Cool concept, Vewtiful style, charismatic characters, great game-play and highly addictive.
The back story for Viewtiful Joe is a classic movie plot with a twist. Joe and his girlfriend Silvia are out at the movies watching an old film, and Joe is quite humorously missing signals that his girlfriend is sending his way. In the climax of the movie the villain jumps out and pulls Silvia into the movie. Joe is then kidnapped by Captain Blue, his childhood hero and star of the film, and told that he must replace Blue as the hero of Movieland. Joe dons the V watch (his source of power in Movieland) and accepts this responsibility. He says the magic words and springs into to action, beating up bad guys and unraveling their master plan as he tries to save his damsel in distress. Humor is sprinkled throughout his entire journey from his witty Veiwtiful puns to the banter back and forth with the incredibly original villains. The voice acting throughout is spot on and truly brings all the characters to life.
The game is broken up into several chapters, each containing three main stages with series of goals that must be met. One such goal is to get the Viewtiful Special Effects, or VFW, bar to full capacity. Hidden in every nook and cranny of the world are capsules that Joe will need to collect in order to increase his VFX bar in each chapter. VFW is essentially Joe's power source and the most unique aspect to the game. With VFX Joe can slow time down, go into a super fast mach speed-state, and most uniquely of all, zoom the camera around Joe for extra damage and special attacks. Any combination of these powers can be used at the same time and, more often than not, will lay waste to minibosses or for solving puzzles. In addition to what their names already suggest, these powers also have secondary effects. One such ability is giving Joe extra strength when interacting with objects or lighting himself on fire to burn down pillars or ignite enemies. The missions in the game vary anywhere from beating a set number of villains before getting crushed or collecting a miniboss's key, to the more creative puzzles that must be solved with VFX such as blasting a bus over a gap to cross it. At the end of each mission you are given three scores for an overall rating. These scores are based on how quick you beat your enemies, how many times you where hit, and V-points (which will be explained in the next section).
Combat is also quite unique and entertaining in this game. Apart from using your various skills to attack your foes, you must also pierce their defenses. A red comic style bubble will appear with a skull inside to show where your opponent will strike next. You will have to dodge the high or low attacks accordingly by pressing down or up on the control stick. This will either confuse your opponent, slow them down, or make them lower their defenses and give you an opportunity to counter attack. Once stunned the "Y" button will make Joe punch and "X" will kick. The flow of his attacks and any combination of them look fluid and natural. Some fighting games don't have combos that look this smooth. Confusing enemies in this fashion allow you easier access to V-points. V-points are earned from using VFX attacks and skills, confusing an enemy before attacking, or multipliers can be earned from attacking enemies while a target is on top of them during use of the Slow skill. In-between the three stages of each chapter you are given the opportunity to go to an upgrade shop. Here you can buy health, VFX, and combat upgrades with the coins that drop from defeated enemies. With these coins you can also purchase consumable weapons and extra lives.
Viewtiful Joe is an amazing Action/platformer that presents something amazing and original to the genre. It's an engaging title that offers a lot of replay value with multiple difficulty levels and unique unlockable characters with the completion of each one. The overall look and feel hits the mark as you really believe you are playing your way through a movie. The backgrounds can sometimes be lacking but it fits in perfectly with the games aesthetic. The music is upbeat and ties in nicely with all the levels, the action hero aesthetic, and offers great boss themes. This game achieves everything that it had hoped to and there is no excuse why it shouldn't be in your collection.