The multiplayer offerings in Judgment allow you to take on a second player in Versus mode or jump onto Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to battle opponents world wide, and you will find that the game is the most fun when fighting live competition. The Wi-Fi mode is has plenty of options, letting you engage in random or ranked matches, check leaderboards, and even add players to your rivals list if you enjoyed the match, but lacks any type of voice or text chat. The online games that I played were smooth for the most part, but I did experience some slowdown in a few of the matches that cause the match to pause a few times. I also noticed a bit of delay in a few battles, where my button presses weren’t registering for a half-second or so on-screen making it almost impossible to react to my opponent’s attacks. Thankfully, this wasn’t a frequent occurrence, and most of my online matches played fine or had a little slowdown that didn’t seriously effect the action.

Whether playing online or off, the graphical presentation of Castlevania Judgment leaves a bit to be desired. The game begins with a lush CG intro sequence that sets up many of the characters, but the game is never able to live up to the stylish visuals of this video. The character models have a distinct anime-influence to them, featuring girls who are either extremely over-exaggerated in the upper-torso region or adorned with big eyes and gigantic extravagant weaponry, and guys with spiky, unusually colored hair or unorthodox clothing choices that offer neither protection in battle nor practicality for vampire hunting. These character designs also seem to stray from previous depictions of the same characters in earlier games, which may upset purists a bit. Another annoyance is that all of the characters have a “shine” effect around them that makes the game look a bit worse than it should. It is a white halo that outlines the character, and it makes them look out of place in the environment, as they have this glow no matter what the lighting is like in an area. Because of this, when characters clash and particle effects from the weaponry begin to fly, the on-screen action can look like a mess of scattered light, and it can be difficult to see what is going on. The one highlight would be the 3D backgrounds, which all look very similar to the 2D areas from previous games that they are representing and do a good job of giving this game the signature Castlevania feel with their gigantic full moons, lavish stained-glass windows, and monstrous creatures milling about.

While the graphics disappoint, the sound fairs a bit better due to the fantastic music taken from previous entries of the game. The songs are mostly made up of creepy organ sounds, yet the prevalent themes are all very catchy and are sure to please both fans and newcomers. The sound effects stay true to the anime-theme, with clangs of weaponry and slicing sounds that all sound impactful while also being a bit over dramatic. The voice acting here is typical for the Castlevania series, which is to say that it is somewhat cheesy, but in a good way. For purists, there is a Japanese language track available which makes everything sound a bit more dramatic and fits the graphical theme better.

In the end, Castlevania Judgment is a flawed game and maintains the notion that the series is best left in its 2D origins. While there are plenty of modes to play around with and some decent online combat, the whole package collapses under the weight of its many flaws. If you need some Castlevania action on the Wii, pick up one of the old-school games on Virtual Console, as they are much cheaper than Judgment and won’t disappoint.