Dude, you've never seen the perfect ending!?

2D Sidescrollers (aside from Mario and Sonic) were never very popular in Japan.  See Metroid and Mega Man, which couldn't get very far in all the years.

Castlevania instead looked to America to make up the difference.  And the series did pretty well considering.  But again, America is a country where two things sell games, marketing and graphics.  In the early days of the NES and SNES, Castlevania was pretty good graphically.  But by the N64 and PSX days, it had stuck to its roots to keep the 'classic gameplay' and therefore many gamers in America passed it by (because it looked 'old').  It also didn't have the millions of dollars in marketing.

Still, the series is pretty stable.  No, none of the games sell 2 million, but they sell consistently, and that shows a pretty loyal and strong fanbase who will continue to buy the games (like a Metroid or Mega Man). 

But I do have to say, recently the games have gotten stale.  As in, post SotN, all the games pretty much have been trying to copy the formula and gameplay of SotN with no real innovation or deviation from the model, aside from a couple new characters and 'gimmick' (such as souls, paintings, familars, etc) plugged into the formula.  This is why I think Konami has finally hired new development companies to work on the series, since for the last 12 years, its only been really one guy doing everything (IGA and his team).  In the past, multiple teams worked on multiple Castlevania games at the same time, and the series was a testing ground for Konami's best teams (such as Treasure).  As of late...its been just one guy and one team doing the same thing (and not as well as the past games in my opinion).  Its refreshing to see new teams finally working on the series again.

Wow...your post....was intelligent.

Anyway, flaw here, the games haven't all gotten stale. Konami, to its credit, has tried to expand the series with several 3D adventures and even a fighting game, as well as the much more appropriate(and good) 2d sidescrollers on the GBA and DS.

Trouble is, everything but the 2D stuff has been, well not terrible, but it wasn't great.

Their latest effort looks to be the turn that the series needs. If Patrick Stewart and Hideo Kojima can't turn your game around, then your IP is unsalvagable.

Personally, as a God of War hater, I can't wait. I'd like to see someone else profit and ripoff the formula that GoW ripped off from DMC, and spit in the damn face of David Jaffe while they're doing it.

That could just be my Jaffe hate coming out though. That guy says some stuff that....angers me.

Anyway, the original DMC always felt like a Castlevania game to me.

Yeah but, I don't see Lords of Shadow as a God of War rip-off.  I know a lot of people are pointing a finger at such a thing (lol Whip, 3D action game, total GoW rip off).  But if it was a TRUE GoW rip off, half the game would be mashing the X or Triangle buttons to perform pre-determined combos and hiding behind precariously placed crates to dodge endless arrows/fireballs that you can see coming from a mile away.  In short, none of the gameplay we have seen for Lords of Shadow looks anything like God of War, unless someone wants to just say any game with big bosses + a whip = God of War now.  The game looks closer to a [fixed] Curse of Darkness than anything else.  Just IGA is horrible at making 3D games and he never took the 3-5 years to make a proper 3D Castlevania title.  Now Konami hired a development group (and producer Kojima) to make sure it gets done correctly.

...and not another Lament of Innocence or Curse of Darkness.  Or for that matter, Castlevania Judgment.

Really like the series. Im buying the new one for 360/ps3.

But SoTN sold perheps 2-3M on PS alone? Hehe. That was fun.

And even that you need to sell your dog to afford it on ebay. Its underrated as hell. No way it did 1M.

Look at old magazines and you will se what i mean.

I think the main problem was that Castlevania games used to be about big buff manly men with their shirts off, sweaty as hell, beating demons to death with flaming chains, but now they're about small girly boys, full of dialogue and magic and shopping and trading crap online. But hey, I could be wrong. But it is fishy that Castlevania decided to go androgynous in the time when all the best-selling non-Nintendo games are about buff manly grizzled beasts of men.

I second this sentiment.

The character designs for Castlevania aren't the problem.  Many fans of the series actually like the character designs from SotN on.  The fact that those characters are essentially playing out a high school drama story of 'betrayal, hidden love and power!' every game is the bigger problem. IGA is not a very good writer...

You were probably closer the first time: every game basically feels like it's cribbing off of Metroid. Order of Ecclesia breaks away from this somewhat by upping the difficulty and platforming elements and re-introducing elements of linearity, but the problem is still there.

Yeah, they need to get rid of IGA. I hate to say that, I've loved a lot of his games, but the man has got to go. I look forward to Kojima's project for this reason so long as he isn't the guy writing the script. In that case, bring back IGA.