Personally, I prefer Ayame Kojima's artwork from SotN up to Curse of Darkness more than the artist for this game's character design, but I like this one better than the previous art (anime style just didn't seem to fit Castlevania that well).
Now I've got news that this fall (possibly at the same time as OoE) Konami will release a Castlevania game for the Wii called Castlevania Judgement, but get this, it's a fighting game! The confirmed characters are Simon, Maria, Alucard, Shanoa, and Dracula.
As a side note, I can't find any pictures, but looking at the one's in the magizine article I was reading the character designer for this game is the same one from Death Note. If you can find any pictures online, Simon looks a lot like Light, and Maria looks like Misa. They even have the same exact hair styles.