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Capcom has created the next great video game icon.
Viewtiful Joe
Platform: Gamecube
Genre: Side-Scrolling Action
I would anticipate that many of you have heard the name. If not through IGN, Gamespot or any number of other reputable game news sources, then by word of mouth. I also imagine that many of you are extremely skeptical. First, it's a Gamecube exclusive. So, that obviously means it's a kids game, right? Second, it's a side-scrolling action game, therefore, it's outdated and unimpressive, right?
If those kinds of thoughts are the sort invading your opinions, then you can't possibly begin to imagine how wrong you are.
Story
Joe is, simply put, your avergae Joe. He's lazy, unmotivated and shiftless. His passion for movies is what takes up 90% of his attention, the other 10% being reservedly allocated between sleeping, eating and spending time with his girlfriend, Silvia. He's a friggin' nerd.
One day, Joe and Silvia head to their local cinema to catch a showing of an old superhero flick starring Joe's idol, Captain Blue. Joe, obviously entranced by his unfaltering nerditude, cannot help but stare gawking at the screen, ignoring all of his girlfriend's less-than-subtle romantic advances. Suddenly, the screen distorts, and Silvia is pulled into the move itself by one of the film's dastardly villains. Joe, seeing no other option but to give chase, makes his way through the screen and into Movie Land. Shortly after arriving, he is contacted by Captain Blue himself and given an item called The V-Watch, which gives out hero the ability to transform into the superhuman alter-ego known as Viewtiful Joe! With Joe's newfound powers, he treks through Movie Land in search of his abducted love.
Okay, so the story starts out on a pretty cheesy note, but with a game of this sort, that kind of goes with the territory. Needless to say, the overall silliness of the plot will come to grow on the player. Don't expect Sephiroth and Meteor Summons and you won't be disappointed.
Gameplay
The game is a side-scroller, therefore, the majority of the gameplay is based around major ass-kicking with a healthy dose of puzzle-solving to even things out. Joe punches, kicks and clobbers his way through legions of enemies leaving a hailstorm of debris and body parts in his path (all of the enemies are robotic, so don't expect blood and gore).
It's how Joe beats his way through the opposition that makes this game so addictive. Joe's superhuman powers are called VFX. He has three distinct VFX powers that drastically alter the gameplay and overall flow of the game. Each one of these powers uses power from Joe's VFX Meter, which drains as long as he's using the powers, but the meter automatically regerates when he's not using them. I'll detail exactly what each VFX Power does.
Slow - By holding down the L Trigger, Joe can slow time to a crawl, giving him a multitude of advantages over his opponents. All of Joe's attacks increase in power exponentially, giving him the ability to shatter a frail enemy's body with half as many attacks. All projectiles slow to a crawl, allowing for Joe to either dodge the projectiles or actually deflect them back at his attacker with either his punches or kicks. All enemy attacks and movement slow immensely, allowing Joe to dodge any attack directed his way.
Mach Speed - By holding the R Trigger, Joe causes time to whirl by at lightning speed, leaving enemies victim to his hurricane-like attacks. While in Mach Speed, Joe moves at such a high rate of speed, that his body can actually combust, giving him additional fire-based abilities without actually harming himself. Also, while in Mach Speed, multiple mirror images of Joe can separate from his body attacking anything and everything in the vicinity.
Zoom - By pressing the B Button, Joe can Zoom In on the actions, allowing him to enhance all of his attacks in various ways. Joe's punches become a flurry of fists, his kicks become spinning cartwheels of death, his jump becomes a corkscrewing rush attack, and Zooming in the air will cause Joe to slam into the ground generating a shockwave all around him. Basically, Zoom makes all of his kickass abilities aven more kickass.
Aside from those three key powers, Joe also has a host of other abilities and puchaseable special attacks. While in Viewtiful form, Joe can double jump in midair, deftly dodoge an opponents attack by either ducking or suspending himself in mid-air just above his attackers fists. Joe can purchase a host of new attacks and upgrades betwen missions, ranging from health increases and a higher rate of VFX recovery to special attacks such as Viewtiful Forever and the infamous Red Hot kick!
Simply put, the game is a gameplay masterpiece. Tha action is furious and heated, the difficulty is very challenging, but fair, and the puzzles are pretty damned clever too. The controls are as responsive and fine-tuned as you could ever hope for, and it just plays like a friggin' dream.
Graphics
The instant assumption that one would make is, "well, it's a side-scroller, so the graphics must be really outdated." And what a fool you would be for thinking so.
Viewtiful Joe uses an extremely polished cel-shaded graphics engine, presenting the entire story in a quasi comic-book fashion. All of the character models and interactive models are fully 3D, and brilliantly designed and animated. Pitiful robot sentries flop helplessly on the floor as you thrash them in a hailstorm of robot parts and motor oil.
The game is a side-scroller, but it's presented in a semi-3D fashion. Throughout much of the game, the player will encounter curving paths and other structures that give a lot more depth to the overall design of the world. Many of the boss arenas are circular in design, giving the player infinite room to move either left or right.
The framerate is steady, the lighting effects are (while not anything to scream about) good, and the character models and animations are spectacular.
Sound
For the most part, pretty good. The majority of the levels feature a very intense and upbeat selection of tracks, while some areas take a more low-key and ominous approach in the sound department. Either way, the music always fits the situation. It does get a bit repetitive, but it's good nonetheless.
The sound effects are phenomenal. Crunching metal, explosions, cannon fire, and heaps of bodies smacking the floor keep the aural carnage going at a frantic pace. If the music is a bit repetitive to you, don't worry, because most of the time you're going to be listening to the product of your berserker rages.
The game does feature a full cast of voice actors, and the acting itself is done extremely well. There is one glaring flaw with it however, and that comes in the form of sound compression. For the regular cast, their voices are perfectly audible. Joe, Silvia, Captain Blue and other "human" characters like Alastor are easy to hear and understand. It's the bosses that are garbled. Most of the time, the bosses' dialogue is bordering on indecipherable. That's a big flaw too, considering that the whole "we'll taunt each other first and then fight" sequences contain the majority of the spoken dialogue. If you really pay attention to what's being said, you can make out the majority of it, but if you're just zoned out, waiting for the fight to start, you'll most likely absorb none of it. This flaw is exaggerated even further by the fact that I don't recall seeing a "subtitle" option anywhere in the game.
Flaws
The only major flaw was the sound boo-boo I mentioned above. There are a few minor ones besides that.
1) The length of the game. It was a little short for my taste. While it will most certainly take novice players around 15 to 20 hours to complete it (considering that you're gonna be dying and restarting frequently), once you've become seasoned in the art of VFX, the game honestly will take veterans less than 10 hours to complete, probably around 5 or 6. The up-side to this is that there are four difficulty levels, so even after beating the game on Adults, you might find that beating it on V-Rated will take nearly as long.
2) The story. As I said before, it starts off pretty cheesy, and it does get better, but not by much. My only honest complaint with the plot is that there's minimal explanation as to how one level segues into the next. Aside from that, if you like campy movies with corny plots (I certainly do) then the story itself won't bother you. It's just the cohesion of the story that needed more work.
Overall
The gameplay is some of the best I've ever seen in a game. The action is furious and exhilirating. The graphics are nearly flawless, with incredible animations and effects. The sound is great, while the music can get repetitive, most of the time you'll be listening to the audio carnage you're causing. Yeah, the story is kinda corny, but it fits the style of the game perfectly, and come on, with a game named Viewtiful Joe, did you honestly expect a riveting plot? Overall, the game is fantastic. It has four difficulty levels, and with a number of unlockable characters, it has immense replay value. If you like to kick an unholy amount of ass, be sure to make quick friends with a nerd named Joe.
Score: 9.3/10
One final suggestion: to anyone that buys this game, when you first start playing, avoid the Kids difficulty level. If you want a further explanation of why, ask me for one and I'll be glad to oblige. At the moment, I'm all typed out.
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