View-ti-ful (vyoo-te-fel) adj. 1. A way of showing or seeing something, as from a particular position or angle. 2. Having qualities that delight the senses, especially the sense of sight. 3. Delightfully synthesizing old-school sentiment with new-school flair. view'ti-ful-ly adv. view'ti-ful-ness n. Viewtiful Joe is a dose of full-on Japanese wackiness and tongue in cheek movie and video game humor that melds great old-school sentiment with new-school flair. If you are a lover of Japanese popular culture, Henshin or classic video games, you are bound to find something to enjoy in Viewtiful Joe. Released by Capcom in 2003, Viewtiful Joe saw much success on its’ initial Gamecube-exclusive release. In 2004, it received Player’s Choice status on that system, a port to the Playstation 2, a sequel and a Japanese animated television show. Viewtiful Joe’s story is pretty straightforward, as this excerpt from the instruction manual explains: “Joe’s on a movie date with his girl, Silvia… Suddenly, the movie bad guys grab Silvia and pull her into the movie screen! Joe leaps to the rescue… and gets sucked into the movie too! Here, Joe meets his hero Captain Blue, who grants Joe super hero powers. Joe transforms into a hero… VIEWTIFUL JOE …and fights evil in order to rescue Silvia!” Obviously, the premise of Viewtiful Joe revolves around movies, most notably the genre known as Henshin. Henshin is the Japanese word for ‘transform’ and if you are familiar with television shows like Power Rangers, Masked Rider, VR Troopers or Ultraman, then you are probably already familiar with what it is all about. Playing a game that takes place in a movie makes for a somewhat different experience than your average side-scrolling brawler. Team Viewtiful (the Capcom developers assembled specifically to make the game) decided to produce a throwback to the old days of gaming. However, this old dog is strapped with an arsenal of new tricks. Viewtiful Joe takes on the conventions of 2D side-scrollers like Kung Fu and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but things really start to get interesting as Joe gains his VFX powers. Like all great movie stars, Joe relies on the magic of movie visual effects to help him look good and kick butt. The first power received is aptly dubbed ‘Slow’. ‘Slow’ is probably the most useful and widely used power at Joe’s disposal. When using ‘Slow’, attacks will do more damage, enemies will fly farther when you hit them, explosions will become bigger, drips of water will turn to deluges, and propellers will not spin fast enough to stay airborne. These features all come into play when trying to solve the games’ numerous environmental puzzles. Next, Joe will receive ‘Mach Speed’. This allows Joe to move at furious speeds and prolonged use will even cause Joe to burst into flames (which has its advantages). ‘Mach Speed’ also gives Joe more time to multi-task, during use you will see multiple “Joe’s” beating up enemies all over the screen and even breaking open boxes in the background that would have been unreachable otherwise. Joe’s last power is ‘Zoom’. Using ‘Zoom’ enables two new techniques; a never-ending spin-kick (especially useful when surrounded by enemies) and a rapid fire punching technique known as The Red Hot One Hundred. Joe’s moves are all relatively easy to perform and consist mostly of button mashing. Combinations of Joe’s various attacks and powers become the key to success in the later stages of the game. Throughout the game Joe also collects coins from vanquished enemies. These coins can be used between levels to purchase anything from new moves and upgrades to more hearts for your health meter. After you learn all of Joe’s powers, the rest of the game is rather simple. You will find yourself either brawling or jumping between platforms, although, there are several head-scratching puzzles that will require you to discover which combination of Joe’s powers is right for the job. Backtracking can also be necessary in certain stages, but not to an annoying degree. There is also one bonus level in which you will get to fly Joe’s personal aircraft known as the Six Machine. This level takes on the basic conventions of side-scrolling shooters like Gradius and R-Type; however the addition of Joe’s VFX powers makes for a very different and all-to-brief experience. For a game that features both old and new mechanics, Team Viewtiful took the same approach when designing Viewtiful Joe’s graphics. Rendered using a cell-shading technique, the characters and foreground objects are all 3D while the background consists of layered 2D mattes. Viewtiful Joe also boasts an impressive collection of video filters that evoke old grainy films and modern day animes, complete with speed lines. Each character model in Viewtiful Joe is extremely detailed. The baddies in this game are a throwback to older games like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong Country. Each one is given its’ own name and funny quirk and are distinctive enough to be memorable. Similar to the games listed above, the baddies are all given their own curtain call during the end credits, as well. The villains, especially the end bosses, add extra incentive to play through to the end of the game. The voice work done for the bosses is first rate, and one of the more hilarious aspects of the game. Unfortunately however, the volume levels in the final sound mix are off at times. Voice tracks are played at a much lower volume than the music tracks which sometimes makes it near impossible to figure out what the characters are saying. What is even more unfortunate is the lack of subtitles or an option to turn down the music and turn up the voices. Aside from this problem, the dialogue is quite funny, over-the-top, and rife with tongue and cheek humor. The music, on the other hand, retains some nice production values, especially in the “Some Like It Red-Hot” chapter of the game, and runs the range of being fun and energetic to spooky and ominous. For the most part, it is a soundtrack with a decidedly old-school feel consisting of blaring guitars reminiscent of old Mega Man games and sugary pop songs that conjure up memories of Rainbow Road in Mario Kart 64. Lovers of wacky J-Pop will likely eat it up with a spoon. As a whole, the sound is indicative of the game’s premise: completely insane. Piled on top of one another is a plethora of voice samples, crazy music tracks, and non-stop sound effects of jumping, punching, kicking and triggering VFX powers, as well as enemy growls and battle cries. Sometimes the arcade-like din can become a bit obnoxious, and at times, sorting it all out can be a bit of a challenge. Speaking of challenge, Viewtiful Joe represents a rebirth in challenging gameplay. From the start there are two difficulty levels to choose from, ‘Kids’ and ‘Adults’. ‘Kids’ is not pushover but will be good for casual gamers or anyone trying to learn the ropes. ‘Adults’ is a tad harder, with more enemies thrown in the mix and more expensive upgrades. The incentive to play on the ‘Adults’ difficulty level is that beating the game will unlock a new playable character as well as an additional difficulty mode. From there, you will be able to start a new game on the unlocked difficulty level while maintaining all of the VFX powers you had accrued in the last game. Eventually, you will be able to unlock a total of three additional difficulty levels with a corresponding playable character unlocked after defeating each one. Unfortunately, if you start a game on the ‘Kids’ difficulty mode, you will not be able to transfer to ‘Adult’ mode when you are finished, so if you are planning to play this game more than once (and you will most likely want to) then you should go ahead and select ‘Adults’ from the start. What puts Viewtiful Joe over the top is its’ wacky sensibility. The game is funny and charming while the gameplay is addicting yet very challenging. Old gamers will be sure to find the game’s style and presentation to be very nostalgic, while new gamers will still find Viewtiful Joe to be fresh and engaging.
Other Helpful Reviews for Viewtiful Joe (Pink Version)
The Good: Fresh new adventure, fantastic visual design, a comical and funny title, has it's own fresh 'style'. The Bad: The game is rather short, voice acting could have been louder. Introduction: Viewtiful Joe was... Read Full Review
Side-Scrollers are a dying breed on consoles but Viewtiful Joe tries reviving this genre on the Game cube, and it is surprisingly well done. Joe is an average movie buff out on a date with his girlfriend Sylvia. As Joe w... Read Full Review
