Bah, Soul Calibur peaked with part II.  Part IV was actually pretty dull.  Most characters from previous games had hardly been improved--if at all--and too many of the new characters simply had mirrored movesets with previous characters.  The only reason to think SCIV is an outstanding title is for the character customization and maximum boobage from the female characters--but then, that'd be all you'd have to be looking for to have a quality title.

Castlevania: Judgement is supposed to be out today in the US, but there are still no reviews which is worrisome.  I'm hoping for at least 80% average score.  One would think that with Iga in charge that he'd apply a strong coating of quality control on the project...

IGA isn't synonymous with quality control. I don't place much stock in reviews, but if you're hoping for an 80% on this game when main series Castlevanias have problems hitting that note, you're going to be bitterly disappointed.

 The, eh, "main series" of Castlevania games on the DS, GBA, PSP (pretty much all overseen by Iga) have consistantly scored very highly.  High 80% or even low 90%.  I'm not saying that Iga is synonymous with quality control, however, he has seen fit to keeping the portable Castlevania installments as (generally) consistantly high-quality games.

Look to the Castlevanias on consoles - it's almost impossible to make a crappy Metroidvania title (though Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin came closest), but making Castlevania work in 3D is difficult, at least according to critics.

I loved Lament of Innocence myself, but that's not saying a lot.

It looks and sounds good. The gameplay will make or break it.

From a gameplay perspective I'm mostly worried about cinematic attacks that look to take more than five seconds and do a staggering 75% of one's health in a single shot.

If the damage percentage isn't adjustable, I'll slap someone.

500 Wii Points says Dracula is broken.

I won't take the bet, but I'll disagree - more likely he's just overpowered in the story mode, ala M. Bison.

I'd be interested if the character designs didn't blow monkey balls.