After the revelation of Capcom deciding to bring out an 8-bit version of Mega Man on WiiWare, PlayStation Network and Xbox L!ve Arcade, obviously the prospect of such a project has wormed its way into the minds of various other developers, Konami’s Koji Igarashi included. It would now appear that the head of the Castlevania franchise is intrigued about taking the same retro-style approach as Capcom.

Following the massive success of 2D Castlevania on portable systems, with Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow on the Game Boy Advance, followed by Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin on the Nintendo DS, with the third DS outing ‘Order of Ecclesia’ coming later this year, many were hoping that Igarashi-san and the team would do a full 2D outing on a home console, similar to Nintendo’s move with Wario Land: The Shake Dimension on Wii. However, nothing has been forthcoming and the only current generation version of the series announced so far is the 3D beat-em ‘up ‘Castlevania Judgement’ for Wii.

Thankfully, though, Igarashi-san is not ruling out taking the retro route, as when as about Capcom’s retro-esque Mega Man 9, the legend stated:

“I’m watching that very closely to see how it does. Myself, I’m a big retro gaming fan, so if it is successful that definitely opens up doors for what I can do.”

He also addressed a concern about the state of gaming in Japan, as whilst the Wii is far out-pacing both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 over there, what most would deem ‘gamer’s games’ are struggling to sell:

“Wii is selling, but the ‘gamer’s games’ aren’t selling. That’s what I’m concerned about. I think there are two roads you can take: Create a game for the core fans with as low a development cost as possible, the other is to just find a different market for these consoles outside the core gamer.”

Finally, as for whether or not Castlevania works in the 3D realm in general, Igarashi firmly believes that there is hope of a good 3D Castlevania being made in the future and the fact it has not happened yet is quite frustrating for him. But he refuses to give up trying!

More details can be found over at Wired’s Blog.

Would you like to see a new Castlevania in an old retro style like the 8-bit NES original shown above, or would a smoother DS-like 2D download game be preferable, or even a high-definition 2.5D version? Let us know your thoughts by posting below…