Passing Judgment on Wii’s Castlevania

If you’ll recall, we reported that the new issue of Nintendo Power not only told of Mega Man 9, but also gave us the first idea of what to expect from Castlevania on the Wii.

This game, called judgment, appears to be shaping up as a fighter, and that’s cool, I like fighters, I like Castlevania, it might work. I believe in giving games a fair chance before I get to play them. And yet, there is one thing that is turning me off horribly to this newest work of Konami’s, and I assume Koji Igarashi.

Our affiliate, Jeux France, has taken the liberty of posting scans from the new issue of Nintendo Power to show some of the characters.

And personally? I think they look awful. Not by art, but by design.

According to one comment, the art is done by Death Note artist Takeshi Obata, and I can certainly believe it; legendary vampire slayer Simon Belmont looks strikingly similar to one Light Yagami from said manga… except he looks like he’s dressed in attire fitting another Death Note character, Mello, who a few people have had a difficult time determining the gender of after bearing witness to his penchant for wearing bizarre leather outfits.

Maria Renard, who nearest as I can tell has been reverted to her younger pre-Symphony of the Night form, is eerily reminiscent of Light’s girlfriend, the gothic lolita-fashioned Misa Amane.

Dracula… I don’t know what to think. Well, one thing comes to mind, but I’ll spare everyone’s sensibilities except to say one word: “Bukkake.” If you know what the word means, then you probably know what I’m saying about that outfit here. If not… well, you’re probably better off for it, and should just move along.

There doesn’t seem to be any imagery of newcomer Shanoa yet, which just leaves Alucard. His design is perhaps the best out of the lot and my favorite. Not that that’s saying much, it simply means I find his to be the least awful of the bunch. I much preferred his Symphony garb, however.

So, there we have it. Purely by visual aesthetic (and I don’t mean good graphics/bad graphics), I’ve gone from looking forward to Judgment to dreading it. I had stated yesterday that I hoped Charlotte from Portrait of Ruin might be in, but after seeing these images, I think I would rather she were spared.

I would be much happier if Simon were depicted thusly:

Maybe if there are alternate costumes (or even in Maria’s case, an alternate age), I might be able to get more into this. But for now… well, I’m not really looking forward to more.