game to the Wii, and wanted to utilize the motion sensing controllers. To do so in a prolonged adventure story, however, would have been very tiring, since much of the franchise's gameplay involves whipping and swinging. But in an action setting, the swinging motion would be broken up with resting intervals and be more enjoyable. The game is focused on recreating the Gothic feel of the franchise. Igarashi described the process of developing multiplayer combat as a somewhat challenging task. The design team worked on the game's graphics, especially in-game textures, with some of the designers of Elebits and Dewy's Adventure who joined Igarashi's development team. The characters were all given new redesigns for the game by manga artist Takeshi Obata. Reception Initial reaction to the announcement that the game would be a fighting game was received by some with shock and skepticism. IGN's initial viewing of the pre-E3 build of the game made their reviewers conclude the game had promise. However, the character design was harshly criticised by David Oxford of Kombo.com, who thought the design was not in the style of Castlevania and too similar to Obata's work on Death Note. After being shown at the 2008 edition of the Tokyo Game Show, the game received generally harsh criticism. Kotaku editor Luke Plunkett wrote a long hands-on article about the game. He reported "I walked away from the show feeling bad. Bad for Castlevania fans, at least" and "There is just nothing right about this game. Nothing." Game designer Koji Igarashi had complaints about the control scheme, reporting that "There's also the issue of the Wii controller. It's difficult to do those sorts of precise movements when you're waving something around." He otherwise objected that the initial reaction to Judgment was "unfair." The reception of Judgment was negative, holding a total rating of 49% on Metacritic. Gaming website 1UP.com rated the game a D−. In addition to criticism about the art direction, 1UP also noted some things that they said disregarded established fighting conventions. This included complaints about the "disorientating" camera control. According to the review Konami had described the game as "Versus Action" which is said by the reviewer to be "an amalgamation that fuses action-game mechanics with a fighter" and then goes on to call the term "the bastard son of neologism". IGN called Judgment a "deep, fun fighter", praising the variety of characters, style and