Castlevania Judgment

Castlevania Judgment is a spin-off that abandons the series' traditional platforming journey through the castle and pits characters from the series - Simon Belmont, Alucard, Trevor, Shanoa, Sypha Belnades, and Dracula himself - against each other in an enclosed 3D arena. Instead of jumping, collecting items, and finding a path through the castle, it's purely a one-on-one duel, where each character has their own special attacks and super moves derived from their weapons and abilities from earlier entries in the series, from Simon's whip through Alucard's swords to Dracula's magic, and the story additionally frames an unconventional explanation for why heroes from different centuries even meet in one place.

The game is Wii-exclusive and fully built around motion controls - the player swings the Wii Remote for attacks and blocks and combines it with the Nunchuk for movement and dodges, which fundamentally sets it apart in gameplay terms from the rest of the series, controlled with a classic pad and precise jump timing. The arenas are also partially destructible and react to special attacks, so the duels look different from classic fighting games with fixed arenas. The characters' visual style was designed by Takeshi Obata, the artist of the Death Note manga, so visually too it's a marked departure from Castlevania's established style - the characters look slimmer, more youthful, and more manga-like than in the main entries, where the graphic style is usually darker and more gothic. Each character also carries their own version of the signature music from their original installment, rearranged into a faster, combat-oriented tempo, so the game also works as a kind of look back at the musical history of the entire series.

Why play it: Judgment will appeal to players who want to see Castlevania characters in an unconventional fighting-game form with motion controls and are curious how duels between Simon, Alucard, and Dracula might look, not fans expecting a classic platforming journey through the castle with puzzles and item collecting - there's no castle to explore here, just a series of enclosed arenas.