Looks like the August issue of Nintendo Power is full of thrills and chills. The news about Mega Man 9 being developed in an 8-bit style brings the thrills, whereas a baffling preview of a Castlevania fighting game for the Wii is bringing the chills.
Not the good kind of chills that you got when you first played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, mind you. These are the bad, feverish chills with the pained moaning and cold sweat.
When fans heard that a Castlevania game was in production for the Wii, there were all sorts of half-depraved fantasies involving the Wii remote and hot whipping action. The death of a potentially cool idea is only half the reason fans are disgruntled: the other half lies with the character re-designs. Castelvania's popular character designer, Ayami Kojima, is stepping aside this time to make way for none other than Takeshi Obata. Obata is famous for his work on the famous Death Note manga series, which goes a long way to explaining why Simon Belmont looks like (to quote my husband) L dressed Mello's skin-tight leather, appropriate Catholic memorabilia included.
As a hardcore Castlevania fan, I'm not irritated by Konami's latest, uh, decision. I am certainly intrigued, but not as angry as some. There's a general cry in the community of, "We didn't ask for this!" No we didn't, but we didn't ask for a game featuring Mario characters putting around in go-karts, either.
I also look forward to explaining the existence of a Castlevania fighting game to my mother. She hasn't played games since the Super Nintendo era, but she remembers well Castlevania III and I recently took ten minutes to explain to her why Alucard wears high heels now.