Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

A Story of Succession…

There exists in the universe both an Inner Space and an Outer Space: the former contains many Earths, inhabited by humans and watched over by their guardians known as the Creators, beings that exist in Outer Space. The Creators have tasked mankind with a destiny, and should humanity stray from their path by attempting to bring peace, swift action is taken and that planet's life is wiped out. As a resident of Earth-5, Isa Jo is an agent sent to assassinate an Outer Space infiltrator who was called down to Earth-4. What he discovers is a girl suffering from amnesia and with a clear attachment to humans. Reluctant, Isa decides to help and protect her, which summons the fury of the Creators down upon them both.

A direct follow-up to Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Earth for the Nintendo 64, Star Successor picks up several years after the events of the original. Though the connections are loose at first, the further into the game you progress and the more the girl's past is revealed, the tighter the threads connecting both games become. What you won't find here is a story of tremendous self-importance or novelty. It's a simple, dare I say basic tale, no more inspiring than it is short. The entire journey will easily last you under ten hours between both characters, but to say that so negatively would be misleading. You are not playing this game to experience the storytelling. To do so would be a great disservice to what really makes Star Successor shine.

A Perfect Bullet Hell…

To call this game an on-rails shooter would not only be misguiding, but it's only half correct. A Railgunner is a more proper term, not official, but certainly more accurate. You have free control over your character's movement on screen and where you aim. However, the camera is fixed on rails and moves only at a steady pace or after a certain amount of time. This is good, old fashioned, arcade shoot-em-up, amplified tenfold. You have two characters to choose from, each which control very similarly with the exception of their Charge shot: Isa fires a single large explosion on the designated area, while Kachi, the girl, allows you to select eight different targets (or a single target up to eight times, and other variations of that) to release eight powerful blasts.

Controls are simple, precise, and extremely satisfying. There's even the convenience of four different play styles: Wii remote and nunchuk; Classic Controller (and CC Pro), Gamecube controller, and Wii Zapper peripheral. All feel accurate and responsive, but the basic setup of Remote and Nunchuk works absolutely flawlessly on its own. For the purposes of this review, we will go with that setup. You'll control the movement of your character on screen with the analog stick across various two and three dimensional planes. Certain levels have land that you can drop down onto and your character will begin running forward automatically. Pressing the C button will make him or her jump, while pressing the Z button and any direction with the analog stick will perform a dodge, perhaps your most vital asset. Your basic shots are controlled with the B button which can be held down indefinitely for a barrage. Pressing it repeatedly will perform melee strikes should an enemy get too close. Lastly, the A button will lock the reticle onto any particular enemy, directing all shots at it regardless of where the cursor is. If you hold down the A button, you will charge each character's unique shot. Let it go to fire.

That's it. There is so little here to keep track of and remember, but you will use every single tool available to you to your advantage. And trust me, you will need everything. Just like those classic arcade shooters, this is something that will punish you. Feel no shame if you decide to play on the Easy difficulty, because the game has no regard for your feelings of pain and agony. With each and every enemy you kill, a score multiplier is tallied and added onto. If you can continue your string of killings without getting harmed yourself, the multiplier will gradually increase, and the points you receive will raise higher and higher. Death means the erasure of all points you've accumulated, but the game has some level of forgiveness with its frequent and generous checkpoints. You won't regain the points you've lost, but you'll start closer to where you died rather than at the beginning of the level. At the end of each stage, your points accumulated is totaled and can be added to an online leaderboards to compare your skills - or lack thereof - against other players around the world. The game sports a local co-op mode where a second player just takes control of another aiming reticle. Only player one will appear on screen, akin to Super Mario Galaxy's co-op, which is kind of a disappointment. With all that is going on you'd think they could fit in a second character model flying around.

There is no character progression; this does not blend RPG elements into the fold like every other shooter this generation. You will not level up, you will not gain additional weapons or abilities, and you will not upgrade anything. What you start with is what you will end with. This keeps things at a level that allows you to focus only on shooting, and it's all the better because of it.

A Symphony of Sounds and Sights…

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is a fireworks display of pure colors. Every stage, on nearly every screen, you will witness an explosion of colors to the extent that your eyes may even start to hurt after a while. The visual intensity of this game puts almost anything else this generation to shame and really sets a standard for arcade shooters as a whole. The music is on a similar level: the soundtrack boasts many impressive techno rock beats that perfectly reflect the settings in which they're used, and will almost certainly get your blood pumping. The voice acting is good, but certainly not flawless, and the character animations are awkward, mostly in cutscenes. Close-ups of either character's face shows cold, dead stares. It can actually be quite frightening, to be honest. But the variety of enemies you'll face, the locations you'll traverse, and most importantly the bosses you will encounter - of which there are several dozen - are all unique and appropriately intimidating.

And The Verdict Is…

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is not a game I can recommend to everyone: its roots in traditional hardcore shoot-em-ups makes it a title that doesn't have such wide appeal, and its short length coupled with its incidental story may turn off those looking for a deep and provocative game. But if you want pure, unadulterated, unhindered, adrenaline-fueled fun, you absolutely need to play this game. This is something you beat quickly and then play again and again to get a higher score. And trust me, if you play this once, you will come back for more.

Pros: Smooth, responsive controls; exhilarating gameplay; beautiful visuals and amazing soundtrack; a difficulty that will test the patience of shooter fans

Cons: Some slight facial oddities; co-op is weak; limited genre appeal

The Final Verdict: 9.5/10
Treasure's latest game is the Holy Grail of arcade shooters.