Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble!

"Like the fat kid that smells, you can have fun, but cry while being near it"

I have to say, I was never a large fan of the Viewtiful Joe series. I played the first one, and thought it was weird, and just wasn't that fun. But, when I saw that the DS had a game coming out, I was interested to see how this game would be, and I wanted another game to add to my DS collection. So, I sucked up my past disappointments, and got Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble.

Probably, the biggest part where Double Trouble has problems is its Dual Screen transition. I can see where the developers were trying to go with the game, but it was a very annoying experience. For one, they tried to hard, to make the game-play work. Fighting is very simple and easy, punching and kicking are the main parts of this. The L button slows down time, which, though cool, didn't really do a whole lot, like it did in its Gamecube versions. It was supposed to be used for certain enemy's you fight, or to help you jump further or something. But, it truly didn't help me fight, because simply hitting your enemy will stop their attacks.

Ducking and jumping, were supposed to help you dodge attacks also, but it really didn't do a whole lot, if the enemies attack you before you can do it. By the time I actually saw the little exclamation point, the enemy was already launching for an attack. It didn't really hurt me to much, since you won't die from an enemy a whole lot in this game, really the only time you'll die is if you made a stupid mistake, and landed on some spikes or something. The R button also was used to try and cause an ability called scratch. While using scratch, you shake the bottom screen, so that items will fall on your opponent's heads, and cause them to die, or be dazed.

The touch screen is also used to split the screen, so you can get into other areas that you couldn't before, or to change the screen so you get a close up of Joe, and you can touch levers or touch enemies. The powers were really just a sloppy way of using the DS, and didn't make for fun game-play really. More of like a chore. Plus, if you put Double Trouble down for like a week, you will quickly forget all of the moves, and will be confused on what to do and how to do it.

Story wise, Double Trouble is a little weak. Captain Blue and Joe's sister Jasmine, are filming Captain Blues next movie. When, all of a sudden Hulk Davidson, who is the big green rhino from past Veiwtiful games, comes from no where, to destroy Captain Blue and Jasmine. Unfortunately, Joe didn't know they were making a movie, and ruined the whole scene. While the three were talking and screaming, Silvia, Joe's girlfriend, appears, and Captain Blue shows her the movie cameras. Only, the cameras aren't there anymore. They look around, in time to see some of the movie goons, running away with the film.

So, Joe and his always in trouble sister give chase, and go through multiple movie sets to find the film. While in pursuit, they learn why the film is stolen, and what is happening to other movie stars “heroness”. You will meet several big movie knock-offs, that while funny at first, just seem a little weird. The in-game cut scenes are portrayed as little movie slides, which are fun to watch, but just a hassle to move through. The game is set through acts, like in a movie, and every act will take anywhere from 45 seconds, to five minutes, depending on how smart you are, and if the game wants you to perform an impossible jump right then.

Music wise, Viewtiful Joe is pretty good. All of the music takes from its environments. Like in snow levels, the music is soft and calm, and during horror levels, the music tries to be creepy and scary. During the levels though, the music is very repetitive, and there is no reason to even have the sound on. But during cut scenes, the music is fun to listen to, because it changes with the slide, and matches what's going on. Attacks sound like they have come from a low budget action Kung-fu movie. But, they did bring back that catchy and a little corny phrase, Henshin-a-go-go Baby back, so yay them.

Graphics were probably the only thing that truly impressed me with Double Trouble. It was like it was one big 2D and sometimes 3D comic book. Joe seemed to just jump out at you the whole time playing, even though the game was side-scrolling. I was impressed by how greatly shaded all of the characters were, even though they were all cartoon's and cell shaded figures. The environments were rich in detail, and the backgrounds really seemed alive while playing. I was utterly amazed by the detail that went into bosses and the shear overall ness of the game.

Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble, while looks amazing, and fighting is simple, just fails on so many levels. Probably the one thing that brought it down, was its Touch Screen game-play. It was confusing, ignorant, and never worked right the entire time. Music, while cool. Seemed to drag on and on, playing the same beat, and just made you lose focus and sleepy. It's an average game at most, but I will say buy Double Trouble, as long as you can commit to yourself in playing it all the way through without stopping, or you have the best memory in the world.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/06