It took nearly three years after Konami released the Castlevania Advance Collection for PC for the next games in the series, originally released for the DS in the late 2000s, to be bundled together and ported to PC. But what’s a few years in the life of Dracula? He only wakes up once every century or two to throw a party in his castle, so waiting for Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia hardly qualifies as a power nap for old Vlad Tepes.
But I’m happy that these games are now included in the Game Boy Advance-Vanias and in the Anniversary Collection on Steam, because that means a total of 16 classic 2D Castlevanias are easily playable on PC. What more could we ask for?
Well, there is one game. A pretty obvious omission considering how much of Konami’s back catalogue is now available on Steam. Opinions on this are virtually unanimous: All knows how good it is. After today’s release of the Dominus Collection, I think everyone who is interested in Castlevania is thinking the same thing:
Where the hell is our Castlevania Judgment port, Konami?
Yes, I’m talking about the 3D fighting game released for the Nintendo Wii in 2008 – the one with waggle controls for whip attacks and a story mode that our colleagues at GamesRadar once described as “not at all entertaining” in a 1.5-star review. Who could forget a game that had GameSpot declare, “Fans of the franchise, the fighting, or the fun won’t find anything of value in this sloppy blockbuster?” Sounds like a must-have for the ol’ Steam library to me!
Watch on
You didn’t think I was talking about another game, did you? I mean, what else is missing that’s noteworthy? Do I think it’s crazy that Konami ported Symphony of the Night, the most famous game in the series, to PlayStation 4 in 2018 but never brought it to PC?
Do I think you’re wasting a lot of money not making a modern PC version of the Castlevania-meets-Diablo cooperative game Harmony of Despair, which has been stuck on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for over a decade?
Do I think it’s borderline criminal that Konami included the not nearly as good knock-off port of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, Dracula X, in the Advance Collection, but not Rondo of Blood itself? Am I crazy? No; don’t tell anyone I’m crazy.
I just want Konami to know that these DS games are great – Dawn of Sorrow in particular is my personal favorite Castlevania. I’m just disappointedthat’s all. More specifically, it’s about waiting for Castlevania Judgment and not the other stuff.
