Viewtiful Joe
[Gamecube]

Hello folks. Despite that little snag in the road yesterday, we, the Video Game Nation, will go on to make quality reviews. So let's get it started, with a kickass review of Viewitful Joe.

Starting out with the Story/Graphics portion of our review, here's an opinion from bigredrockeater:

Viewtiful Joe’s story is quirky, and never takes itself too seriously. At the beginning of the game, Joe’s girlfriend, Sylvia, is kidnapped by a mysterious figure. See, Joe was trying to watch the movie, but Sylvia wanted to do “other things”. Just when Joe gave in, Sylvia was kidnapped, and Joe rushed in to save her.

Shortly after his arrival, Joe’s hero, Captain Blue, shows up and gives Joe his first of many powers. Now we’re talking! It’s time to kick some major enemy ass. Joe rushes off in search of Sylvia. Overall, the story is very funny, often poking fun at other, more dramatic, famous films. But I was hoping for a more cynical, serious story, with more plot twists. I counted about two plot twists in the whole game. But with gameplay like this, who cares? VJ has pretty water color-like graphics. Enemies are scary in a Scooby Doo kind of way, and prove to be funny both in actions and in dialogue. Joe himself doesn’t look bad, either. The levels often make you think that this is a 3D game instead of a 2D one. It looks as if you can run around in full 3D, but that’s not this game’s bag. Overall, everything has a certain sparkle in it, making it one of most graphically impressive games on the Cube.

With a second opinion, here's the mod of the family, Super Pat Balls:

Henshin a Go Go baby.

The story of how Joe became Viewtiful is no different than most video game stories. Girlfriend/Princess is captured by evil, you learn new powers/abilities to fight such evil. Save and rescue girlfriend/princess, happily ever after until the sequel.

One thing I did enjoy about the characters were that Joe was pretty cocky, which would be pretty accurate if you just found out that you have all these powers and could kick anyone's ass.

Now on to the graphics. Look at them. Aren't they purty? The cel-shaded graphics are top notch in this game. The game really does look like a saturday morning cartoon. Also, another cool thing is all the detail that goes into the game. Like in the very begining where Joe is not viewtiful and the screen is very staticy, I found that very cool that they made it look like real film grain on it. It truely is a Viewtiful game.

On to the Concept/Gameplay portion with Joachim:

Just looking at screenshots for this release for the Nintendo GameCube will have a gamer in awe. As one of the Capcom Five, this game had a reputation to live up to, and I'm positive that it did. The ability to slow and speed time has been done before, but there were new aspects to it, such as puzzles that you needed to solve by using the abilities. An example of this is a switch on the floor that needs to be held down. With only a hovering platform in the room, you needed to slow time, and that would cause the propeller that holds the platform elevated to fall, and hold down the switch.

The battle tactics for the game did get repetitive, but later in the game, it got more difficult, which added for better gameplay. I always love a challenge, and that added difficulty kept me interested in the game the whole way through. Fighting did have an old Capcom trademark, which is getting points according to how fast/well you fight. These points can be used to buy more health and attacks, which also helped the repetition.

I was extemely proud of Capcom for this one. It was a highly innovative game, and it has me in high hopes for the rest of the Capcom Five.

And here's the second opinon from the mysterious almoshowers (now with Grumbling Snow Bears):

Viewtiful Joe is a simple, 2D beat-em-up that forces you to use Joe’s powers to solve the occasional puzzle or two. Don’t worry, though. The puzzles don’t disrupt the flow of the game. In fact, they are perfectly molded into the fighting. No puzzle is too hard or easy.

There are also combos that Joe can use to destroy his enemies. The combat is surprisingly deep, and nothing is more satisfying than juggling a robot in mid-air while using slow-motion. Simply put: the combat rocks my socks. VJ’s concept was probably to transport gamers back to the old days of 2D-sidescrolling goodness. And guess what? It worked. This is a short, 2D game that has tons of replay value. I highly recommend Viewtiful Joe for the Nintendo Gamecube.

And now we'll venture into the Controls/Difficulty portion with TheInvisman:

While the combat in Viewtiful Joe is quite complex, with a bevy of moves at Joe's disposal, the controls are very intuitive and easy to learn, especially with the solid tutorials, which do an excellent job of getting the player acquainted with the necessary techniques.

It is necessary to get a grasp of the moves at hand, because Viewtiful Joe is quite a challenging, skill-intensive game, where most everything relies on gettng nearly every button press right. It can be a bit aggravating at times, especially on some of the higher difficulties, but at the same time, most of the challenges are not something you'll spend an hour of repeated attempts on, making for a refreshing, balanced challenge.

For a second opinion, here's Sk8erlink7:

Ever wanted to dress up in red tights and run around doing poses for the camera, while saying “Henshin a go-go baby!”

Well, I haven’t tried it yet but I plan on... Well, now you get the chance to fulfill your fantasies, in a non-scare-the-neighbors way.

Let’s start with the controls. I thought they were very basic and easy to use. Once the controller is in your hands, take a good look at it because you’ll never have to see it again once playing the game. You could say that the controls fit like a glove. Seeing as how you never have to hassle with the controls, it makes the entire game a joy to play.

So what about the difficulty? Is it too hard or too easy? Or is it just right. If you’ve ever played a good side scrolling game, this one will come of no shock to you difficulty wise. It starts out simple enough, but once you get going into the game, it starts to progress in difficulty until you have to use all of your gaming might to beat the levels. Once you start a new game, you get the chance to pick a difficulty level. You can either pick Uber Pansy or Chiseled Abs, or the traditional Hard or Easy.

Whichever one is up to you. If you decide to be a total badass with your Donkey Kong shirt and pick Hard, it can get a little intense at times. If you get stuck and decide that you can’t handle the heat, you can always wuss out and go play Easy mode, so your friends can torment you all of your life... it’s all up to you. So if you’re a hardcore gamer or a newb, this game should be good for you.

With an overall statement about Viewitiful Joe, here's the founding member of the group, mast.chief:

I loved this game. The tight graphics, good puzzles, and all that 2-D side scrolling fighting is very cool. The bosses were my favorite thing about the game because all of the strategy and wits they required to beat. I also loved the combat It never got boring!!

Overall I loved this game. My only gripe was that it ended to fast even though it has tons of replay value.

With a slightly longer opinion, here's Halbred:

Viewtiful Joe is the first really original game I've seen in a long time. The graphical style is wonderful--it is colorful, comic-bookish, and full of mesmerizing visual effects.

While superficially a classic brawler, VJ uses its spectacular VFX powers to ensure that fighting cronies never gets old and is always thrilling. The powers are also used to solve environmental puzzles, making VJ a thinking man's beat-'em-up.

The difficulty level, even on normal, is surprisingly hard, but doable. You'll die a lot more than you'll care to admit later, but beating every boss (especially Dark Joe) is a satisfying affair to say the least.

My complaints about VJ are few. First, I don't think all 3 VFX powers are balanced out--Slo-Mo will be abused at the expense of Mach Speed, and Zoom In has limited appeal (read: doing massive damage quickly). As it is, both in battles and puzzles, Slo-Mo is the star of VJ. Also, the difficulty isn't exactly balanced. Some levels are very tough while others are cakewalks, and the same goes for bosses.

This is really a triple-A title though, and certainly one of the top 5 GC games out there. Henshin a go go, baby!

To end our review, I, ViewitfulGamer, will put in a few last words, a section I'll coin as Final Terms:

Most people are a bit intimidated to paly Viewitful Joe because they think it's a kiddy game. Well, to those people, I can definitely say that you'll get much more satisfaction and difficulty here than from games like Vice City. It's got a little something for everyone, which is why it earns this score of a 9.75. Come back next time folks!