Castlevania Coming to the Wii?

CVG picked up on a recent blurb in Preview magazine mentioning a Wii version of Castlevania. This comes as a surprise after Koji Igarashi's hesitance concerning the Wii in general and more specifically the Wii-mote. "It says the book will be 'cross-promoted with 2008 video game releases, which include games for Nintendo Wii and DS (Fall 2008).' We already knew about a new Castlevania DS game, but the Wii version is news to us. We've contacted Konami, but unfortunately they were unable to comment on the matter."

Comments

Probably for VC

[Prien715]

I bet anything this is just a re-release of one of the older games on VC.

Not that I'd mind re-buying Symphony of the Night for $10....

Re:Probably for VC

[Gogo0]

I would pay for a VC release of Dracula X for the tg16. That is the sort of thing the VC could be awesome at; re-releasing games that are very good but never got a real chance for one reason or another.

Re:Probably for VC

[Krakhan]

Rondo of Blood was released in Japan for the VC. Odds are it will most likely come to North America as well.

Re:Probably for VC

[JebusIsLord]

It's been on Xbox Live for over a year now, FYI.

Re:Probably for VC

[kerohazel]

Dracula X Chronicles!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania:_The_Dracula_X_Chronicles

If you've got a PSP, you can get your hands on both Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. :)

Re:Probably for VC

[Walpurgiss]

It was also one of the first PSN classic PSX releases for PS3's store. And you can copy your PSX saves from memory cards and load the with it :)

Re:Probably for VC

[ivan256]

And transfer it to your PSP and play it there too for no additional charge.

Re:Probably for VC

[steveo777]

It's got some goodies, too, but I've found SotN is very difficult to play with the 360 controller. The D-pad really is not conducive to playing side scrollers and the analog stick just doesn't feel right. Thankfully I've never (and will never) toss my PS copy of SotN. Still one of the best games of all time.

Re:Probably for VC

[geminidomino]

Same with the PSP. Both the one in the Chronicles and using the DA firmware, the stick just doesn't cut it for casting the spells (Think Street Fighter II/Mortal Kombat style sequences)

Whip?

[LandDolphin]

Wonder if the game will come with a Wii Whip?

Re:Whip?

[Anonymous Coward]

also compatible with the Wiikink game

Re:Whip?

[LandDolphin]

Now that's a game that would sell...

But they's need to get better graphics

Re:Whip?

[Kingrames]

Holy hell I'd buy the game just for the satisfaction of whipping evil a new one.

I want my wiip.

Why Hesitant?

[morari]

The DS has come pretty weird input methods as well, yet Castlevania seems to be doing fine on that front. I'd love to see something akin to Aria of Sorrow make it to the Wii. I don't want a 3D game, I want giant, high-resolution sprite filling the screen! Whoever decided that 2D games aren't good enough for consoles anymore was stupid.

Re:Why Hesitant?

[philspear]

Konami has historically decided what we need is 3d releases for the console only, despite how much we don't want it and refuse to buy the 3d ones. So, I would assume they would be hesitant to put it on the wii because it doesn't offer as hardware for overkill on 3d graphics which no one will buy.

Also they know we would like a castlevania for the wii, so they may have decided we need it exclusively for one of the less popular consoles. Possibly the phantom console. I'm suprised they haven't declared their intention to only make 2d handheld games for the Ngage.

Toe to toe

[Anonymous Coward]

This little piggy bought an xbox
This little piggy stayed gaming on PC
This little piggy got a PS3 for christmas
This little bought a mac and cried over WoW
This little piggy went Wii Wii Wii all the way home

ho ho ho ~

Re:Toe to toe

[Moryath]

This li'l piggie got ripped off by nintendo when they shipped with a known faulty heatsink and weren't as honest as Microsoft about fixing their error.

Seriously. Me and 10 friends all had launch consoles. EVERY ONE failed with black dots one month past warranty. Nintendo's response? "Too bad, pay us $75 and ship it in."

Microsoft at least admitted the RRoD was their fault and fixed my console for free. Fuck nintendo.

Re:Toe to toe

[rkanodia]

I know three people, myself included, who bought a Wii on the launch day or shortly after. All three of us had the 'black dots' problem within weeks of each other. Luckily, we had all registered the Wiis for the three extra months of warranty, so the repairs were free, but it did leave a sour taste in my mouth.

Re:Toe to toe

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously. Me and 10 friends all had launch consoles. EVERY ONE failed with black dots one month past warranty. Well, at least we can rest assured that the Microsoft viral marketing engine never stops.

Re:Toe to toe

[Toonol]

Seriously. Me and 10 friends all had launch consoles. EVERY ONE failed with black dots one month past warranty. Nintendo's response? "Too bad, pay us $75 and ship it in."

You realize that the odds against that happening are so immense that nobody reading this will believe you? Most Slashdotters can do the math effortlessly. If every console had a 50% chance of going belly up the month after the warranty expired (which is a vastly exaggerated figure), then there is only a (0.5^10) 0.1% chance of that happening. Couple that with the fact that the chance of an individual Wii dying the month after warranty is certainly under 10%... that would make the odds of you telling the truth less than 1 in 10^10, or... slim.

The odds would be mitigated if you had, say, 100 friends with launch consoles, but are only talking about the 10 that had problems; but then, that would also mitigate your point.

Re:Toe to toe

[Anonymous Coward]

A link to google instead of a specific article is often a sign of trolling.

Re:Toe to toe

[Anonymous Coward]

First time I've heard of said problem :-)

Re:Toe to toe

[SethraLavode]

The odds would be mitigated if you had, say, 100 friends with launch consoles, but are only talking about the 10 that had problems; but then, that would also mitigate your point. Pshaw! What are the odds that a typical Slashdotter has ten friends, let alone a hundred!

Re:Toe to toe

[Moryath]

I don't care if you believe me or not. Given that we all got our consoles from the same launch party, they probably were all from the same bad batch. Our gamestop's had a number of people complaining of the same thing as well recently.

Still, fuck nintendo. They know the right thing to do, but instead they soak us for more cash for their faulty product.

Re:Toe to toe

[Neuroprophet]

I just got the pixelation problem a week ago. I hadn't heard of the problem either and assumed my cables were bad. I tried different cables and when I still had the issue I googled the problem and found out about the overheating. I called tech support and they confirmed the Wii most likely overheated and the graphics card got damaged. Apparently this is very common. I got my Wii Jan. '07 so it's not under warranty anymore. I have to pay to get it fixed. To make matters worse, they fix them in upstate NY and since I live in NY I have to pay sales tax on having them fix it. It will cost ~$85.

I used to love Nintendo products but they have handled this poorly. It has left me with such a bad feeling that this will most likely be the last Nintendo product I will ever buy. I'm considering not getting it fixed and just selling my games on ebay, then using the money to buy an XBox 360 or PS3. At least MS admitted they made a mistake and extend the XBox warranty to 3 years.

We knew a Wii Castlevania was coming

[Dorceon]

Screenshots from the upcoming DS game revealed a menu item on the title screen for Wii connectivity.

Re:We knew a Wii Castlevania was coming

[Evil Kerek]

Pretty sure that simply means that the DS version can talk to other DS versions over the wiifi and means nothing about what might or might not be on the wii. Now it MIGHT mean it can talk to a wii version, but it's hardly conclusive. We can hope!

As yah, I like my wii, but my 360 sure looks a lot better. Really wish they had gone 1080....

EK

Castlevania in name only!

[Stormwatch]

The last game of the series was Castlevania: Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis, back in '94.

Then Konami started ANOTHER series with the same name, but more aptly nicknamed "Metroidvania" by some...

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[philspear]

Now I don't get that. Are you complaining about the direction the 2d games have taken since 94? You like the extemely linear, repetitive early games?

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think fans would take any kind of 2D Castlevania over the travesty that was the 3D series. I'd like to think sales were low enough that Konami will never try to make another 3D Castlevania ever again.

I like the original gameplay style - glad you cited Bloodlines which is an exceptional game. In terms of replay value I find the Metroidvania games are more fun to pick up and play. That's a plus for portable systems like the DS, but it's a different situation for home consoles.

Whatever Konami does, it better consist of hand-drawn 2D graphics. Throw in the 2.5D backgrounds from SOTN or the DS games, that's fine. But keep it classic for us oldskool gamers who grew up on Castlevania!

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[Chris Burke]

The last game of the series was Castlevania: Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis, back in '94.

Then Konami started ANOTHER series with the same name, but more aptly nicknamed "Metroidvania" by some...

Are you seriously trying to knock Symphony of the Night?

I mean, I guess I can see what you're saying, as long as it comes with the further statement that "Metroidvania" is by far the better game than "Castlevania".

And I sure hope Konami doesn't listen to anyone who feels otherwise.

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[LightWing]

Looks like someone has never heard of Rondo of Blood

Though you may be familiar with Dracula X on the SNES (the watered down version of Rondo released in the States).

It's a good game, actually. It's something like Castlevania 3 in that there are level forks, except that in Rondo the level forks can be hidden within another level (instead of the post-level cross roads). It's also the last Castlevania that harkens back to pre-symphony of the night gameplay.

Gameplay wasn't the only aspect that changed. If you'll remember, Castlevania 1 was and is extremely difficult (I dare you to kill death without any sub weapons). Castlevania 2... all right, maybe thats a precursor to symphony of the night, but Super Metroid came before it. That, and CV2 had the most pitiful bosses encountered (and if it weren't for Galamoth, I'd feel the same way about SotN). Although if you want hard... try to beat Haunted Castle. That game is beastly.

After symphony a lot of their originality kind of fell off. They tried to re-do what they had with that formula and experimented on what variations didn't make it stale and old (where Circle had been quite good, HoD, AoS, DoS, and PoR, can apparently do no better than stand in SotN's shadow. Although at least PoR brought back some level of challenge to the game, it had some rather difficult bossess (and no lame fighting bosses again for screwing up those stupid seals in DoS).

In before tl;dr

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[Tarlus]

Castlevania is a more recent traditional CV game than Bloodlines.

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[Tarlus]

D'oh! I meant to say, Castlevania Legends!

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[Stormwatch]

I mean, I guess I can see what you're saying, as long as it comes with the further statement that "Metroidvania" is by far the better game than "Castlevania".

Well, I happen to disagree. But the comparison is no knocking, I loved Super Metroid back then. It's just that they don't seem to be parts of the same lineage. The gameplay is too different, the whole ambiance is very different, the character design is a whole different style. They really don't feel alike.

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[KDR_11k]

Cv2's bosses are especially pathetic since they don't lock the doors on you... Speedruns I've seen just had the player run past the boss without caring about it.

Most people consider AoS and DoS better than COTN by the way. They might be easy (especially DoS with the throwing weapons) but the mechanics seem the most advanced out of the bunch to me which is a very important thing IMO.

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[Anonymous Coward]

SotN was and is a great game. I even love the cheesy dialog.

"The same could be said of all religions..."

In the beginning of the game, Simon stops to have this trite, protracted discussion with Dracula about religion, voiced horribly awkwardly, and happens to be the basis for why I laugh aloud when I read any discussion about religion on Slashdot.

-GreyWolf3000 (at work)

Re:Castlevania in name only!

[geminidomino]

In the beginning of the game, Simon stops to have this trite, protracted discussion with Dracula about religion, voiced horribly awkwardly, and happens to be the basis for why I laugh aloud when I read any discussion about religion on Slashdot.

Part of me wants to lambast you for not knowing that , by the time of SotN, Simon Belmont was long, long dead and the Belmont in question was Richter...

The rest of me wants to clap you on the back, welcome you to the Old School, and invite you to join me in yelling at the damn kids to get off the lawn

Balls out boys!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's whiip strokin' time!

2D - What about LostWinds WiiWare title?

[zooblethorpe]

I don't want a 3D game, I want giant, high-resolution sprite filling the screen! Whoever decided that 2D games aren't good enough for consoles anymore was stupid.

I'm not sure if you're pining for the old-school graphics, or for the 2D platformer gameplay. If it's the latter, seriously, have a look at the WiiWare title LostWinds. It might bore hardcore gamers, but it's a fun little game (apparently to be episodic) with very well done graphics and fun gameplay. It's kept my wife enthralled for days, which is saying something as she's terribly dyslexic and no gamer by a long shot.

Cheers,

Re:2D - What about LostWinds WiiWare title?

[morari]

I'm not sure if you're pining for the old-school graphics, or for the 2D platformer gameplay. It's a little bit of both, actually. I tend to like 2D platformers phenomenally more than 3D ones. As a genre, the 3D platformer seems needless difficult due to my inability to judge distance and height in jumping puzzles. Graphically, it doesn't matter so much. An interesting art style is an interesting art style regardless. I find however that 3D games usually don't have the creative flare that their 2D counterparts once had.

I've actually been meaning to pick up LostWinds. It does look quite interesting, both in terms of graphical style and gameplay. I was a little worried about it's length, but that probably doesn't matter too much for $10. ;)

Re:2D - What about LostWinds WiiWare title?

[zooblethorpe]

Yeah, some folks have noted the short length as a negative, but then again it is only $10, and is the first in what promises to be a string of episodes. The first run-through took me about 5 hours of leisure playing, but now I'm going back through and looking for things I missed the first time around -- apparently you get a different ending or something if you get everything before finishing. Of the current WiiWare titles, I'd say without pause or doubt that LostWinds is the best of them, across the boards - best control scheme, level design, game progression, art style, broad appeal, etc etc. :)

Cheers,

Re:2D - What about LostWinds WiiWare title?

[andi75]

My favorite Platformer was Pandemonium 2. It's 2D gameplay, but with a 3D view (don't worry, camera gets it right almost all the time). Too bad it was written in Glide and is almost impossible to run properly without windows 98 and a 3dfx card...

Re:2D - What about LostWinds WiiWare title?

[Anonymous Coward]

(Posting anonymously as this is OT)

As a hardcore gamer who bought, I just want to warn others that Lost Winds probably will bore you, as the parent mentioned... and will also feel like a stupendous waste of money when you're 2 hours in and realise you've just completed the game.

I don't doubt the atmosphere, style and gameplay of the game will tempt the lighter gamer, and they'll probably get their moneys worth taking it slowly and sucking in the visuals and the general feel of the game... But if you're already good at games, it's criminally short and easy, and honestly not even that fun.

It really hasn't felt like Castlevania in years

[Steeltalon]

Back when it was first released they had it patterned after, and making use of, old horror movies. The original games even had the appearance of an old reel of film in the opening. I'm not sure when the change occurred, but the general feel of the line of games has long since turned into anime. Don't get me wrong, anime is fine. I think that Castlevania needs to be about the horror movies, though, and have some realistic appearance to the characters. I'd like to say that I'm looking forward to this, but unless it's got the horror film look and some real connection to Simon Belmont, I'm not interested.

Re:It really hasn't felt like Castlevania in years

[Dripdry]

For the people who I've introduced to Castlevania, they found Symphony of the Night to be the scariest. While it does have a certain adventure element, it seems to be the darkest/goriest of all the games. I'm not a fan of the anime feel, either, so here's to hoping that they can take things in a good direction and get back some of the scare-factor.

Re:It really hasn't felt like Castlevania in years

[ProppaT]

I can understand what you mean. I personally haven't felt a Final Fantasy game has felt like a Final Fantasy game since VI came out. After that it was about spiky hair and gender bending.

I really wish that when companies take a loved franchise and alter it drastically that they just split it off into new IP. Personally, I like the Metroidvania's better than the old ones (with Castlevania IV holding a very dear place in my part), but I can definitely see how it would be off setting to people looking for a grittier, more "American" inspired CV.

I know what is a good idea.

[joshtheitguy]

It is time to bring back Alucard

Re:I know what is a good idea.

[swedd]

It is time to bring back Alucard

If you haven't already, get Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and unlock the hidden character mode for your Alucard fix.

Probably the only token 'replay' mode in a Castlevania that I've enjoyed more than the actual game.

Re:I know what is a good idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

You know that they already brought back Alucard in Aria of Sorrow / Dawn of Sorrow, right?

That'd be nice

[Haoie]

Modern console versions of the CV series have been decidedly weak. Let's see how this comes along.

What A Horrible Night To Not Have A Wii

[summerfun]

The first thing to do in this town is get a white crystal.

Re:What A Horrible Night To Not Have A Wii

[Verteiron]

Bang your head against Deborah cliff to make a hole.

Re:What A Horrible Night To Not Have A Wii

[geminidomino]

If you look in the death star you will die.

Re:What A Horrible Night To Not Have A Wii

[Crotch Jenkins]

You now prossess Dracula's rib.

I'm all for it...

[analog_line]

...as long as it continues in the same vein as Symphony of the Night and its descendents. IMNSHO, it was the best thing that ever happened to Castlevania. The 3d incarnations on PS2/Xbox were crud, not interested at all if they're going back in that direction.

Good luck to the guy

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't agree with his views at all.

But he's a thorn in their side, and thorns in the side are usually a good thing.

Shame on you if you'd believe that in general and would if you agreed with Jack's views, but not otherwise.

After all, it's the same premise on which controversial music, movies and games are created and sold too....The artists that create them don't do it accidentally.

e.g Rockstar make controversial games deliberately...of course I think they should be able to make those games, but as John Travolta's character says in Pulp Fiction "they should expect a reaction"

Having read the document he submitted I hope one or two of those judges, if what he says about the oaths is true, do face problems themselves...kudos to the guy to go down fighting.

As someone said, being barred from the bar won't stop him being a thorn in their side anyway.

Ever played Simon's Quest?

[HalAtWork]

Ever played Simon's Quest?

Re:Ever played Simon's Quest?

[Stormwatch]

Yeah, a bit... didn't like it at all.

Motion sensative whip tricks?

[Dwedit]

Super Castlevania IV on the SNES introduced the ability to do tricks with the whip by moving the control pad while holding down the Whip button.
I wonder if a Wii version would allow you to whip the Wii-mote for a swing action, then do more whip tricks by flailing the Wii Remote around?

blocked by surf control

[farker haiku]

anyone mind posting the text of the article?