Viewtiful Joe (PS2)
This week, we're taking a look at Viewtiful Joe, a comic book style
game where the story takes place in a movie. So let's see how Viewtiful life really is.
A very easy and uncomplicated control scheme, but let's see how well it works in the game.
The basic combat is simply just the punching, kicking, and dodging. The majority of the combat will consist of using these three elements to defeat all of your enemies. Dodging is assisted by little skull icons that will pop up when an enemy is attacking you, and where the skull appears corresponds to whether the enemy is attacking high or low, giving you ample time to dodge accordingly. If you do dodge in time, the enemy will become stunned for a few moments, allowing you attack freely.
In addition to these basics, Joe is given Captain Blue's V-Watch which gains him three separate abilities. The first is VFX Slow, letting you slow down time. In combat, this will make your punches and kicks a little more powerful, some of the enemies can spin or move at a faster speed and VFX Slow will bring them down to a more normal speed, enemies who shoot projectiles can have their ammo deflected back at them if you punch it in the air while in Slow, and if you have stunned an enemy after dodging their attack, using the Slow ability will bring up a target on the stunned enemy and you can send them flying, damaging anyone they hit along the way. The ability can be used out of combat as well. There are moving platforms that hover above the ground and are on top of fans, and using Slow will stop the fan and bring the platform to the ground.
Joe's second ability is VFX Mach Speed. The opposite of Slow, this will speed Joe up. In combat, his attacks will be much, much faster, which comes in handy if you're dealing with a swarm of bad guys. Some fights and situations will cause Joe to be set on fire, and using Mach Speed and throwing a handful of punches and kicks will put the fire out, and some stationary objects can be set on fire if you punch them enough in Mach Speed. Out of combat it is useful too. With the fan platforms I mentioned above, if you activate Mach Speed while on it, the fan moves faster sending the platform skyrocketing into the air to reach higher areas.
The last ability Joe learns is Zoom. This will bring the camera in for a close-up to Joe, greatly increasing the power of his attacks, even more so if you combine the zoom with the Slow ability. While zoomed in, using kick will make Joe do a sort of cartwheel and send kicks flying in all directions. You can also jump in zoom, and Joe will do a spiral jump upwards that causes damage to anything he hits, and if you activate it while already in the air, Joe will rocket back down and do a ground-pound maneuver. Out of combat, some of the areas in the game have a slot machine mini-game, and some of these slot machines are miniature in size forcing you to use the zoom so you can see the reels of the machine.
The levels themselves take place in a different area in the movie world, and are broken up into scenes throughout. Each scene has a specific objective for you to meet before you can pass to the next. These can be anything from defeating a certain amount of enemies, finding a key for a specific door, or solving some sort of puzzle. After each of your scenes you are given a score based on how well you defended yourself, how many Viewtifuls you earned, and how long you took in the area.
In the middle of each level, there are two Break Time's. The first of these is in the almost exact middle of the level. This is where you can save, or purchase power-ups. Your currency for the power-ups is the "Viewtifuls" you earn in the level. Some of these are scattered about freely, while others can be earned by achieving high combos in combat as well as rewards for earning a high enough score in certain scenes. The power-ups you can buy are great in number, and do anything from adding a space to Joe's health bar, earning extra lives, upgrading the Mach Speed, Slow, and Zoom abilities, and buying a second chance. If you lose all three lives you are forced back to wherever your last save was, but if you have the second chance you can pick right back up from the scene you die in instead. The last of these Break Time's is right before the boss. You can't save at this one, but you can still purchase power-ups before going into the boss fight.
In the end, Viewtiful Joe is a pretty great game. it's fun and stylish, and very fast paced so you don't run into any dull moments with nothing to do. But how challenging is it?
The normal combat is a moderate challenge in the game. Your regular enemies don't require you to use any of your abilities to defeat them, and if you're quick enough you won't even need your dodge move. There are enemies that spin at super speeds, ones that fly above you and drop and bombs, and even others that will jump around shooting guns at you, just to name a few. These all will have their own special abilities that require you to use one of yours to beat them to insure you taking less damage.
Bosses step up the challenge massively from regular enemies. The area you fight them in are pretty big, and they have numerous attacks that you have to either dodge, deflect, or just avoid all together. The bosses also come with huge health bars that have two or three levels you must go through before actually defeating them. These fights will definitely require some patience and precision or you'll find yourself playing them over and over again.
Lastly, the puzzles are one of the easier areas of the game. They all can be solved with the use of one or more of your abilities. Some require a key to open a door, with the key generally being attached to an enemy you have to defeat. Other keys are hidden in the slot machines that appear in certain areas of the game. If you get stuck on a puzzle and can't figure out what to do, the game can detect this and will help you out a little bit. Once you approach the specific area or object that requires one of your abilities, Joe's V-Watch will glow. It's still up to you to figure out exactly what you're supposed to do but having the starting point is a good help.
Overall, this can be a pretty challenging game. Not having any checkpoints between some of the scenes definitely adds to this challenge too. But it isn't so difficult that it makes you want to avoid the game. Let's take a look at what was good and bad about this game, and move on to the final verdict.
- Limited move set. A lot of beat-em-up games have a massive amount of abilities you can gain as well as different combos you can use, which can be fun but also extensive to the point that you can't quite remember everything that you can do. Joe's move set is short and sweet, and it works perfectly.
The Story
The game begins with the titular character, Joe, going to the movies with his girlfriend Silvia to see one of Joe's favorite classic movies, Captain Blue. In the movie, Captain Blue is defeated and killed by the villain, who then crosses the realm into reality and snatches up Silvia from the theater. Joe chases after her and gets sucked in to the movie as well. In the movie world, Joe is visited by Captain Blue who tells him that he is no longer able to fight, and Joe must in his place. Becoming the hero himself, Joe sets out to find and save his girl.The Controls
Viewtiful Joe is a side-scrolling fighting game, and the control scheme fits right in with it. The left and right buttons on the D-pad control Joe's movement in the respective direction, while up allows Joe to dodge upwards over low attacks, and down allows him to duck under high attacks. All of these movements can also be done with the left joystick using the same directions. The X button makes Joe jump, and once he gains his superhero suit, pressing it again in the air does a second jump. The □ and △ buttons control Joe's punches and kicks in that order, and O triggers Joe's zoom ability, which can also be activated with the right joystick, flicking it up to zoom in and down to zoom out. L1 activates the VFX slow ability, and R1 activates the VFX Mach Speed ability. I will go into these three abilities in more detail in the following section.A very easy and uncomplicated control scheme, but let's see how well it works in the game.
The Gameplay
As I said at the start of the controls section, Viewtiful Joe is a side-scrolling, beat-em-up fighting game. Immediately after Joe gets sucked into the movie world, you are given a tutorial from Captain Blue himself on how to punch, kick, and dodge. These tutorials also pop up each time Joe gains one of his three abilities.The basic combat is simply just the punching, kicking, and dodging. The majority of the combat will consist of using these three elements to defeat all of your enemies. Dodging is assisted by little skull icons that will pop up when an enemy is attacking you, and where the skull appears corresponds to whether the enemy is attacking high or low, giving you ample time to dodge accordingly. If you do dodge in time, the enemy will become stunned for a few moments, allowing you attack freely.
In addition to these basics, Joe is given Captain Blue's V-Watch which gains him three separate abilities. The first is VFX Slow, letting you slow down time. In combat, this will make your punches and kicks a little more powerful, some of the enemies can spin or move at a faster speed and VFX Slow will bring them down to a more normal speed, enemies who shoot projectiles can have their ammo deflected back at them if you punch it in the air while in Slow, and if you have stunned an enemy after dodging their attack, using the Slow ability will bring up a target on the stunned enemy and you can send them flying, damaging anyone they hit along the way. The ability can be used out of combat as well. There are moving platforms that hover above the ground and are on top of fans, and using Slow will stop the fan and bring the platform to the ground.
Joe's second ability is VFX Mach Speed. The opposite of Slow, this will speed Joe up. In combat, his attacks will be much, much faster, which comes in handy if you're dealing with a swarm of bad guys. Some fights and situations will cause Joe to be set on fire, and using Mach Speed and throwing a handful of punches and kicks will put the fire out, and some stationary objects can be set on fire if you punch them enough in Mach Speed. Out of combat it is useful too. With the fan platforms I mentioned above, if you activate Mach Speed while on it, the fan moves faster sending the platform skyrocketing into the air to reach higher areas.
The last ability Joe learns is Zoom. This will bring the camera in for a close-up to Joe, greatly increasing the power of his attacks, even more so if you combine the zoom with the Slow ability. While zoomed in, using kick will make Joe do a sort of cartwheel and send kicks flying in all directions. You can also jump in zoom, and Joe will do a spiral jump upwards that causes damage to anything he hits, and if you activate it while already in the air, Joe will rocket back down and do a ground-pound maneuver. Out of combat, some of the areas in the game have a slot machine mini-game, and some of these slot machines are miniature in size forcing you to use the zoom so you can see the reels of the machine.
The levels themselves take place in a different area in the movie world, and are broken up into scenes throughout. Each scene has a specific objective for you to meet before you can pass to the next. These can be anything from defeating a certain amount of enemies, finding a key for a specific door, or solving some sort of puzzle. After each of your scenes you are given a score based on how well you defended yourself, how many Viewtifuls you earned, and how long you took in the area.
In the middle of each level, there are two Break Time's. The first of these is in the almost exact middle of the level. This is where you can save, or purchase power-ups. Your currency for the power-ups is the "Viewtifuls" you earn in the level. Some of these are scattered about freely, while others can be earned by achieving high combos in combat as well as rewards for earning a high enough score in certain scenes. The power-ups you can buy are great in number, and do anything from adding a space to Joe's health bar, earning extra lives, upgrading the Mach Speed, Slow, and Zoom abilities, and buying a second chance. If you lose all three lives you are forced back to wherever your last save was, but if you have the second chance you can pick right back up from the scene you die in instead. The last of these Break Time's is right before the boss. You can't save at this one, but you can still purchase power-ups before going into the boss fight.
In the end, Viewtiful Joe is a pretty great game. it's fun and stylish, and very fast paced so you don't run into any dull moments with nothing to do. But how challenging is it?
The Challenge (or lack thereof?)
This game brings a decent level of challenge to the player. From the combat, to the bosses, and the puzzles.The normal combat is a moderate challenge in the game. Your regular enemies don't require you to use any of your abilities to defeat them, and if you're quick enough you won't even need your dodge move. There are enemies that spin at super speeds, ones that fly above you and drop and bombs, and even others that will jump around shooting guns at you, just to name a few. These all will have their own special abilities that require you to use one of yours to beat them to insure you taking less damage.
Bosses step up the challenge massively from regular enemies. The area you fight them in are pretty big, and they have numerous attacks that you have to either dodge, deflect, or just avoid all together. The bosses also come with huge health bars that have two or three levels you must go through before actually defeating them. These fights will definitely require some patience and precision or you'll find yourself playing them over and over again.
Lastly, the puzzles are one of the easier areas of the game. They all can be solved with the use of one or more of your abilities. Some require a key to open a door, with the key generally being attached to an enemy you have to defeat. Other keys are hidden in the slot machines that appear in certain areas of the game. If you get stuck on a puzzle and can't figure out what to do, the game can detect this and will help you out a little bit. Once you approach the specific area or object that requires one of your abilities, Joe's V-Watch will glow. It's still up to you to figure out exactly what you're supposed to do but having the starting point is a good help.
Overall, this can be a pretty challenging game. Not having any checkpoints between some of the scenes definitely adds to this challenge too. But it isn't so difficult that it makes you want to avoid the game. Let's take a look at what was good and bad about this game, and move on to the final verdict.
PROS
- Visual style. Viewtiful Joe is not only done in comic book style, but it's also cel-shaded which is one of my personal favorite visual styles. It brings a very beautiful (or viewtiful?) visionary element to this game that just adds to the whole package.- Limited move set. A lot of beat-em-up games have a massive amount of abilities you can gain as well as different combos you can use, which can be fun but also extensive to the point that you can't quite remember everything that you can do. Joe's move set is short and sweet, and it works perfectly.
