Metareview -- Castlevania Judgment (Wii)

by Randy Nelson on Nov 24th 2008 3:50PM

Nobody seems to have been whipped into a frenzy by Konami's recent stab at a Castlevania fighting game. A small group of reviewers has finally passed judgment on the Wii-only release, and, by-and-large, the consensus is a resounding groan – and it's not coming from Frankenstein's monster.

IGN (75/100): "In the list of games I'm dying to play in the Castlevania series, a 3D fighter was about as far from the top as possible, but Judgment was a pleasant surprise."
G4 X-Play (20/100): "The soundtrack is the only thing in Castlevania Judgment that does proper homage to the series."
1UP (D-): "As a fighter, Castlevania Judgment employs too many design ideas that are neither well planned nor well executed. It's a strange misstep for the beloved series, one that Konami hopefully learns from."

Source

Tags: castlevania, castlevania-judgment, konami, metareview, Wii

Reader Comments (101)

Im starting to wonder about IGN staff.
It seems the cyborgs that handle their reviews need maintenance.

So says the robot. You took 4 minutes to reply to this post. I think YOU need maintenance.

Castlevania IGN Judgment: The Payola-ing

no, IGN ratings usually are way the hell off. their reviewers are morons.

Any site that rates God Hand the same as Corey In The House (DS) needs to take a long, LONG look in the mirror.

Yeah, it's not like Joystiq just happened to pick the two lowest reviews besides the IGN one, and the other from G4 no less... The haters are out on full force with this one.

The X-Play review. G4 just happens to be on X-Play. Believe it or not, there are still people out there that trust the reviews given by X-Play, even if the entire G4 network is circling the drain.

That said, the other two (IGN and EGM) are huge players in the games review sector, with millions of readers. I don't know what you want Joystiq to do if two of the largest publications really hated the game....oh right, you want them to find the highest review (let's face it, 75 probably IS the highest score for the game) and put it on there, no matter where it comes from.

Err, reverse that. X-Play is on G4, not the other way around. You guys knew what I meant dernit.

BB, have you even looked at the reviews? IGN was indeed fairly positive, the 1up review was just hate over it not being SotN2, but there are middle of the road reviews too like the one from GameTrailers, so choosing two of the lowest ones is just Joystiq playing into the hatin'.

that won't be good for business...

that won't be good for anybody!

+1 for the Seinfeld reference lol

KJ is right: The Wii could only hope to produce building and gravel textures that blurry

you know, its times like this I wanna beat up the guy who made this comment system

I can't see why this game was even made. Who's gonna buy it? Did the executives think that the team might turn out a triple-A 97%-metascore big hitter or something?

Those guys reviewing this in the 70s or more enjoyed the game, and many gamers are enjoying it even more. But then you've got the hype machine reviewers who judge a game according to their preconceptions and go onto full hate mode with their ridiculously low scores, just because it isn't a new console SotN. I bet this game is more fun than GTA4.

Behold....the power of the wii. But graphics don't matter, it's all about the gameplay.....waggle waggle.

Some of those textures would be at home on the PS1.

This one would be terrible regardless of console, the waggle just add a layer of suckage to the game.

lol

Wii = Trash! !!!

*runs*

Certainly isn't worth fighting the ignorance anymore.

Ignore me, let the hater circle-jerk continue.

-Killjebus

exaggerating much? really, playstation one textures? look again my friend. have you played a playstation one game recently?

also, behold... the power of the hd consoles. overhyped hd 30 million dollar big budgeted triple-a mediocre games. mostly all were disappointments in some way and didn't live up to the crazy hype. but hd graphics are the future right?

"let the hater circle-jerk continue."

I've gotta find a way to use that phrase in casual conversation.

Not even fernando could stop the rapidly increasing hate of the wii and the current gen nintendo here, so if that was your goal Mr Khan you never had a chance. Only Nintendo themselves can do that.

"let the hater circle-jerk continue."

Perhaps you miss-understood my comment, I am not hating on the Wii and it's waggle waggle, I am LAUGHING at the wii and it's 1990's graphical prowess.

"exaggerating much? really, playstation one textures? look again my friend. have you played a playstation one game recently?"

Oh but I have, I found something...I'd like to show it to ya....here it is....

http://www.gamershell.com/playstation/tekken_3/screenshots.html?id=120625

Like I said, textures that would be home (at least in the ballpark) on the wii.

You know how awesome it is to enjoy all three consoles? I get to play the best games that all three consoles have to offer without retarded bias. This is what we call being mature.

"on the wii."

edit: on the PS1

Yes the wii's Castlevania Judgement looks better, but in my opinion this game is CLOSER to the PS1 than it is to the PS3 in terms of textures and graphics.

If you honestly believe this looks closer to a PS1 game in terms of textures, you're a freakin' idiot.

Here is a coupe of screens from KZ2, now Sammyboy, are you going to stand there like Forrest, Forrest Gump and tell me that the textures in this wii game are closer than the textures from Tekken 3 for the PS1?

Thanks for the laugh buddy.

http://www.psu.com/New-Killzone-2-shots-show-off-amazing-ground-textures-News--a4983-p0.php

By the way, you're not far wrong.

Jebus, we already know that the Wii is weaker than the other two system in terms of graphics. It would be stupid to compare it to a PS3 game, however, to compare it to a PS1 game is an entire different level of stupidity.

If you're trying to make an argument instead of trolling, why not compare it to a PS2 or Xbox game? Maybe even Gamecube? Come on now.

yes, because screenshots present accurate representations of games (COUGHCOUGHFINALFANTASYCOUGH).

Killjebus, your trolling is fairly juvenile. The Wii more closely resembles the graphical level of the PS2. To say that the Wii more closely resembles the PS1 than the PS3 is a really silly statement.

KJ is right: The Wii could only hope to produce building and gravel textures that blurry

hate to form a comment c-c-c-combo, but really Jebs? Tekken 3? Tekken 3 made Virtua Fighter on the 32X look like Far Cry 2. I'd know, I played it this weekend (along with the last good inforgrames game, Test Drive 6)

Just thought I'd remind KJ of the last time Guerilla showed off really cool looking screenshots.

http://www.globaltimoto.com/Nav/SupMat/Guerrilla/Killzone_SCEE_Screenshot.jpg

Now THERES a PS1 game!

Killjebus, would you kindly stop making all PS3 fanboys look like douche bags?

Why the hell isn't KJ banned already? No, seriously, how does a troll like him stay unbanned?

I think this'll be my last month at the Joystiq if they don't perform some much needed cleaning up around here...

Why would he be banned? It is an article about a Wii-only game that Killjebus is suggesting looks like something from the PS1.

Do we get banned for being wrong now?

Anyway, as others have pointed out, if you were to compare the Wii's graphics to a Sony console, it should be the Playstation 2. Though I should point out that Resident Evil 4 looks better than anything on the Playstation 2, so the correct assessment is that the Wii is capable of a level of graphics somewhere between the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3.

A 20/100??? Even most of the shovelware on wii is laughing at that.

The IGN and G4 reviews are almost polar opposites. Its like they didn't even play the same game.

The 1up review seems to be the most accurate. Unfortunately, the entire review is roughly three paragraphs long.

I give these reviews a 4/10

That's quite the discrepancy, don't you think?

Guess IGN is the only one running their ads.

I've only seen Judgment ads at 1up...

On one of the 1up podcasts they were saying that to play, you basically shake the remote until your combo meter fills up and then press down on the d-pad for an automatic win. Rinse, repeat. Sounds like loads of fun.

Looks like this game is embarrassing to the Castlevania franchise, the Wii, and fighting games everywhere. Good work Konami!

You lend some sort of credibility to 1up's podcasts?

.......

Mr Khan don't tell me you're hurt from when John Davidson went off on Wii Music a couple weeks ago, even saying his 5 year old thought it was retardedly boring.

The only other people who rip 1up podcasts are usually butt-hurt pc fanboys.

Taking console bias completely out of the picture, i find them to be hideously pretentious.

I share the opinions of several of their staff members, yes. Plus, it's hardly unbelievable when someone says that you can get through the fighting portion of a Wii game by simply shaking the controller indescriminately. I mean, just look at Star Wars, Soul Calibur Legends, or even Twilight Princess.

It's twice as believable considering that most of the games Konami has released recently (that aren't called MGS4) are pretty terrible.

Whoa tuna, you can get through Twilight Princess by "shaking the controller indescriminately"?!?!

Full of crap much?

I enjoy many 1UP pods, such as 1UP FM, Legendary Thread (even though I no longer play WoW), LAN Party (formerly 97.5 The Brodeo), Retronauts, Broken Pixels, The 1UP Show. Pretty much everything but 1UP Yours. Why? Well, time for 1. I don't have 2 hours to spend listening to Shane or Garnett pretend to argue over whether or not a game is good. And thats also my second reason, most of the time they rehash things I read on their site days ago (I realize its a week-in-review, but give me a break) and the way they "debate" over games just seems so forced and out of placed. Finally is humor. Yes, I realize not every podcast can be funny, but listening to Shane when he shows up on FM then hearing him later in the week has me convinced that there are 2 Shanes.

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Metareview -- Castlevania Judgment (Wii)

Reader Comments (101)

Posted: Nov 24th 2008 3:54PM Negatron said

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