Hands-onViewtiful Joe

Capcom showed off a build of Viewtiful Joe, its stylish platform game for the GameCube, at its press event yesterday. First announced in Japan late last year, the game is being shaped by two of Capcom's brightest talents--Atsushi Inaba, producer of Steel Battalion, and Hideki Kamiya, director of Devil May Cry and Resident Evil 2, are both contributing to the unique game's development. Judging by the playable demo of the game on hand at the event, Viewtiful Joe appears to be a promising game that blends a variety of gameplay elements into a unique side-scrolling platformer.

The game's premise puts you in the role of an average Joe out to awaken his inner strength in a loopy Hollywood-style movie. The first level of the demo started out with Joe being tutored on the basics of combat and ended with him defeating a boss, who then rewarded Joe with the ability to become Viewtiful Joe, a helmeted superhero who can use special powers to take on enemies. The goal is to go through levels, defeating enemies and collecting "viewtiful points" that will go toward increasing your powers. Joe's powers are essentially visual effects that he can use to affect time and initiate a variety of combos on his foes. The catch is that you're limited in the use of these powers by an onscreen meter that will turn you back into normal Joe if you exhaust it by using the powers too much. Fortunately, the bar replenishes itself fairly quickly, and you'll be able to increase the size of the bar by collecting points as you go through the game. If the premise sounds eccentric, that's because it is. But it's also very playable and fun.

The controls in the game are quite basic. The control scheme in the demo assigned jump to the A button, punch to the Y button, and kick to the X button. The left and right triggers initiated Joe's special-effect powers. As you'd expect, the combat is quick and combo-oriented, with points being awarded for aggressive attacks and stylish finishes.

The graphics in Viewtiful Joe are a very slick, stylish combination of cel shading and 2D backgrounds. The game sports a superdeformed look that meshes well with the quirky levels. Many of the backgrounds look like the facades you see on a movie lot. During combat, you'll see words appear with your blows as a sign that you're performing well. In many ways, Viewtiful Joe's gameplay and appearance struck us as the spiritual kin of the old Genesis game Comix Zone. The game looks and plays like an interactive comic or a zany Hong Kong action film. One of the most interesting aspects of the graphics is the way they're tied to combat. When facing off against enemies, you'll be given visual cues that will allow you to dodge your enemy's attacks. In many cases, successfully dodging your opponent's attacks leaves him or her dizzy and open to whatever combo you'd like to unleash. The animation in the game is very well done and keeps the action cruising along smoothly.

The audio in the demo of Viewtiful Joe matched the onscreen weirdness to a T, offering bizarrely inflected cries, over-the-top sound effects, and a cheerful announcer.

Viewtiful Joe seems to be a coming together very well. The game is a bit over the top, but it manages to make that work in its favor and winds up being very playable. The bizarre premise, stylized graphics, and gameplay mechanics appear to work well together. The brief demo definitely left us wanting more. We'll bring you more on the game as it becomes available.