Konami black listed IGN due to Lords of Shadow BS

Also, I would definitely imagine it was the words of the review rather than its score that set Cox off, which almost looks word for word what I usually say about LoS1, from its first paragraph and its last:

"Konami describes Castlevania: Lords of Shadow as a reboot for the 25-year old franchise. I'd say it's an unrelated game that borrows the "Castlevania" name. None of the common gameplay elements you'd expect from the series are to be found here and the story isn't canon. The only loose connection is the presence of vampires, werewolves, and skeletons. This action adventure game that's heavy on combat actually has much more in common with God of War than Castlevania. There is definitely fun to be had with Lords of Shadow and it's drop dead gorgeous at times, but Castlevania fans might be left in the dark."

...

"I recommend Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but not if your expectation is something similar to the classic Castlevania games. Pretty much anything you would expect to find in a Castlevania game is not to be found here. But fans of combat-heavy action adventure games will have fun if they can excuse a lot of mindless button mashing and a couple technical issues. The developers have successfully adopted ideas from several popular games (God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Uncharted, Resident Evil) but that also means this isn't a very original effort. In the end, I'd rather play a more traditional 2D Castlevania game..."

Well said.

For God's sake Konami is run by collective of chimpanzees. Nothing they do surprises me now. They honestly seem averse to sensible (and obvious) good business practice. Just imagine how it must have felt for Iga and Kojima to work there...

estebant - You hit the nail on the head. This is certainly worthy of appearing on the Jimquisition.

I'm so tempted to republish this video, but the fanbase deserves better.
Cox and Konami have already paid the price for their arrogance.

Let's focus on the positive.
Igarashi is back, Bloodstained is coming, and Castlevania is getting another season on Netflix.

We have plenty to smile about.

. Cheers.

Sigh. MercurySteam was the former group behind Blade of Darkness, one of the, if not the, best, hack and slash ever, an iconic title with great physiques, animations, newfound graphic-techniques at the time, epic soundtrack, etc. I was considering an instabuy for the game (Castlevania reboot 1), preoccupied with the latter title and for Castlevania brand-name to carry the exact same "weight" as the days of old... What did i know?

I tried the game a bit before purchase and those were my sentiments exactly. Mediocre to good game, nothing special, plus having nothing to do with "Castlevania" whatsoever!

We should remind ourselves to never "assume" anything and never take anything for granted! As already mentioned, Bloodstained is here, thankfully, instead! <3