside super smash bros brawl...get this game, it's worth it ^^
and as usual, if you aren't sure rent it first and see if it can get
you!

here are a few screens:



Simon Belmont looks like Light Yagami with long hair X3 wich is cool in my opinion :3



Alucard stares into your soul o.o



the stages are quite wide and will let you run around freely



the good old Dracula fire <:3

and now here are a couple of videos:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42866.html?type=mov
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42862.html