Igarashi: WiiWare Castlevania 'might be the right approach'
by JC Fletcher 
{ Aug 18th 2008 at 2:44PM }
Another E3 interview with Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi has surfaced, this time from Nintendo World Report. After justifying Castlevania Judgment yet again, Igarashi gave a tenuous, noncommittal, but still interesting statement regarding future Castlevania games: "With regards to WiiWare, I'm evaluating that right now, and to be honest, I think a 2D Castlevania game on WiiWare might be the right approach."He has previously said that he was interested in how things turned out for Mega Man 9, and he has said that WiiWare was an interesting service, but this is the most direct Igarashi has been yet about a WiiWare entry in the franchise. He also confirmed the nature of the Order of Ecclesia connection bonus: as we expected, Shanoa is unlocked in Judgment by connecting with a DS running Order of Ecclesia.
Gallery: Castlevania Judgment
Talking about Castlevania is a bit of a cottage industry for Wii Fanboy. Not only do we want the 2D games on Wii, we've made it happen -- though not the amazing Dracula X, which Japan has on VC. We've expressed our bemusement about Judgment and tried to gauge yours. In fact, we pretty much bring up Castlevania whenever possible.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kia @ Aug 18th 2008 3:32PM
Oh, god, I hope not. -_-
I am so sick of developers copping out and going this digital distribution route for games that should be on a console! I HATE digital distribution!
I hope that the fact Ecclesia is still coming out on DS is a sign that even if he makes some cheap Wiiware cash-in we won't stop seeing glorious 2-D DS titles...
SoshiKitai @ Aug 18th 2008 3:41PM
As much as I hated digital distribution in the beginning (I love buying CDs from my favorite artists), it IS better for the environment. :P
JC Fletcher @ Aug 18th 2008 4:29PM
Except that a game with the same budget as Order of Ecclesia could be sold for much cheaper without manufacturing and packaging costs.
Kia @ Aug 18th 2008 9:18PM
I really don't care if it's cheaper, I don't want to worry about a stupid hard drive crash, I don't want to worry about the death of the secondhand market since I NEVER buy new games, the list goes on.
I'm all for buying indie or shorter games through XBLA or Wiiware, like Braid or FF:CC:MLaaK, but this trend of full games as downloads only just...no. Stop.
Abscissa @ Aug 18th 2008 9:37PM
Since consoles switched from carts to optical discs, manufacturing costs have plummeted. It doesn't add nearly the cost that some people seem to think it does.
Now retailer markups might be a different story, but there's an easy solution to that: Web store. A lot of Indies have done it (ex, Hamumu, IIRC), and it worked out fine. Total cost for the consumer for these is often $15 - $25. If fact, they probably could have gone for less, but for a long time the indie scene was operating under the assumption that $20 was just *the right price* to charge for a game (Just read through the forum archives at indiegamer.com).
And let's not forget those "Greatest Hits" lines: These companies routinely make money off of in-store manufactured discs at a cost to the consumer of only $20-$30. Granted, those games start at $50-$60 to make up for dev costs, but those are games with Gear of War-like development budgets. A 2D platformer wouldn't need nearly that kind of budget. And then there's the DS *carts* that make money at only about $35.
So bottom line, the common idea that putting a game on a disc instead of or in addition to WiiWare/XBLA/PSN would inflate the price by a significant amount (like going from $20 to $50) is an enormous load of shit.
ANTHOLOGY @ Aug 18th 2008 3:50PM
The only thing i hate about digital video game downloads, is the fact that i cant sell it once im done with it.
Al3xand3r @ Aug 18th 2008 4:27PM
Eh? Why do you think a downloadable game can be worse than Order of Ecclesia? It can be just as good. Lost Winds is still one of the better platform games on the Wii and even if it wasn't it's not the distribution method that would make it bad.
All I can see problematic with a downloadable Castlevania is the file size restrictions of WiiWare but I suppose that if the thing can have N64 games then it can have pretty much anything with some clever compression, or in episodic format, or whatever other ways they can think of to allow for a larger game. In the end, if he really needs more space, I'm sure he could arrange a deal with Nintendo for his game to be an exception to the file size limit rule.
Wesley Fenlon @ Aug 18th 2008 6:12PM
If Igarashi decides to make a WiiWare Castlevania, I will definitely pretend it was due to me.
FYIan @ Aug 18th 2008 6:25PM
Castlevania: SotN went to XBLA with a 50mb restriction. I'm perfectly happy with a SotN quality game.
A visually improved, disc release version would be better, but I'd also expect a WiiWare version to be much, much cheaper.
Abscissa @ Aug 18th 2008 9:42PM
I like that some developers are finally *starting* to show some interest in putting 2D games back on the TV instead of being handheld-only.
BUT, now I'm getting really pissed at the same people insisting on making them exclusive to DRM-laden download services instead of letting people who prefer REAL discs to get their games that way.