Konamistyle is the official Japanese site of everything cool Konami of Japan does and that's a whole hell of a lot. The Japanese gaming public is privy to extremely special editions of video game packages, which is a far cry from the American mentality of "We'll add a DVD of videos about the game and put everything in a tin case and charge you an extra $10." Sure. These Japanese special edition games might set you back up to $150-200, but that extra cost just means (well, most of the time) that fans of the paticular game series are going to get something (or a lot of somethings) they are absolutely going to love. Just last year, with my Konamistyle purchase of Pop'N Music 14 FEVER, I received a cell phone charm, full-size Pop-Kun headphones, a poster, a V-Rare Official Soundtrack and probably a few other things I can't remember for a solid $130. Yeah. It was worth it.

Yesterday, Konamistyle made the announcement it would be showing off special PVC figures of シモン・ベルモンド - we know him as Belmont instead Belmondo, of course - at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, which, hey, by the way, starts tomorrow.  The figure is being used to promote the upcoming 悪魔城ドラキュラ: ジャッジメント (Akumajou Dracula: Judgement) game by Konami.  Those who have been following Konami should be no stranger that the U.S. will be receiving the title under the name of Castlevania: Judgement, the series' first foray into one-on-one fighting, only on the Nintendo Wii.

While the game will hit both North America and Japan yet this year, don't expect this figure to be available (only in Japan, of course) until Feburary 6, 2009.  Those who do pick it up from Konamistyle can expect to pay 7,140 Yen for the 24-centimeter figure, which would equate to a rough $71.11 U.S. at the moment.  But why does that matter to you.  Remember, you won't be able to buy this straight from Konamistyle.  This February, you'll either have to scour eBay or hope an online retailer stocks some of these bad boys.

As you can see, Simon is sticking with his metrosexual look, although he his ditched the bright reds and furry fabrics seen in his DreamMix TV appearance on the Nintendo GameCube and Playstation 2 a number of years back.  I can't tell if he's trying to slay vampires or seduce them with this ensemble, but I'm not going to tell that to anyone with zero percent body fat and a whip that obliterated centuries of evil.  Let's just hope he has more tricks up his sleeve than just a whip and a cross when Simon hits fighting games for one more round - Castlevania Judgment will be releasing on November 18 in the United States on the Nintendo Wii, and falling not too far from the tree is the series' next free-roaming 2-D adventure, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for the Nintendo DS, which is only a mere two weeks away from hitting stores in North America (Oct. 21) and Japan (Oct. 23).