The strength of the “Castlevania” series' high points - particularly “Simon's Quest” and “Symphony of the Night” - was their masterful level design. These titles plunged players into labyrinthine 2-D nightmares marked by Gothic architectural opulence and macabre fiends beyond the imagination of Anne Rice or Bram Stoker.

“Castlevania: Judgment” takes only those two fragments of set dressing and transplants the action/adventure series' mythos onto the fighting game genre on the Wii. The concept is admirably courageous. In more than 20 years, “Castlevania” has seen its share of “(classical music term) of (vampire lore term)” variations on the same “Metroidvania” theme while other game genres ripened for exploration.

But in terms of pure quality, the execution falls short of matching the series' peaks. The most striking difference between “Judgment” and typical 3-D fighting games is the function of its up and down controls. Rather than triggering jumps and crouches, the controls maneuver characters deeper into the background and further into the foreground, respectively. It's a somewhat novel approach that significantly widens “Judgment's” third dimension, but the unwieldy camera and difficulty of adjusting to unaligned perspectives will remind players why that approach remains rare.

A weighty reliance on motion controls poses another problem in “Judgment.” Two years into its life span, the Wii continues to read gestures fussily. So suffer games that use Wiimote flicks as the crux of their control schemes - like “Judgment,” in which most offense is motion-controlled. At best, players will find mixed success executing combos that consist of Wiimote swings in different directions, while most will give up on any notion of precision and flail their wrists wildly in hopes of winning matches. Though “Judgment” can also be played with the GameCube controller, the weakness of its default setup - the Wiimote and nunchuk - earns the game negative marks in the controls department.

“Judgment” brings together the heroes and villains of past “Castlevania” titles - the Belmont family, Alucard and Dracula himself - in a time-shifted setting to stop new baddie the Time Reaper from killing Dracula and altering the course of history. In a story mode, each character's tale unfolds through traditional one-on-one fights and melee battles with classic “Castlevania” hordes like zombies and Mermans. Cheesily delivered dialogue and grainy graphics drag down the cut scenes even in their brevity, though a decent range of other game modes offers relief.

After a few graceless fights in “Judgment,” most players will resume generating permutations on the traditional “Castlevania” theme - then delight in the thought of such games recapturing the series' glory.

David Wilcox

253-5311 ext. 245

david.wilcox@lee.net

If you play

Game: “Castlevania: Judgment”

Score: D

Genre: Fighting

Parental rating: Teen for suggestive themes and violence

Designers: Koji Igarashi and Takeshi Obata

Developer: Konami

Publisher: Konami

Platform: Wii

Price: $49.99

Play: Single, multiplayer

The final boss: “Judgment” grafts the “Castlevania” mythos onto the fighting game genre with all the subtlety and seamlessness of a Frankenstein limb.