Viewtiful Joe 2

"Henshin a-go-go, baby!"

In 2003, Capcom released an amazing title on the Gamecube called Viewtiful Joe. It combined a cel-shaded 2d/3d artform with challenging stylish action with great depth, giant bosses, plenty of unlockable difficulties and characters, an addictive ranking system, and a quirky new video game character whos kung-fu prowess and Super Sentai looks made the game an instant cult classic. A year later, Capcom had a sequel in Viewtiful Joe 2, which gave exactly what fans wanted: more.

At the end of the first game, Viewtiful Joe had defeated his mentor/idol Captain Blue and proved himself a hero. But soon after, the Black Emperor and his Gedow Empire invade Earth. They capture Captain Blue, and are intent on finding the Rainbow Oscars, which hold the power of the happy endings. Now, Joe and his girlfriend Silvia must race across the movie worlds to retrieve them before the Gedow Empire. Its cheesy, and the storyline(including the plot twist near the end) is almost an exact replica of the first game, but its done in a toungue in cheek manner that fits the game.

The gameplay is very similar to the original. You move from left to right, kicking robot ass, and looking damn good doing. This is a movie after all, and the more crowd pleasing moves you do, the more points you get. What separates Viewtiful Joe from most beat'em ups is the VFX powers. Joe has three abilities: Slow, Mach Speed, and Zoom.

Slow allows Joe to enter a Matrix-like bullet-time. He can easily see attacks coming, punch back bullets, become more powerful; its extremely useful. Slow even gives you the ability to auto-dodge attacks(at the cost of your VFX meter) and initiate the Rock-on combo, but more on that latter. Mach Speed allows Joe to move at a quick pace. He attacks people so fast, multiple versions of himself go flying around the room attacking enemies and hidden items in the background. Joe will even burst aflame, and all his attacks will be aided by fire. Zoom contains some of Joe's most flashy attacks, such as spinning split kicks and shock wave stomps. Some enemies will freeze in place, simply because of the sheer awesomeness of seeing Joe so close. Players must utilize all three of these powers in other to achieve higher scores.

The powers are measured by the VFX meter. The bar drains when a power is used, and it fills back when they aren't. If you use the whole meter, Viewtiful Joe will go back to average Joe(get it? Shut up >_>), You must use the gauge wisely, just enough to extend your combos but not enough that you lose your powers, for then you take double damage and lose a lot of martial art moves. The meter can be extended by finding film canister spread around the level. 250 are in each world, each 50 you collect adds another bar on your meter. The more you collect, the higher your combos will be. Plus, you'll need that meter for the end-of-level bosses.

The enemies vary from robotic nurses to Darth Maul rip-offs. They change outfits to match the levels(Cops for Neo City, Monks for Tokyo, etc), but they act mostly the same. Most enemies can be dizzyed after dodging their attacks, which means Joe can slow down the game and initiate the Rock-on combo. Here, as long as slow is held, Joe can send more and more enemies flying across the room. The more enemies you hit the more points and multipliers will go up. These points can be used at checkpoint/end of level shops to buy more health, lives, power-ups, and moves.

This is where the depth of Viewtiful Joe comes into play: How many points can be gained from these enemies? Sure you could dizzy a foe, slow kick him in the face and hit the other guy for 80 points...OR you could dizzy both, attack them each a few times, then do a slow-zoom'd spinning split kick for 140 points. The game rewards your stylish play with more points, so the player is encourage to learn the enemies, what moves are best in every situation, and how you can achieve the most points in any fight.

The game has little sections spread across each level where Joe has to do a simple objective(beat all the enemies, find the key, solve the puzzle, etc), and you are graded on three factors: V-points, Damage, and Time. V-points in the amount of points you score while battling in the section. Damage is the amount of damage you took in one section. Time being how fast you completed the objective. Each factor is graded anywhere from D to V. Get all three Vs and you get a Rainbow V, which means perfect. As you can see, this inspires hardcore gamers to go back and perfect every section of every level, and with four difficulties(Easy, Normal, Hard, and Ultra Hard), it takes quite some time(I was barely able to beat Ultra Hard; its insane).

Its not all stylish cinematic kung-fu though, Viewtiful Joe 2 is a much more puzzle-oriented game than its predecessor. The puzzles are pretty clever, like running a giant hamster wheel at mach speed to run electricity through a door, or finding three sacred artifacts through three giant rotating rooms(impressive stuff, to say the least). With improved enemy design, nicer presentation, more cool puzzles, and more varied worlds, Viewtiful Joe 2 manages to have better level design than the first game.

At the end of each level, there is a boss fight, and besides the first two duds, there are all pretty damn fun. Almost every one have different strategies than "Run towards them and attack"(again, except the first two), and they posses a style about them that fits with the rest of the game. They can be challenging, but they have set patterns, and defeating them is always rewarding. Also, good job to Capcom for having a final boss thats actually hard. I don't want to spoil it, but much like the first game, its a very personal fight for Joe and it just really badass.

Also, I have to mention Alastor, a boss that returns from the first game and Joe's rival. If you couldn't tell, he's a walking DMC1 reference. He's named after Dante's sword in DMC1, and he has a lot of his moves as well(Vortex, Round Trip, Air Raid, Air Hike, Stinger, High Voltage). He even has a Devil Trigger form! He's a great boss fight, just like in the first game.

No other game besides the original looks like this game either. Its cel-shaded look brings the celluloid world to live in ways never before seen. Everything looks like a cartoon and it comes across rather stunningly. The attention to detail is really astonishing, and the backgrounds are often filled with comical references and jokes.

But the biggest problem for the game still lingers: It so similar to the first one. If ain't broke don't fix it, but you can put both titles side by side and the uninformed gamer really couldn't tell the difference. The plot is almost the exact same, Joe has only one new move since the original(a really cool overarm Judo throw), same powers, same enemies, same Mega Man-style boss rehash sixth level, same epic space finale chapter with giant robot boss fights and one-on-one duels for the fate of the universe...a lot of people might be disappointed that Viewtiful Joe 2 feels more like an expansion pack than a new game.

The biggest new addition is Silvia as Joe's tag-team partner. She can used anytime during gameplay, and she's a bit different from her boyfriend. Instead of fists, she uses guns, and instead of Mach Speed, she has Replay. Replay allows Silvia to have an attack do three times the damage. Of course, this works vice versa too, so an enemy can hurt you for three times the damage as well! Honestly though, I almost never used Silvia. She's weaker, doesn't have Mach Speed, have guns that mess up combos, and doesn't have some of Joe's more useful attacks. Unless a puzzle calls for her Replay abilities, Joe steals the show.

Theres a boss fight late in the game against a guy named Frost Tiger. To beat him, you have to take off his ice aura, then dodge his attacks and wait for an opening. To take off the ice aura, you have to be on fire. I went down to the bottom of the arena, mach speed kicked the pillars and Slowed down the game as a ran towards Frost. I pulled Mach Speed too so I can run at a normal rate while slowed down. Suddenly, Frost slashes at me; comic-book style rips moving in the air, The smoke from the icy floor floating where Frost slowly slid towards me. I had planned this, since Joe auto-dodges attacks at the cost of some of his VFX meter. As Joe twirled in the air, I pulled a flip kick in Frost Tiger's face right before my gauge ran out. It was here where I realized I loved this game.

A lot of reviewers may criticize this game as "more of the same", but when situations like the above happen, all my criticisms fly out the window. The game delivers exactly what I wanted since I beat Captain Blue back in the original: more. Capcom managed to translated the addictive, stylish combat of DMC3/4 into 2d, encouraging gamers to go back and master the game on all the difficulties. The game retains its great level design, with varied worlds, improved enemy design, clever puzzles, and epic boss fights. The game still looks gorgeous and its a break from all the next-gen shiny polygons. It controls just as perfects as always, with every death always being the fault of the player, not because of some cheap mechanic the game threw at you. Its challenging, its replayable, its beautiful, its funny, and its plain fun. When Viewtiful Joe is rocketing through the air with a Dragon Kick, pink scarf waving through the air, tongue out like Michael Jordan, sending everyone he touches aflame, there just isn't very many games out there that match its quality.

Viewtiful Joe 2 follows a formula, but the formula is the template for some of the best, most innovative, and stylish gaming on any console. The ending hints at a sequel to complete the trilogy, and I hope Capcom doesn't disappoint.

Life is Viewtiful.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/08

Game Release: Viewtiful Joe 2 (US, 11/18/04)