"A Viewtiful suprise, even if half of the game play suffers from odd powers"

I must say, seeing Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble on the sales floor yesterday, I nearly passed out. Seriously, was this game not supposed to hit the shelves a week later? Soon, the fear of a rushed game filled every vein in my being. Yet again, a rushed E3 demo that would be priced too high.

Well, the game IS pricey, at US$40 brand new. This puts Joe alongside such great $40 DS releases such as Star Wars III, Madden 05/06, Spiderman 2, Ultimate Spiderman, and Splinter Cell DS.

If you have ever played those games, you KNOW that $40 DS releases typically are bad news, with only Ultimate Spiderman having fun gameplay overal and Star Wars III having only great music and space combat. Yet, despite this high tag, would you be suprised to know that the game is still as good as its bretheren Joe games?

First, though, you must understand; Viewtiful Joe (the series) debut on the Game Cube over two years ago, reinventing the classic 2D brawler beat-em-up formula with "henshin" (read - transforming with powers a la Power Rangers) and wise cracks about movie cliches. The sequel was warmly recieved, though the latest console and PSP releases have thus far been met with lukeworm comments from the media.

Yet, the original DS title was met with that warm love that goes to games that both look and feel great back at E3, and the game looked to be developing quite well. Only one thing could hurt it, and that was... the new powers.

See, half of the fun of Viewtiful Joe was using the Viewtiful powers to speed up time, slow the flow of time, zoom in, and a vast assortment of other random powers to both beat foes and solve puzzles. Heck, one of the most key powers, the ability to slow time, is still used in the new DS title.

So why did I bring up the problem of new powers? Simple - the touch screen. Right away, I must warn you - not all of the powers are easy to trigger, usually requiring you to shift the DS so you can draw a strait line across the screen to split it, then carefully moving the line to alter the level or shaking the world to drop items or objects. The trusty slo-mo is still around, with a few other familiar-type tricks, but, thankfully, the touch abilities are not really key to beating the game. They are important, but you don't need them for everything.

Let me explain: you do need them to solve the puzzles, but against such challenges as bosses, you do not need to worry about stopping to shake the boss to knock him around and leave yourself vulnerable or to shift a line to flood the room; these only serve to assist.

Oh, and I probably should mention right away - the graphics, sounds, and controls work wonders:

Graphically, Viewtiful Joe DS has just become the DS's most graphically impressive game that imitates the third dimension. Ever play Nights on the Saturn? Of course not, you are probably too young to even remember the NES! The game mimicked the world of 3D with witty use of 2D art to give the illusion of 3D. And Viewtiful Joe DS does this as well, and though it is obvious, it hardly detracts from the experiance. Oh, and did I mention that the game actually looks like the Game Cube original quite often? Who says the DS can't match the graphics of the PSP? And without load times even!

Ahem. Sorry, a bit of a rant there. Moving on...

Controls are spot on, though I do wish that there were alternate ways to trigger some of the touch powers. While having the basic jump, punch, and kick buttons, plus two triggers to activate the Shake and Slow powers, having to drag the screen to activate other powers just doesn't feel right, and the splitting of the screen with a line is somewhat hard to pull off more often than it should be. At least the combat is easy with great response times and nice collision detection.

Music is filled with scores of Viewtiful Joe remixes and themes, including a personal favorite, the New Chapter Theme. There is some voice work, though no where near as much as a console version. This is a down-side, but is hardly a game killer, what with the fun the cart offers.

Replay comes in the form of multiple difficulty levels, plus the various unlockables for completing goals and levels with high ratings. Plus, there are hidden characters (natch), so there is plenty for your US$40.

In short, this is a good purchase for both old school fans and pre-teens. I would not recommend this for junior, as the touch screen powers can be frustrating at times, and you don't want perminant damage to the DS, now do you?

Score: 7 of 10

* Best Features: Graphics, Sound, Controls, wonderful 3D on the DS on BOTH Screens!
* Worst Features: Some new powers, High Price
* If You Liked: Viewtiful Joe series, Final Fight series, Mega Man (notice that all of these are from Capcom?)
* Guilty Pleasure: Keeping a save to listen to the Chapter Start theme, perhaps? I do like that theme...

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/05, Updated 11/20/07

Game Release: Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble! (US, 11/18/05)