Feature: 'Whip Smart: Konami's Koji Igarashi On Mastering Castlevania'

In today's main Gamasutra feature, Brandon Sheffield talks to Koji Igarashi, who is best known as the man behind the contemporary Castlevania series, taking control of the franchise as a whole with the advent of the Game Boy Advance. Though he has worked on other titles, from shooters, to dating sims, to his action/adventure experiment Nano Breaker, Igarashi's name is now almost synonymous with Castlevania. Here, he talks about what it's like to govern a well-loved series, as well as the future of the action genre, and the fate of the second dimension. When asked how a series can transition from 2D to 3D successfully, Igarashi comments: "No, it's basically impossible to communicate the same experience. 2D gameplay is precise – it can come down to one pixel of accuracy for attacking, defending, jumping, any sort of platforming element. In the 3D gaming environment, appreciation of distance is much more subtle, and control has to be looser. In 2D, the distance between the player and the enemy is very important, and can be planned carefully. In 3D, distance isn't the important thing, but rather timing. That 2D to 3D transition doesn't really work, and a good example of that is the N64 version [of Castlevania.] They tried to fully incorporate 2D gameplay in a 3d environment, and it didn't do well." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).