astlevania Judgment brings the longstanding system to the Wii, but in a format that’s bound to turn a few heads. The Wii’s remote seems like a great substitute for a whip handle, right? Imagine moving through detailed 3D versions of Dracula’s castle, defeating familiar enemies by flicking the remote and lashing them with your legendary whip.

Well, you’re going to have to keep imagining. Castlevania Judgment is a 3D fighting game.

After the idea of a Castlevania fighting game sunk in, it started to make a little more sense. After all, the series has introduced a ton of memorable characters, and some of the more iconic levels would make great backdrops for one-on-one battles.

After picking our first character, Golem, we had the chance to select a color and a weapon. The weapon part is actually pretty interesting. Players can select their default special attack or one of the game’s well-known items—daggers, holy water, crosses, etc.—and use them in the game. We opted to stick with Golem’s standard moves. He could punch the ground, causing a series of spikes to jut out of the ground.

Then the match began. We fought in the Pier level, which took place on a dock surrounded by water, unsurprisingly. Flicking the remote and pressing A launches regular attacks, which are different depending upon the direction the remote is flicked. After a while, a giant hydra emerged from the murky water and spit all over Golem.

Next, we picked Alucard and chose the daggers. My opponent and I fought on the Clock Tower level, and each of the rounds ended with one of us falling out of the ring. Those gears move in tricky ways.

We didn’t get to play enough to form a completely solid opinion, but what we did play seemed fun enough. It remains to be seen how complicated the fighting mechanics truly are—they didn’t seem too deep during the demo, but we’d love to be surprised again. We’ll let you know more about the game once we get a chance to spend some more time with it.