Classic 2D Castlevania is here to stay. At least, that's how we feel after playing the latest in the series to hit the Nintendo DS, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. While the game stays true to the flat-faced games we've seen in the past, there's enough here in this little square cartridge to make things feel fresh ... blood fresh.

One of the elements that stands out the most in this new Castlevania is the glyph system. In order to carry out actions, characters absorb glyphs (which are usually either weapons, i.e. a rapier, or magic, i.e. flying fire balls) and assign them to the X and Y buttons. You can equip the same glyph more than once, making things slightly more economical. You have a green bar under your red health bar -- this is a magic gauge. This depletes as you use your glyphs, but refills quickly as soon as you stop performing any actions with them; it basically regulates your attacks, so you won't be able to mindlessly breeze through the game.

Castlevania Judgment. When we first heard of this title, we immediately conjured up memories of Soulcalibur Legends (read the preview that got us blacklisted by Namco Bandai here). Somehow, Konami is daring to tread the same path by re-imagining the Castlevania franchise as a waggle-filled fighting game with subpar (even for Wii) graphics and shallow gameplay. We'd feel sorry for poor ol' Castlevania for being treated this way -- but we've been through this before.

At the very least, Judgment is much more competent and fun than Soulcalibur Legends. Graphically speaking, Judgment is rather unattractive, featuring awkward character models that certainly don't belong in the Castlevania universe. Textures are low-res, environments are uninspired and character models are poorly constructed with flat textures and low poly counts. Sadly, it doesn't match the visual fidelity of the 3D Castlevania titles on the PS2.

Thankfully, the gameplay in Judgment isn't as shallow as you may expect. Yes, you can swing your Wiimote every which way, but you won't be able to win with blind waggling. Perhaps it's because Judgment is being touted as a fighting game and not an adventure game, but the fighting engine does feature a bit more depth than the one found in Soulcalibur Legends. A huge change, for example, is that you'll actually have to block attacks (!). Players will also be able to equip various Castlevania-themed secondary weapons to unleash upon opponents. For example, I equipped the trusty cross with Simon. A press of the A-button throws it like a boomerang. It's perfect to use after knocking an opponent to the ground. As they get up, it smacks them in the back. Yeah, it's a dirty trick.

The Australian OFLC ratings board has given Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse a G rating, which means the title should be on its way to a Virtual Console near you relatively soonish. The circle will finally be complete, as Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, and Super Castlevania IV from the SNES era, are already on the download service.

So, those old enough to remember, who was your favorite playable character in the game: Trevor, Sypha Belnades, Grant DaNasty or Alucard?
[Via Wii Fanboy, GoNintendo]

Even though it may be true that, as he said, Warren Ellis "wrote a bunch of the groundwork, backstory and structure on the forthcoming EA videogame Dead Space," it would appear that you may not find a whole lot of that work in the final product.

Speaking with IGN, executive producer Glen Schofield said, "With all due respect to Warren ... Warren came at the very beginning of the game; we figured we needed a writer and Warren came in and we had our direction, our ideas ... how many of these ideas are leftovers from what he wrote, I don't know – I'd have to go back a reread all his work." We'll probably never know how much of he game was inspired by the prolific writer, but it doesn't exactly sound like Warren Ellis' Dead Space, does it?

On a happier note for Ellis fans, the Castlevania movie is still coming. That's something, right?

While Konami is already exercising options with Gradius Rebirth, Castlevania stalwart Koji Igarashi has now expressed interest in dipping his own whip into the Wii's digital waters. Given that 3D fighter Castlevania Judgment promises to take face-to-palm when it's released, Iga's interest in WiiWare looks to rekindle fans' triple-shot prayers for a traditional 2D Castlevania for consoles.

"I'm definitely interested in WiiWare and I think it's one of the areas that 2D can still be very strong at," Igarashi told MTV Multiplayer. In a separate interview with Wired's Game|Life blog, he also noted that he's watching Capcom's decidedly retro Mega Man 9 "very closely" to see how it's received once it debuts later this year, noting that "if it is successful that definitely opens up doors for what I can do." Now all there's left to do is wait, though if you get hungry we hear that there's some delicious turkey hidden inside the wall.

While checking out Konami's 3D fighter, Castlevania Judgment, two Konami employees stood next to us and saw an opportunity to shoot the breeze. While conversing about things that this blogger couldn't help but overhear, one female worker commented to the other that if "they are just going to make fun of it, you have the power to kick them out." It was pretty obvious that she was referring to the fighting game we were currently engaged in playing.

And, before you ask, no we did not make fun of it. We waited until we left their space before laughing.

Despite two-year-old assurances that "the whip is still in it" it seems that, if an early script review is any indication, the Belmont's signature weapon has been knocked down to bit player in the Castlevania script by Paul W.S. Anderson, who has seen fit to make Simon live by the sword.

Here's the word from CC2K writer "Big Ross" who says "Though I said Vampire Killer is gone from this script, Simon does wield what is described as a chain whip in two instances. However, it is nondescript and in one of the occasions is wielded as an off-hand weapon. So what is Simon armed with throughout the film? A f***ing sword."

No, that doesn't sound particularly encouraging to us. But, hey, at least the rest of the script review is almost entirely negative.

[Via AICN]

It's been a busy week in the Wii world, but when isn't it? We've got lots of great homegrown content for you, as well as some of the most popular pages on the site over the last week. Don't dip your toes, dive in! And check out the new images from Castlevania Judgment.

Oh, and don't forget: we're giving away another free Virtual Console game. Check it out!

Features

• Wii Fanboy Review: SPOGS Racing
  We check out the WiiWare title
• Wii Fanboy Review: Top Spin 3
  We take 2K's title to the court
• Brawl Stage of the Week: Freezer Room
  Our weekly spotlight of user-generated content for Smash Bros. Brawl
• Born for Wii: Beyond Good and Evil
  This deserves a Wii-specific port!
• Top Five: Anticipated WiiWare game
  Our new features look at the top 5 hottest upcoming WiiWare games
• It's-a Mario World: Mario's Many Professions part 1 of 2
  We delve into all of Mario's past employment
• VC Monday Madness video wrap-up 7/7/08
  This week's Virtual Console games, in direct-feed video form
• Virtually Overlooked: Star Wars (Famicom)
  We tell you why it should be on the Virtual Console
• Another Week in Sales
  Our weekly analysis of the different region's game sales

Other Items of Interest

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• Mega Man 9 looks great, sounds great, did we mention it looks great?
  Seriously
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl community screens
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• Sakurai: I had a lot more characters in Brawl
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Konami has released a triple-shot boomerang's worth of screenshots from its unorthodox take on Castlevania for the Wii, which promises to take the long running vampire hunt in a decidedly punchy direction. As great as it is to see the Belmont clan stretch their arms (and wings, and whips), with previous 3D Castlevania's driving a stake deep into the heart of "meh," it's impossible to feel anything beyond cautious optimism for Konami's latest experiment.

So what say you? Do these shots whip you into a frenzy for Castlevania Judgment, or simply douse your few remaining hearts in holy water?

Konami has finally lifted the coffin lid on Castlevania Judgment, the Wii-bound installment of the long-running vampire vanquishing venture. If you missed the Nintendo Power reveal, know that Judgment allows players to "slash, stab and whip their way across a variety of stages and environmental elements," and play as several characters from the franchise's illustrious history. Also, it's a 3D fighting game, "certain to thrill old and new fans of the franchise."

Of course, not every connection with real Castlevania games will be severed -- in fact, you can hook up the upcoming DS game, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, to "unlock bonus gameplay content." Castlevania Judgment will also support head-to-head (Belmont-to-Belmont?) play via Nintendo's online service, perfect for those times when you just want to lash out at internet strangers. Whips! They did it again.

Castlevania's coming to Wii after all, but not in the form you expected ... or may have hoped for. Nintendo Power's latest issue (August 2008, their 20th anniversary edition – congrats!) has the scoop on Castlevania Judgment, a 3D fighting game featuring characters (and game mechanics) from the classic vampire-thwapping franchise.

In its first look at the game, the Nintendo Power gang reveals that Castlevania Judgment will feature gameplay that uses the nunchuck for character movement and the Wii remote for swing-based attacks. Sub-weapons such as crosses and holy water, a staple of the series, will appear and – just as in the action-adventure games – cost hearts to use. The character roster as revealed so far includes Simon Belmont, Alucard, Dracula, Maria Renard, and Shanoa. Traps, random monsters, and destructible environments will also play into combat.

The August issue of Nintendo Power is arriving in subscriber's mailboxes now. Thanks to GoNintendo for the heads-up, and to Nintendo Power for confirming the story. Otherwise, we'd have chalked this one up to a really bad weird dream caused by too much cold medicine. Achoo!

Is 2D gaming headed for life support status? Last year Castlevania main man Koji Igarashi was vehement in his declaration that 2D games would never die. In fact, he felt so strongly about it that he had to use a PowerPoint slide to illustrate just how he felt about the issue. All the time and effort that went into making that graphic signifies a serious lust for all things 2D.

Well, a lot can change in a year. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Iga said, "I'm glad that 2D is still somewhat alive. It's been fun." That almost sounds like a death knell. Say it ain't so, you whip-carrying developer! His argument last year was that it's much cheaper to develop 2D games when you don't have to render things in 3D, but that seems to be the equivalent of saying it's cheaper to ride a horse because it's not as expensive as a car. People want to go quite a bit faster than the horse will allow, and likewise with their games. Still, we're praying 2D gaming hasn't started to cough up blood just yet. Keep hope alive!

[Via DS Fanboy]

We've yet to play a DS incarnation of Konami's vamp-slaying franchise that we didn't thoroughly enjoy -- if this debut trailer for the next installment in the handheld series is any indication, that streak appears to show no signs of stopping. This stylish trailer introduces us to the protagonist of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia -- the raven-haired Shanoa (who looks a bit too similar to Bullet Witch's Alicia for our comfort), and her many, many methods for murdering and dismembering ol' Vlad's minions. Sure, she may not wield the Vampire Killer whip made famous in other Castlevania titles, but she does dispatch a Giant Enemy Crab with a falling elevator, which arguably possesses a bit more panache than the Belmont family's legendary cord.

The Castlevania film adaptation is stepping back into the limelight, and it's bringing a rather bizarre friend with him. Crystal Sky Pictures has signed a "$200 million theatrical slate financing deal" with Grosvenor Park to produce five films, according to Variety, with two of those being Castlevania and -- no, really! -- Pac-Man.

Originally penned by Paul W.S. "I didn't make Boogie Nights" Anderson (Resident Evil), Castlevania was put on hold during the writer's strike. The adaptation is still being co-produced by Rogue Pictures. Crystal Sky Pictures is also producing the Tekken film with Sony's Screen Gems.

If anyone's curious, here's our pitch for Pac-Man: The Film:

It's the year 2185. Human life has been all but eradicated, and sole survivors scramble to collect resources in a labyrinthine cave of unknown secrets. Using their spherical harvesting pods, each team takes a turn gathering. But something goes horribly wrong as one expedition team gets trapped and is forced to finish its mission while running away from haunting memories of the past...