P.N. 03

"She dances better than the game plays - that's fa sho'!"

Now surely you’ve heard of P.N 03? The first game to be released of (what was) the Capcom 5 titles exclusive to GameCube which were; Viewtiful Joe, Dead Phoenix, Killer 7, Resident Evil 4 and P.N 03 itself. None of these games garnered much hype within the gaming community except…of course Resident Evil 4. Plus, we are always a bit skeptical about new titles that aren’t sequels because we never know what to expect. Also, Capcom tend to churn out so many games that we don’t really tend to care when they release a game that isn’t Street Fighter or Resident Evil related. However, Capcom to be developing 5 titles exclusive to GameCube is a HUGE deal considering how Capcom abandoned ship during the days of the Nintendo 64.

Well P.N 03 is one of the first of the Capcom 5 games to get released, so no doubt it was going to gain quite a bit of attention – not to mention that it was also produced by Shinji Mikami, the genius behind Devil May Cry 1 and the Resident Evil series. For those of you who haven’t heard of him, know that Shinji Mikami (‘Mikami-san’ to you) is well respected within the gaming world and is…the Shigeru Miyamoto of Capcom - The Hideo Kojima of Konami. He can do what the heck he likes and if he produces a rubbish game, no one will dare say it to his face, ‘cos he will beat you down….Honestly, he will.

P.N 03 was a game shrouded in mystery because not much was revealed about it other than it appeared to be a 3D shoot ‘em up which featured a young lady who enjoyed nothing more than shaking her booty whilst killing enemies. Hmmm…Interesting. Well now the game is here and ‘Mr Jasill’ is here to tell ya all about it…

The plot ///
I could devote a paragraph to explaining P.N 03’s plot to you but I won’t, because my fingers are hurting from the amount of typing up to this point and also because the plot is rubbish and non-existent. You don’t even get a HINT of a plot or story line until the 9th stage anyway and there are 11 in the game! The plot’s crap and the only thing I can say about the plot is that it shouldn’t have been implemented into the game and the only thing it does is reveal why the game is titled what it is.

The game itself ///
Now I’m sure you’re wondering what the P.N stands for….? Well if you don’t know already it stands for ‘Product Number’ and not that it matters, but you’ll find out why in the games weak a*$ plot. P.N 03 is a 3D shoot ‘em up. There really is nothing more to say other than that. You run around from room to room shooting anything that moves. The game is played from a 3rd person perspective (a la Tomb Raider) and that’s about it. P.N 03 is a really simple game at heart and is reminiscent of the old school shooters, where your finger will get a major workout form hammering the button so often and so hard. The best way I can describe the overall style of the game to you is to think Devil May Cry 1, with lasers and less flexibility where movement’s concerned. You battle through 11 stages shooting robot baddies and racking up combos which earn you points, which can then be trading in for continues, upgrades for your suit (more on those later) or new suits entirely. As with Devil may cry, items are costly, so points need to be spent carefully. At the end of each stage you must face a boss, all of which are easy and their menace doesn’t match their stature. Some bosses look menacing, others like trains and some bosses weren’t worth mentioning. They aren’t as difficult as the ones in Devil may cry, but pop up just as regular. Each boss you fight in P.N 03, you will have to fight twice. Once earlier on and then a harder version again on later stages. P.N 03 plays very, VERY identically to Devil may cry, but is not the same kind of game. The game can be played through on 3 difficulties (Easy, Normal, Hard) and I guarantee that you begin on Easy, as the 2 higher settings are ruthlessly fiendish.
(Geez! Count the amount of times I mentioned Devil may Cry, huh?)

The Aegis suits ///
Your character has the ability to upgrade suits as you progress through the game. You are not given new suits, each one has to be bought in a shop which can be accessed between stages and at a halfway point within stages. (Also, like a certain game with a white haired hero). Each suit has different ‘energy drives’ (more on those later) and is gauged by various attributes;
Energy – The size of your energy drive gauge.
Palm shot – The power of your fire.
Automatic – The ability to be able to hold the button down for rapid fire.
Barrier – The size of your vitality gauge.

Each suit will start off with the same attributes but can be powered up as you progress and this will also set you back some points. Some suits can be powered up to higher levels than others and some attributes may not be able to be powered up at all. The further you progress into the game, the better the suits available to you become. The suits all look pretty much the same but are different colours.

The suits are a necessity to beat later stages. You can go quite far with the default suit you start off with, but later stages will prove difficult and you will be forced to buy a new one. Each suit to begin with is EXACTLY the same as they are not leveled or powered up in anyway. The only difference in each new suit to begin with are the energy drives that come with them and each suit only starts off with one and has a maximum of 3 – the latter 2 which also need to be bought in the shop in order for you to be able to use them. The level up system in general is quite slack as there is nothing strikingly unique about each suit, except they are different colours. None of the suits come with special abilities or attributes that no other suit has such as (for example);
- The ability to jump farther.
- The ability to slowly recover life…
…and so on and so forth. Also, powering up a suit is so costly that you will only end up buying one the whole time you play the game. Thankfully though, once you complete the game and save it, you can start afresh with any suits you had obtained upon completion, which I guess is a nice touch and makes the later difficulties much easier.

Energy Drives ///
Each suit comes with a selection of energy drives and these are special, powerful attacks which can clear a room of enemies if pulled off at the right time. Energy drives are executed using the [D-pad] to input the specified directions and then hitting the [A button]. Using energy drives consumes huge amounts of your energy gauge (which is the yellow energy bar for anyone who has seen screenshots of the game). Therefore they cannot be used constantly. Each energy drive has its own unique start up animation and the motions our skin-tight clad heroine goes through to execute them are impressive and very balletic. Our heroine is also invincible during energy drives so they can be done in situation where an enemy might fire at you any second and you won’t have to worry about receiving damage.

The leading lady ///
Surely you’ve seen the chick in the white jump suit with the shades on. Her name is Vanessa Z. Schneider. A contender for the crappiest name of the year award right there! Just Vanessa woulda have been fine or even Mrs X or sumthin’ highly anonymous. But anyway, Vanessa is the main heroine and she is well designed and animated and this girl alone is the highlight of the game. Like Dante from Devil may cry, Shinji Mikami has designed a character that just oozes style, despite saying very little. Vanessa goes about her business like a ballet dancer, flinging her legs in the air, doing the splits and shaking her booty whilst she fires lasers and unleashes deadly attacks. Leave her standing there and she’ll click her fingers, bop her head and tap her feet. She doesn’t do it in time with the music mind, but she does it all the same. There’s no explanation as to why Vanessa struts her stuff the way she does, but it looks very cool and is a nice novel feature in the game and one which gives P.N 03 a somewhat distinct style in a world where everything looks the same and all else is highly repetitive.

Graphics ///
The graphics in this game are decent. There’s nothing mind blowing or astonishing about them, but they are pretty. Vanessa is well animated and modeled; sporting a similar level of detail that the characters showcase in the Resident Evil remake on GameCube. The one thing that mars the graphics however is the lack of textures used. Hardly any are used at all, so everything has a washed out feel about it and when you get close to a surface or you are in dark areas, there are colour banding problems which are highly noticeable. The graphics are quite heavily aliased, so the surroundings have quite a jagged look about them from afar. This is quite poor considering that texture mapping and anti-alaising are 2 graphical techniques that the GameCube hardware excels at and is highly capable of doing. (Just look at Smash Bros. Mêlée for further proof). All in all though the graphics are nice and there are far worse looking games out there. Despite the simplicity of the graphics, it still has a next-Gen look and feel and pulls off some effects that some other consoles and developers would struggle to execute.

Sound ///
The sound effects are pretty generic, but get the job done. There isn’t a great deal you can do with a shoot ‘em up game to make it a masterpiece in the sound department, but what PN 03 does here, it does well. Laser shots, blasts and explosions are all in there and sound fine and the game supports Dobly pro logic II for those who feel the need to exploit it. The music however is quite poor. It does suit the game, but it’s very, VERY repetitive and only emphasizes how repetitive the game is in general. You’re running around doing the same thing in every room, so the last thing you need is a repetitive soundtrack to complement it. The music is nothing special and could have been better composed and more thought out.

Same ol’, same ol’ ///
The game features 11 stages, all of which look the same. Every stage has this Star Wars, Storm Trooper base feel about it; complete with simple, white metallic surfaces and open rooms and tight, narrow corridors. The stages look good, but are too samey and there are also times when you return to stages you’ve already completed; the only difference being that the lighting is slightly different. The stages aren’t that interesting and all feature the same enemies and require you to do the same thing. A little more variety in the stages and objectives would have been nice.

The bad guys ///
Every enemy is a robot. None of these robots have any particular form of A.I at all. I mean…they are robots so there’s only so much they can dish, but they are push-overs. The only real difficulty with the enemies is the damage they deal when their fire hits. On Normal and Hard difficulties you will get killed in one shot. Even if Vanessa’s Aegis suit is maxed out.

Controls ///
P.N 03’s controls are often criticized in reviews, but they do work quite well. They’re not perfect mind and could have been better and more simplistic, but they get the job done, so I won’t complain (too much). An option to customize your own button would have been nice. Anyway! The buttons are as follows;

Control stick – Moves Vanessa
D-Pad – Input for Energy drives
C-Stick – Controls the camera
B – Jump
A – Fire
X – Crouch
Y – Change target
Z – 180 degree turn
L – Left dodge
R – Right dodge

The main problem I have with the controls is the responsiveness. Sometimes you press a dodge button and Vanessa won’t budge. This is highly frustrating, especially when you know for sure you pressed a button and Vanessa doesn’t react to the button press and then you end up dying because she couldn’t be bothered to move. I know for sure there is nothing wrong with my GameCube pad, as it’s highly responsive with every other game. Obviously Vanessa doesn’t like moving much on the job.

More Homer Simpson than Serena Williams ///
Vanessa’s movements are also quite a let down. From what you see of her in cut scenes and when she executes energy drives, you gather Vanessa is quite agile, but this isn’t reflected in what she does when you control her for yourself. All her movements have ballerina elegances about them, but are quite limited in scope. Vanessa cannot jump sideways for instance which really hinders the game-play and very often the sideways dodge won’t clear you as far as you’d like. Also, Vanessa can only shoot when she’s standing still, which is a bit of a nightmare, but this is something you do get used to. However, when you’ve played the likes of Enter the Matrix, Metroid Prime and especially Devil may cry, you feel rather restricted in her in-ability to move and shoot at the same time. She cannot even shoot whilst she’s crouched down, which is another let down. This could be seen as either a smart move, or an extremely stupid one; it depends on your feelings as you play the game.

Camera play ///
The camera in this game has its fair share of problems. First of all it is positioned too close to Vanessa, which means that you cannot see what is a little distance behind you unless you turn all the way around and this harms the game play greatly as you CANNOT turn your back on your enemies for a second as they will shoot you and most likely kill you in a shot or two...literally. Also, when you jump backwards the camera doesn’t move with you and Vanessa jumps right into the camera and out of shot until the camera catches up with you. This is painful, especially when you’re backed up against a wall, or you’re dealing with an enemy where there can be no mess ups. You can change the camera to 4 various other angles, but none of them are any good. Also, when you’re locked onto an enemy, the camera will not track that enemy (as it does in Metroid Prime and in the 3D Zelda titles). This is another problem as if your enemy is up in the air, you cannot see them and don’t know what the enemy is about to do until you see Vanessa sprawled across the floor and then “CONTINUE?” displayed up on the screen.

Playability ///
P.N 03 is a simple game. There’s not much to it but to shoot stuff and not get hit. The appeal of P.N 03 is that it is easy to play and is the kind of game that you can just switch on, get straight into, play it for a little while and turn it off. You do not have to engage yourself too much and become immersed in the storyline and this is P.N 03’s appeal, that it’s just a game that can be switched on, gotten into and switched off every now and then. The style of the game is very old school and this will appeal to retro fanatics and those who like a game that a monkey with a lobotomy could play. You just hammer the [A button] and avoid enemy fire whilst maintaining a high score – hardly rocket science.

Lastability ///
P.N 03 won’t last you long. Even though the game sports 2 difficulties and an unlockable third, there’s really nothing that’s going to make you go through all 3 difficulties once over, considering that the only difference in the varied difficulties is that on ‘Hard’ you will get killed in one shot. However, despite the games short-comings, the game does have a playable appeal and racking up combos and playing through to access and purchase new suits does become a challenge. Also there are 2 special Aegis suits that can be unlocked for those who really put the effort in. I don’t have these suits myself, which shows my effort and (lack of) dedication to the game!

Overall ///
An easy way to sum this game up is “Devil may cry with lasers.” Capcom definitely drew on Devil may cry’s ‘easy to get into’ approach with this game and there are more than ‘a few’ parallels between the two games. The only thing is that Devil may cry had more polish to it. I wasn’t a huge fan of Devil may cry…actually I flat out hated it, but it did have it’s moments and what it did right, it did extremely well. P.N 03 is game that has some good ideas, but they are poorly executed and badly thought out.

All of P.N 03’s problems really do hinder the gameplay, such as Vanessa movements, the camera and the repetitiveness. It’s a real shame, because there is a good game at the heart of it. P.N 03 isn’t perfect, but has enough potential within it where a sequel could be done and it would garner some interest from me. Also, knowing Capcom’s track record, a sequel is never far away – but what would they call it? P.N 02?

My advice is to rent it or buy it cheap. Or…buy it from somewhere that can offer you a refund or an exchange if you don’t like it. P.N 03 is an alright game and I do play it quite a bit, but it’s one of those games that you’ll either love or hate and I’m one of those awkward people who’s stuck somewhere in the middle. A fun game, but a bit iffy in places - Worth a look no doubt.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/03/03