bit-tech Shopping: Capcom Viewtiful Joe (GC)

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1 Years

Strengths: (1) Great mix of old school 2d beat-em-up action with 3d scenery and toon rendering (2) Fun to master fighting techniques and enemy confrontations take skill (3) Character looks cool while fighting

Weaknesses: (1) May be too difficult for some on default difficulty setting (2) Toon graphic may turn off some

Summary: Viewtiful Joe is an brave and original offering from a newly formed development team at Capcom. The team is comprised of many skilled developers and it currently focuses on creating new and original games. Viewtiful Joe is a total success. At first, you may think that it is a simple game because of the graphics and 2d movement, however, the game demands that you master the different fighting moves and special effect powers in order to get past the villians. The special effect powers are truly unique and make the fighting very entertaining. In addition, you will be faced with many puzzles that require a special effect power to be used in a certain way, often in conjunction with a certain fighting style. The puzzles are creative and for the most part logical once you figure them out. The boss monsters are a real challenge and require multiple attempts until you figure out their secret and/or pattern to take advantage of. This, too, is very "old-school", however, everything in Viewtiful Joe is more enjoyable if you use the special effect powers to their fullest. I purchased this game at full price and am very happy with it. It actually has a lot of replay value since the focus is on the action and it provides a lengthy experience.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 5 Months

Strengths: Great side scolling action game. Good Graphics and storyline

Weaknesses: Length of game, lack of save points

Summary: Capcom Viewtiful Joe for the Gamecube is a great platform action game which was a great surprise for me. Aside from the Mario games, there wasn't much in platforming action on the Gamecube. This game however has a funny story line as well as innovative graphics and gameplay. The game length is a little short, but for $20 this is a can't miss purchase for the Cube. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up as well as Viewtiful Joe 2.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 18 Months

Strengths: Beautiful graphics, challenging, many playable characters

Weaknesses: A bit short

Summary: This game has an interesting old school beat 'em up feel with interesting gameplay twists (zoom, mach speed, slow) and beautiful graphics. The game an be found for ten bucks at most places, and it's definitely worth it. Oh yeah, and POINTS.

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1 Years

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Summary: This is a throwback to the style of gameplay that was popular during the 8-16 bit era. Which is not to say that this is not an innovative game. Rather than churning out something that has been done a hundred times before, Capcom really showed what a modern game of this type should be like. Viewtiful Jow is an evolution of the sidescroller, proving that there is much more there to explore. This is a really fun game. Viewtful Joe's powers revolve around time manipulation or reality distortion, and it is alll very cool. The art direction is superb, definately not something that could have been done before this generation of console.

Rating: 6

Time with product:

Strengths: Fun 2D gameplay

Weaknesses: Not a big fan of it's game design.

Summary: Viewtiful Joe is one of the few original 2D platformers to come out on a home console. The game's title character, Joe, has super powers after going into an old movie to save his girlfriend. Capcom really let their creativity loose with Joe's powers in this game, including being able to slowdown/accelarate time that has some awesome effects on the gameplay (such as slowing down time to make a bomb blast bigger). Further more, VJ's costume and accessories are all designed so well and look cool, as if Capcom planned to market them in other areas. What I didn't like about VJ was it's game design. I didn't feel like I was really getting any better after finishing a hard area or boss, it just felt that I was being thrown a lot of stuff at once and after a few attempts I would eventually be able to conquer it.