Viewtiful Joe 2

"Not such a viewtiful job Joe..."

Introduction:
Viewtiful Joe 2 is a so-so sequel to a great game. Frankly I expected a lot more from this title. The first game was revolutionary, and was practically game of the year by the standards of many. If Viewtiful 2 was not a sequel, it might have been good. However, this game really did not get up to par with Capcom's past accomplishments. Let me begin by saying that the overall score is not an exact average due to reasons mentioned below.

Graphics: 8/10
These actually are not too shabby. The Japanese Chibi style designs fit the game well. The colors are vibrant, and the designs for the levels are cool plays off popular movies and some are original ideas. However, after fighting a mini-boss that looks the same as a few of the other bosses you have already fought, it gets a bit old. One of the games big selling points on the box is that it has a slew of bosses. Yea, and Mortal Kombat has a bunch of selectable characters right? The repetition is almost as annoying as the ninja clones were in MK, and slightly less thoughtful in their design. The game does have a saving grace; however, Joe's moves look really cool, and so do Silvia's.

Sounds: 6/10
Nothing remarkable here. The music is OK, but the musical score in Capcom's latest Resident Evil title blows this one's out of the water and these games came out pretty close to one another. Production spending really should have shifted a bit more towards this category. For shame Capcom. The voice acting can be very lame for a game with such high production values; however, the dialogue is written fairly poorly so it is not like the voice actors had much to work with in the first place. The fact that Joe's constant voice cracking makes him sound like he is going through puberty does not help with the whole picture though. Since you'll be using the exact same move throughout most the game(the RHOH) you'll grow quite acquainted with Joe's karate screech. While Joe's catch phrase is interesting in a way, if you have knowledge of the Japanese TV shows it derives from, hearing "Henshin-A-Go-Go Baby" for the millionth time doesn't make you like Joe anymore. If the voice acting was a bit better, it could have helped the game a lot.

Story: 3/10
The delivery of the story is mostly injured by what was talked about in the sound category. Poor dialogue and poor voice acting. There really is no reason to care about Joe or Silvia, and just because this is an action game does not mean it is okay to just ignore the story in production. This is still a story driven game, and Capcom failed to deliver. The plot itself is thin, and not as humorous as it was intended to be.

Gameplay: 6/10
Good gameplay can forgive a lot of a game's grievances. However VJ2 just does not have the quality gameplay necessary to pull it out of the red zone. There really was a lot of potential in this game that got wasted. There are two playable characters in this game, and if you do not need Silvia for a puzzle, then you do not need her at all. Even with her viewtiful powers she does not do nearly as much damage as Joe does. Getting a good ranking during stages to unlock goodies with Silvia is also quite a bit tougher than with Joe. Also, while this game has plenty of moves to learn, there is only one you will use religiously in this game. A slowed and zoomed RHOH (looks like a flurry of punches) devastates everything. Also, once a bosses pattern has been figured out, this move makes really short work of them. If bosses had a resistance to this move, or maybe even a weakness to Silvia's attacks, this game would have benefited greatly. However, the game is in some way a sort of mind numbing fun despite the faults of the combat system, but the fact that so much more could have been done to help this game makes it a travesty.

Replayability: 2/10
This game does make an attempt at being replayable, but it doesn't offer nearly as much as the remake of VJ1. The bonus rooms are fairly difficult in comparison to the reward received for doing them. If you are good enough of a player to defeat the bonus rooms, then you do not need what you will be rewarded remotely. Even with unlockable difficulty levels for increased challenge, there just is not enough here to make a player want to go through it again. This category could have been helped by a few hidden characters or even a two player function. VJ2 is just very repetitive.

Final Thoughts:
If you are a big fan of the first game, do yourself a favor and rent this game first. Die hard fans may love this game just because it is another VJ title, but otherwise this game has low appeal. The final score here is not a complete average as I have said before, namely because the horrible story does not so much affect the more important pieces of the game, yet it does detract from the overall view of this game. The actual average would have been a five; however, I feel this gaming experience to be slightly above mediocre overall.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/25/05