By Kevin Chen on September 22nd, 2004

It starts out like any other day - I mean, date. Our hero Joe is watching a movie with his girl named Sylvia (too bad he’s paying more attention on the movie than on her). But then something unusual happens. The enemies of Captain Blue suddenly jump out of the movie and pull Sylvia right into the silver screen! What can Joe do? Nothing else, except jump in after her. Well, actually he’s pulled in by a huge machine, but who cares? He’s still kind of brave in a sense. And now, let me reintroduce our hero.

Viewtiful Joe, at your service.

Viewtiful Joe begins as a seemingly regular side-scroller, but very soon you will find it sucking you in. And why shouldn’t it? Joe’s fantastic repertoire of moves are perfect for kicking the sorry behinds of the bad-guys. So, I know you’re asking now, what exactly can our hero do?

Besides the initial basic stuff like jump, double jump, punch, kick, and dodge, Joe learns a few special moves throughout the course of the game. These VFX powers, which are Slow, Mach Speed, and Zoom, will help players immensely.

But these powers aren’t there just for eye candy. Viewtiful Joe has found an abundance of ways to incorporate Joe’s talents into normal play. These moves can do everything from breaking apart an enemy to solving deviously clever puzzles. For example, in one area you have to use Slow to make drops of water running from pipes gigantic, so that when they touch the large sea of lava nearby, rocks that are shaped as platforms will appear. That’s not all, though. Once you jump across a few of these rocks, you need to use your Mach Speed to raise the level of the lava to some place way up above.

Yes, the puzzles are an essential part of the game. Although they can be quite tough and almost ridiculous in a way, once you figure them out, the sense of accomplishment is a great feeling to have.

Like many games, Viewtiful Joe has its own form of power-ups. Besides the standard life meter (which are just a certain number of hearts), we have V-points, V-films, and the VFX gauge. So, what are all of these things, and what’s with the obsession of V’s? Well, first of all, you earn V-points by using your VFX powers effectively. These points are added up at the end of the level, and you can buy power-ups with them. V-films are things that you find to fill up your VFX gauge, which is the most important of them all, monitoring the amount of VFX power Joe has at any given time. Once Joe starts using his special abilities, the gauge decreases little by little, and when it runs out, our hero turns back into the regular guy he was before. No worries, however - he will soon change back into his superhero form.

I’m in a place full of lava beneath me, and I have to jump onto moving platforms and continue travelling to the right. But, oops, I fall into the lava. No problem, right? I’ll just lose a couple of hearts and I’ll get back on a platform and be on my way, right? Wrong. Turns out that after a few seconds, Joe is hit with some recoil, knocking him backwards. Which then makes him fall back into the lava. The scenario is annoying, it’s stupid, and it’s a serious risk to your health. But... you finally find out that if you go into Mach Speed, you won’t get hit with the recoil. Now, wouldn’t it be so much nicer if the game would tell you that beforehand?

Another problem I had in the game was that you are usually guessing what to do next. I don’t mean guessing where to go, since there is only direction you can go, and that’s left or right most of the time. No, I’m talking about what to do, how to get past a freaking large missile blocking your path, how to open a seemingly unopenable door, what you have to do to not get hurt by the !@#%&*# torpedo, etc.

If you’re just looking for a game to rent over the weekend and joust around with, and you don’t consider yourself to be a hardcore player, please remember to set the difficulty level at "Sweet." You will save yourself a lot of trouble that way.

Crisp and comic-book style visuals are wonderful to feast your eyes on. Everything is drawn in good detail, and the numerous stages are interesting to boot. Now, you may have heard about some slowdown in the PS2 version of this game. Although rare, it does occur sometimes. It doesn’t matter, however - a few seconds later everything will be normal and fine again. Anyway, the bottom line is that the graphics in the game are quite good.

The sound of Viewtiful Joe is great. The music, although nothing Nobuo Uematsu (obviously), fits well for the action and movement of the game. But the one thing that is particularly excellent is the voice acting. Every character has a different and unique voice, and their sounds don’t seem out of proportion with their looks. The big dinosaur has a rough and husky voice, the large bat emits screechy noises, and Joe’s voice really fits perfectly into Joe. The sound efforts in this game are highly commendable.

I just thought I’d throw this in as well - when you pause the game in a regular title, everything just pauses, and nothing happens. But in Viewtiful Joe, when you press the Start button, the director chucks witty and quirky remarks at you. For example, "Hey, where’re you going?" or, "Bathroom?". The ones that really take you by surprise are those such as, "Make sure you flush the toilet!" and my personal favorite, "No offense, but is it number one, or number two?". These sorts of random bits of humor thrown into the game really keep the game a little more light and cheery.

For the people who love getting every last ounce of material out of a game, Viewtiful Joe has quite a bit to keep you occupied. Besides the option to unlock new difficulties, such as the V-rated and Ultra V-rated modes, you will have the chance to play as characters other than Joe. That list includes the likes of Alastor, Captain Blue, and of course, Joe’s sweetheart Sylvia.

And Dante from Devil May Cry. Dante is exclusive only to the PS2, and he has brought over his devilishly slick style as well. Even though he doesn’t play much different from Joe, there are differences between the two, including Dante’s ability to use his twin pistols and trusty sword. To top it all off, Dante has a set of snazzy kicks at his disposal.

To tell you the truth, the unlockable characters in Viewtiful Joe are basically almost the same as Joe, just with minor differences. But if you really want to see what they can do, go ahead and try them out. Wait, what? You say all of that stuff that isn’t enough? Alright Mr. Hotshot, let me give you one last challenge. I want you to get an unlimited amount of VFX with a VFX meter that never runs out. And to do that, you need to get all rainbow V’s in every level of the game.

Finished already? Go play Ninja Gaiden.

Here’s the final word on unlockables: not everybody will want to try to get every character or beat every difficulty. While some players simply have to do it just because it’s in their veins, others won’t want or need to use up their precious time doing so. However - if you have the time and the patience, going about unlocking everything will keep you busy for a while.

Viewtiful Joe just has a super-cool aura surrounding it, a fresh and exciting image that makes it a game that people will want to purchase. Slap on the large logo of Capcom on the front of the box, a "safe" ESRB Teen rating, and a very generous price tag of 30 dollars, and the game has "BUY" written all over it.

A unique and innovative game, Viewtiful Joe will appeal to gamers of all ages, and its very reasonable price and stylish gameplay gives you no reason to pass up on this opportunity. After all, we don’t see many titles like this game anymore, and Viewtiful Joe is the best one that has arrived in a long while.

Now then, enough talk - get into that movie and save your girl.