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:: Viewtiful Joe for GCN Review |
I love you, Capcom. The sidescroller is back, babeh. And better than ever. See, every complaint I’ve been having about video games recently has been totally shoved in my face as Viewtiful Joe does everything I’ve been asking for: It’s a graphically amazing, very challenging sidescroller that you can play for a half hour or half a day nonstop.
The basic gameplay is this: get to the end of every level. You have a watch, and it gives you the powers to slow things down, speed things up, and zoom in on yourself to deliver doom hits… of doom. Deep down in its heart, Viewtiful Joe is a brawler with caramel and fudge and sprinkles and a cherry on top.
Let’s get a few things straight about the graphics: if beauty and style got together, Viewtiful Joe would be their illegitimate love child. It’s cel shaded, which could turn many away (mostly because of gross overuse of the graphic style), but the shading is done with such grace and style that it’s hard to picture this game without it. Well, you could. But the results would make you want to vomit into a plastic bowl. It’s an amazing combination of two dimensional movement in constantly shifting, nearly three dimensional levels. The effects as you slow down, speed up, and zoom in are cleverly done, and add to the beauty and grace.
Control is a snap, and the average gamer should be able to pull off the most awesome of maneuvers in less than a fifteen minutes. (The dodging system threw me off at first). A quick warning though: After hours upon hours of play, your fingers will hurt a bit.
Hours upon hours of play. You’ll play through the same levels over and over again, as you don’t get to save as often as I would like to be able to, and bosses are HARD. Very hard. This game can be a bit evil when it comes down to it, but it’s been so long since a really challenging and fun game has come out that it’s difficult to get that upset over it.
The music isn’t all that memorable, but it serves its purpose: It’s action movie techno. The game features voice acting, but at times it gets drowned out by the background music, and there are, unfortunately, no subtitles (at least, I couldn’t find any options to enable them).
Bottom line, this is an amazing video game, with excessively fun levels, difficult and entertaining bosses, and some really cool character designs. Replay value is immense, since the game is challenging and there’s always the hope of getting better level ratings. Do yourself a favor and buy this game. It’s a purchase you’re unlikely to regret.
Rating: 5 out of 5. Points added for bringing an old genre to a new system, and for giving what would normally be a repetitious game a lot of flair. Points deducted for making me cry in frustration.
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| Reviewed by Shoshi Eggshell ::
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