In an effort to be different Konami decides to give themselves a Fatality
Over all the game itself isn't that bad, and is a very interesting concept that adds some much needed variety to the Castlevania seires. The graphics are probably some of the best that the Wii can produce, and containes many fan favorite characters from the Castlevania seires including: Simon and Trever Belmont, Alucard, and of course primary villian extrodinar: Dracula. The special movies, once executed are actually very well done. However the graphics are the only thing that this game has going for it, and say it with me: Amazing Graphics does not a good game make.
The gameplay is where Castlevania Judgement fall apart. As a series, Castlevania has built itself on excellent platformers and RPG style gameplay mixed in with a strong Gothic Atmosphere. Judgement however, does all it can to distrance itself from it's roots. Once you start playing you can't help but notice that the game play bares a striking resemblence to SoulCaliber, complete with flashy special moves, weapons that are so blunt they probably couldn't cut paper. Another problem is that the bright colorful graphics take away a lot of the dark gothic atmosphere, created in the previous Castlevania games. But the gameplay itself isn't this game's achillies heel, that would be it's controls.
When it comes to a fighting game, the controls are by far the most important aspect of the gameplay, and Castlevania Judgement's controls can be summed up like this: dear god what a train wreck. Using the Wii Mote essentually makes the game all but unplayable, as even basic moves will only work if they feel like it, and special moves are impossible to pull off. The Game Cube and Classic Controllers do work better for this particular game, but not by much, even with the Classic Controllers the moves still feel delayed, and the out of control camera makes the difficulty even worse.
All in all this is a game that could have been great, had it stuck with the traditional Castlevania formula, of platforming/RPG style gameplay. When it comes to playing the game I would highly recomend using a Game Cube or Classic Controller unless you want Mr. Wii Mote to meet Mr. TV head on