Viewtiful Joe 2

"The most underrated game of 2004. Viewtiful Joe 2 is a clever, old school sequel that lets you kick ass and get your ass kicked"

I won't bore you with a long introduction. Viewtiful Joe was just a crazy, wildly original and stylish beat 'em up/platformer hybrid. Viewtiful Joe 2 is the same, but deeper, more creative and clever, funnier and a whole lot bigger. If you are a gamer with a Gamecube or PS2, and you're in the mood for something satisfying, un-pretentious and, if you want, incredibly hard, you should pick this up.

Story: The whole point of Viewtiful Joe 2's plotline is to be unbelievably corny. The voice acting is refreshingly overracted, the announcer sounds like he's introducing a hockey game, and the plot is full of evil villains who make quick escapes and have no motives. With that in mind, some great comedic moments come up with this premise. There's the idiotic filmer, the preachy superhero who used to be an "average Joe" and there's the damsel in distress come back to kick some ass, just like Elektra. You will get some laughs from this one.

Gameplay: The fighting system is excellent. All your moves from the first game have returned, so you'll be back again doing crazy things with your fists and feet. Remember how, in the first game, you could slow down time in front of a revolver-wielding gangster, let the bullet fly at you in slow motion, punch it back at the gangster, making him reel back, then you could start up fast motion and kill the gangster in a flurry of kicks so fast you set on fire? You get more of those crazy things in the fighting system. Being able to slow down or speed up time, replay attacks and zoom in on yourself, and combine them makes for some interesting scenarios. There's also a great point based system, where if you do well in a fight, in terms of time, minimal damage to yourself and combos, you get more points and a crowd prounouncing you Viewtiful, Awesome, Baaaad, Crappy or Dreadful. You can also collect points strewn around the "reels" and "episodes". Then in between sections, where you save, you can spend the points on new power-ups and attacks.

New to Viewtiful Joe is Sylvia, your partner, who you can play as anytime. The first run through I must admit to playing as Joe the whole time (you can switch on the fly) except for the puzzles in which I needed her. But later you'll realize how useful she is. While Joe is more a close up, KICKPUNCHKICK fighter, Sylivia will stand back and shoot her unlimited ammo gun. Then you can buy two guns. Then you can buy lockon. Eventually Sylvia becomes quite powerful, and useful in the situations Joe doesn't excel at. While fire hurts her more, she is more comfortable around electricity, making for a deep mechanic.

Some picky fans have complained about the puzzles in here. They do somewhat break up the action, but the puzzles are always clever and often kind of funny. You use your time powers in bizarre ways, but just when you think you use your powers for all the puzzles, the game makes you NOT use them in very creative ways. Here's an example of a pretty simple puzzle. You're at a traffic light with skytrains flying by (this is Tokyo, one of the games' diverse locations). You hit the traffic light and a train abruptly stops. You've signalled you want to board it. But a gang of enemies come out and shut the door behind them. You fight them and notice the last one has a train pass. When you pick it up, you can open the skytrain door. Then you find yourself out on what is nearly a highway, trying to dodge the taxis. There's a sign roughly indicating a women's washroom below. I was playing as Joe at the time, but I jumped down. The camera stayed still, I heard an alarmed shout, and then Joe came flying out. I did this a couple times before realizing the secret... you need a woman to go into the woman's washroom. So I changed into Sylvia and jumped down, causing less of a reaction.

Finally there's the boss fights. Viewtiful Joe was criticized a little for its bosses that merely followed a pattern. These do too, but the fights are a lot more interesting and original. Things like fighting while dodging haystacks in a mining cart are inside. There are so many more interesting and creative battles, you really have to play the game to experience them. 10/10

Graphics: This game was made for both the PS2 and the GCN at the same time, so there is a slight, VERY slight drop in framerate in an underwater area. But mostly, the game is as stylish and cool as ever. More of that cross between comic book and movie that is incredibly bewildering but totally awesome. And like all old-school games, the graphics improve as you go along. They are always diverse, imaginative and wacky, with heavy black lines and foreground shadows. 9.5/10

Sound: Semi-catchy, techno/rock stuff, nothing very special but the theme song and some of the episode music is quite memorable. The voice acting is wonderfully corny and the effects are amusing and fun to hear. How things echo and bang in slow-motion, or Joe's gleeful "Yummy!" when he eats a health-replenishing cheeseburger. While some of the distorted monster talking may be a little hard to hear, turn the sound up and you'll hear some of the great, idiotic and big boss talking. DON'T turn the sound low-ish and miss the talking like me. That would be stupid. 8.5/10

Replay Value: On Kids it will take 15-20 hours. Then you'll play it on the brutally hard Adults. Then the unforgiving, cruel V-Rated. And then the sadistic, frustrating Ultra V-Rated. Beating some of the bosses will make you dance around the room inventing sports celebrations. And you can also unlock Chambers that are somewhat like the Challenges in TimeSplitters 2, they're brutally hard an you'll love them. 10/10

Overall: Buy this unappreciated masterpiece right now. Just do it. Recommended for fans of video games who have a little bit of self-control, you'll need it for some of the later difficulties. 9.6/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/05