Sin and Punishment's sequel is finally here. Is this title worth your time and money?
So what is Sin and Punishment: Star Successor all about? Well, if you had to use one word to describe it, I'd probably use hectic. A lot happens on screen and a lot of it moves smoothly. Not to scare anyone, being hectic isn't necessarily a bad thing. The game is made by Treasure, the development team that has brought us other games like Ikargua.
The gameplay in Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is definitely hard to describe with words. At the very core, the game is a on-rails shooter that puts you in a third person perspective along with paying homage to old school 2D arcade shooters, like Gradius.
You use the Wii remote to point at the screen and shoot targets. You hold the B button to keep a continuing flow of shooting your gun and then tap the B button to use your melee attack. Holding the A button gives you a charge shot, which refills after a few seconds and tapping the A button locks onto a target. You also use the Nunchuck to guide your character on screen with the analog stick, as well as jumping by pressing the C button, dodging by press Z and pushing up on the control stick to make him fly. It might sound a bit complex in text, however rest assured, it works very well.
Now, the game actually only has eight levels, including the tutorial level. Don't jump into buying Sin and Punishment: Star Successor for one simple playthrough. It's a game that you'll want to continue playing, multiple times, to better your score. Also to note, your scores do get uploaded on a leaderboard, which can be filtered to International, Regional or Local.
The game offers you replayability in the following areas. First and foremost, by beating the game on each of the three difficulties Easy, Normal and Hard. Don't be fooled however, even the easy mode is definitely challenging to experienced players of the genre and novices alike. The second area of replayability comes from getting better scores and the last area is beating the game with both the characters, to unlock the ability to play as both of them on the fly.
The visuals in the game are not going to blow you away, but everything runs so smoothly and the camera angles are really effective in giving you that arcade like experience. The faces of the characters are a bit weird and some of the textures can get really ugly up close, but for the most part, you won't notice anything too out of place or ugly.
The game also has some voice acting, which for the most part is pretty bad. Also, forget about the story, because it won't matter and it's not particularly interesting to begin with. The music in the game is fantastic. Techno, upbeat music to set you in the mood of the game and it just adds to the overall experience and tone of the game.
Overall recommendation
If you are interested in Sin and Punishment: Star Successor, I highly recommend but be cautious. The game is difficult and is short if you're just going to play through it once. It only lasts around five to eight hours. The real meat of the game is playing it over and over, multiple times, trying to master the game and get better scores and eventually move on to play on different difficulties and unlock bonuses. If you are a novice of the genre, but want to get into it, it's easy to recommend. The easy mode provides a challenge but is not punishing. You get multiple check points throughout the game as well as the ability to save and quit whenever you want.
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is a real gem. It feels like it belongs on the Wii, it uses the best aspects about the Wii and creates an entirely unique experience. It's definitely a stand out on the console and is for sure worth owning if you like any kind of Wii shooters.