When you first fire up your copy of Castlevania: Judgment – if you’ve been perverse enough to buy it after reading all we’re about to say about this ill-advised brawler – you’ll find there’s hardly anything to do. Only two fighters will be available – Simon Belmont and Alucard. All of the other 12 must be unlocked.
Reviewing Harmony of Despair has been quite a challenging experience. As fans of the 2D Castlevania games, the idea of a gorgeously high-def sequel packed with the coolest heroes and villains from the past several games sounded like a dream come true. But when it was revealed to be a six-player grindfest that tasks you with entering the same levels over and over again in a near-futile attempt to beat a boss a billion times stronger than you, the interest level understandably dipped.
But after several hours spent in co-op play, it’s fair to say that Despair is actually quite enjoyable in groups, and a concept that once seemed so contrary to the essence of Castlevania turns out to be a welcome shake-up of a series that’s been treading water for years.
We were just having a conversation about reboots the other day, and how it’s possible that Joel Schumacher is single-handedly responsible for the reboot phenomenon that has taken hold of both Hollywood and the games industry. It started with Schumacher making Batman “more colorful” with Batman Forever and Batman and Robin – leading to Batman Begins, the success of which led to Casino Royale, and trickling down to a million other film reboots. Videogames, always wanting to be interactive movies, jumped on the bandwagon. And now we have Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Is it a reboot? Yeah, we think so...
Is the 3DS follow-up to Lords of Shadow everything it's cracked up to be? Find out in our full review...
Like the excellent Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin before it, Order of Ecclesia drops you into a gothic realm on the brink of disaster. Lord Dracula is about to make a not-so-surprising return from the dead and it’s up to you to put him back in his grave by collecting new magical powers and slaying his blood-guzzling henchmonsters.
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