Viewtiful Joe 2 Feature Preview

Viewtiful Joe 2 is the upcoming follow-up to Capcom's awesome original GameCube adventure from last year. The original game provided GameCube owners with an inventive new experience that blended impressive cel-shaded visuals with surprisingly fresh gameplay. While basically a 2D side-scroller, the game's fresh approach breathed new life into that well-worn genre.

Joe and Sylvia will take on the evil Black Emperor together in Viewtiful Joe 2.

For the sequel, Capcom's Clover Studio is aiming to refine its winning formula with the addition of new gameplay elements. We've had the opportunity to get brief looks at the upcoming game over the past few months, but we haven't had an in-depth look at the second installment in the promising series. Fortunately, we recently had the opportunity to check out a new work-in-progress version of the game that let us get in a hefty chunk of time with Joe's latest adventure, which is poised for a release next month on the GameCube and PlayStation 2.

Viewtiful Joe 2's story sticks pretty closely to the hallmarks of any proper action game sequel. The happy ending of the original game doesn't last too long, as Joe is tapped to save the day yet again when even bigger trouble starts to brew. While Joe's original adventure sent him on a swashbuckling quest through Captain Blue's Movieland to save his ladylove Sylvia, Viewtiful Joe 2's story raises the stakes even higher. This time out, Joe must face and defeat the evil Black Emperor, a new villain whose plans are nothing less than world domination (it's good to see he's aiming big). In order to deal with this new threat, Joe must venture through Movieworld, a considerably bigger place with appropriately bigger threats.

Now while this may sound daunting, and it is, Joe is not going at it alone this time. Anxious not to join the ranks of famous kidnap victims such as Mario's Princess Peach and The Legend of Zelda's Zelda, Sylvia has gotten her hands on a V-watch. The specifics of how this happens are a little vague. Depending on who tells it, she either begged Captain Blue for one or she threatened the hero until he coughed one up. At any rate, Sylvia is on board for the adventure with her own supersuit complete with pom-poms. As if Sylvia wasn't enough help, Joe will be assisted by his dear old dad, Jet Black, movie theater owner and projector technician extraordinaire, who will aid the pair from the other side of the silver screen.

The new replay power will let you perform an action and then rerun it three times.

In terms of structure, not much has changed from the original game. You're still going from one movie-themed stage to the next, battling enemies and solving puzzles by using your VFX powers. For those unfamiliar with the VFX powers, you'll have access to a total of four: slow, mach speed, zoom, and the all-new replay. Slow does just what you'd expect--it slows down everything around you a la bullet time; mach speed does just the opposite and lets you move like lightning; zoom brings the camera in close as you perform stylish moves that leave your enemies spellbound; and replay is the newcomer to the mix, letting you record an action and perform it three times in rapid succession.

Timing is everything when using replay--if you get the timing right, it lets you do three times the damage during an attack, or it lets you earn three times the health if you trigger it while having a snack. The flow of the game will be given some variety, thanks to levels where you'll use the Six Machine, the pair's trusty vehicle, to get around. As you progress through the game, you'll be able to earn new moves for Joe and Sylvia as well as upgrade their abilities by visiting a shop in between levels and cashing in the coins you earn.