This game is only for the ultra-dexterous, or those with 3 hands...of course, VIewtiful Joe fans will still enjoy it for
First, I'll say that the game is innovative and the presentation is great. The story is pretty simplistic, even for a VJ game: Captain Blue is filming a new movie, and some hooligans steal his film. Joe sets off to retrieve the film while aided by his sister Jasmine (Working on her acting debut) and Captain Blue, who uses a V-Camera to focus on Joe and give him VFX powers outside of Movie World. The graphics are slightly less sharp than the ones on the 2 GCN/PS2 VJ games, but still look excellent on the small DS screen. The sound quality has taken only one fall, as the DS can't hold tons of dialogue. It still retains decent music and a few voice samples. What would it be without "Henshin a-go-go, baby!" ?
The central difference between VJDT and the first VJ game is that the only VFX power retained is Slow. Replacing Mach Speed is Scratch, which shakes the screen when you hold R and rub the touch screen with the stylus. Upon using this, objects will fall from the top of the screen, weighing down switches and hurting enemies. This is used for a variety of puzzles, but is essentially useless in a fight. Replacing Zoom In is SLIDE, which is activated by sliding the stylus up the side of the touch screen. This zooms in on Joe or certain enemies (Usually bosses) and objects; for the latter situations, one can use TOUCH to stun a boss or activate a switch. When zoomed in on Joe, certain moves that can be purchased with V-Points can be activated. Unfortunately, those aren't incredibly powerful, but they're nice to have. My favorite new ability in Double Trouble is Split, which splits the top and bottom of the lower screen when one slides the stylus across the middle. This can break through items, move boxes off of platforms, and let you jump through walls. It's very creative and useful, and easier to activate than the other powers.
Other than that, Joe can punch, kick, jump, and use Slow to move faster than his enemies and dodge their attacks. Strangely, using Slow doesn't influence his attacks much. On VJ and VJ2, punches are devastating while in Slow, but it doesn't seem to do much here. By attacking enemies, Joe garners V-Points, which allow him to buy power-ups between stages. These aren't incredibly useful, but you can buy more life and the VFX Turbo Charger here. VFX, which lets you use Joe's superhuman abilities, is limited to how much is left on the gauge at the top of the screen. It automatically recharges while not in use, can be replenished by potions dropped by enemies or boxes, and the gauge is extended when Joe collects 50 V-Films in a level. The VFX turbo charger doubles the time the gauge is useable for, and extra hearts extend Joe's life ala Heart Tanks on Megaman X or Heart Containers on Zelda. Oddly enough, a new potion item appears in this game, which is pink and automatically consumes Joe's VFX. I believe it doubles the strength of his attacks, but the duration is too short-lived to be useful.
The game's 6 stages are all played out the same way: Fight enemies, solve puzzles, beat the boss. The enemies aren't too difficult, and most of them have direct similarities to enemies on VJ and VJ2. The puzzles make use of the touch screen, and are fairly simple to figure out (Unlike a good deal of obstacles in VJ2 which took some abstract thinking) The bosses, however, are completely tedious and uninspired. The general pattern for them is avoid attacks, Slide ability, Touch ability, attack, repeat. There's not much variation here.
What I like about Capcom's games are the way bosses are fun to fight when you learn the patterns: Not here. Bosses are plain tedious, especially the fight with the Flies. There's little countering attacks, little use of Slow or other abilities: Fighting them skillfully likely requires perfect use of the touch screen abilities, which is why I mentioned dexterity in the review header. You can still get through just by hitting them as much as possible, but this becomes problematic in the 5th world, as all you do is fight the first four bosses over again, then fight a familiar character twice. Having to rematch all the bosses again is enough of a task (Although the fifth one is pretty easy, good luck getting through both #1 and #4), but the game's primary flaw is this: when you lose all your lifes and get a Game Over, that's it. You stay at zero lives until you find or buy more. This was completely stupid of Capcom, and was NOT present in Viewtiful Joe or VJ2. The game completely crashed at this point for me, as it meant there were no mid-stage continues. Weak, totally weak.
The replay value isn't much either (Similar to VJ2, although that game at least gave you stage select.) Beating the game gets you V-Rated Difficulty, and that's it. Don't expect to play as Dante. Maybe getting Rainbow V rankings on each stage (Obtained by being quick, taking no damage, and racking up a lot of V-Points) unlocks something nice, but only the most dedicated of VJ fans will try for that ranking.
Overall, Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble! has some nice features and it's share of fun moments, but the flaws within it prevent it from being as playable as the first two games. Try it for yourself though, you may disagree.