Viewtiful Joe 2 is great action game that is very enjoyable but simply isnt as unique and inspired as the original.
User Rating: 8.4 | Viewtiful Joe 2 GC
Viewtiful Joe 2 takes up immediately where the first left off. Movie Land is under attack by an evil organization called Gedow, which plans to capture the seven Oscars of movie land, which contain the power of the “happy ending.” Without the Oscars, there will never again be happy endings in movies and instead, all the movies will end in despair, sadness, and unrighteousness. Hence it is up to Viewtiful Joe and his girlfriend Silvia to stop this evil force from destroying the happy ending. The story is mediocre and is nothing much to brag about and is a little clichéd. But Viewiful Joe 2 is a game that appeals more to the gameplay aspect than the plot development. Graphically, Viewtiful Joe is rightfully named. “Viewtiful” means “Beautiful View” which refers to the style of the graphics and the way the characters are animated to make the game look graphically impressive. Cut-scenes in the game emphasize the comic book, cell shaded, style of graphics introduced in the first Viewtiful Joe. Characters have dark, bolded outlines surrounding their bodies as if they were hand-drawn onto the screen. During the cut-scenes, characters have blocky animations as if they cannot bend all the limbs and fingers normally which was again is done to make it appear as if the characters were ripped straight from a comic book. During in-game gameply, the graphics are again really well done. Joe, Silvia and the onscreen enemies all animate well. Defeating robotic enemies results in the explosion of the enemy where the pieces and gears all go flying off-screen, which is nice to see. The game also has some interesting backgrounds to its many locals. They are all very beautiful and add much color and variety to the on-screen view. Some backgrounds can even be interacted with which is always a nice touch. All in all the graphics in Viewtiful Joe 2 are quite impressive. Viewtiful Joe 2 is very similar to its predecessor in the gameplay department, which varies from good to bad at times. The main core of the gameplay remains. Joe and Silvia are both playable and can be switched between at any time on the fly. They are both equipped with magical watches called the V-watch. The V-watch enables its wearer to become a superhero thus turning Joe and Silvia into Viewtiful Joe and Sexy Silvia. While in this form, the pair of them have powers that are used to battle and defeat foes, and also solve puzzles. There are three powers for each for Joe and Silvia. Both Joe and Silvia have the powers of Slow Motion, which slows down time to increase the strength of attacks, and Zoom, which brings the camera in close up on the action to allow Joe and Silvia to perform special moves. However, Joe has the ability of Mach Speed, which makes Joe super fast, whereas Silvia has the power of Record, which enables her to redo an action three times enabling her to do three times the amount of damage to enemies, or receive three times the amount of damage causing one to take care when using it. Joe and Silvia’s powers are run on a VFX bar. It is a bar, which begins to deplete when the powers are initiated and restores when not in use. This bar is automatically recharged and can be additionally restored by collecting power ups. Its length can be extended by collecting movie canisters spread throughout the level. When the bar is fully depleted, Joe and Silvia will return to their normal selves and be unable to use their powers until the bar recharges to a certain point. One good aspect of the gameplay is the puzzle solving. Puzzles require the use a VFX power or a combination thereof. The puzzles are quite good and sometimes take a while to figure out exactly what must be done to accomplish the task. The puzzles are placed to break up the onslaught of oncoming enemies and are quite good. The battles in Viewtiful Joe are basically exactly similar to the first. Move Joe around a level while encountering many foes along the way to be defeated. Using the VFX powers in different combinations produces different results and attacks from the characters. However, anyone who has played the original will have a “been there, done that” feel after playing the game. It offers very little that differs from the original and might leave a slight after taste so to speak. The only new addition to the gameplay is the ability to play with Silvia but this really doesn’t help the gameplay much. Silvia, unlike Joe, uses guns as her weapon. Using slow motion increases the power of the guns attacks but it feels a little odd fighting foe from a distance and can be a little boring. Also, Silvia is not nearly as powerful in combat as Joe and most gamers would want to stick to the main man to beat down foes. Silvia does however have the Record ability, which slightly differs her from Joe. The ability can be very strong at times and dispense of even the most powerful non-boss enemies without much trouble. But there is a catch. Getting hit while using this ability triples the amount of damage she receives which can be disastrous at times. The battles can be entertaining but as stated before feels as if this has all been done before. The boss battles offer up a change of pace to the battles. Instead of charging headfirst, bosses force the player to memorize a pattern to make an opening for attacks. Again, the boss battles just don’t seem as fresh and as inspired as in the first. Many of the bosses can be beaten in the first couple of tries, which was not the case with the original, which was infamous for forcing players to step up their game to match the amazing power of the overwhelming bosses. It just feels as if the game as a whole is not as bent on causing you to die again and again with its high challenge. People who played the first will go through this game thinking that it isn’t nearly as challenging as the first. Although the gameplay is pretty good, and although newcomers to the series will probably find it challenging, fans will wonder what happened to the challenging fights and experiences that made them enjoy the first. The audio in the game is very good. Each character has an interesting and different personality depicted wonderfully by the voiceovers. Joe and Silvia are voiced over very well and sound like one would expect them to. It is the boss’s personality that really makes the game’s audio really pleasant to hear. The characters of the bosses vary from a dim-witted, slow thinking, brute to a smart mouthed, fast creature to even that of the character of a cold-blooded killer out for revenge. These characters amongst others are amazingly well done. It is just great to hear the different voices each emits and to learn of the personality of each. The audio department of this game my favorite part of the game for these reasons and it is a truly well done area of the game. Viewtiful Joe 2 is a good sequel and a good action game. However it does not last very long. Though can be challenging at times, for the most part gamers who expected a challenge like that which arose in the first game may feel a little let down by this one. And the entire game just feels so much like the first and it doesn’t do much to vary itself at all. The game is also quite short and can be completed in a few sessions. Setbacks aside, Viewtiful Joe 2 is a good game and a nice follow up that fans of the series will enjoy. 
