Konami had a build of Castlevania Judgement on display at Comic Con 2008, though they only allowed people to watch a representative play the game. Being unable to play the game did little to alleviate the feeling that Castlevania Judgement might end up another of the series mistaken forays into 3D because it’s impossible to get a feeling for how it feels without actually playing it.

Of the four announced characters, Alucard, Simon and Maria saw playtime during our viewing at the Konami booth; Dracula was presumably sleeping the day away. The game’s control scheme is simple – waggle the Wii remote to attack, block with Z on the nunchuck and jump with C. Pressing A will use your subweapon (items like the cross or holy water). Landing attacks fills a meter that can then be discharged with a special attack. The controls seemed to work well enough, but shaking the remote to attack seems to limit the player’s offensive options, something of a no-no for a fighter.

The art design has taken a strange route as well, considering that none of the characters actually look like their original in-game counterparts. Alucard is wearing some kind of strange armor and Maria looks like she’d fit better with the "Card Captor Sakura" cannon in this incarnation. The stages are also oddly designed, recalling the Castlevania spirit only loosely – there’s gothic architecture and there are skeletons that pop up in the graveyard. Something like the Marble Gallery from Symphony of the Night or maybe an early stage from the original Castlevania would do more to establish an emotional link for gamers and create a desire to play, but as it stands this game fails to do so.

It’s hard to imagine exactly what Konami is trying to accomplish with this game. They’re alienating the fans of the series that have been playing for years by ignoring the series aesthetic elements and they’re turning their backs on the fighting game crowd by creating a control system that, from what we were able to observe, appeared limited and basic. Castlevania Judgement might end up fun to play, but based on this build it seems to have its work cut out for it.