[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/viewtifuljoe/cover.jpg[/floatleft]To say that I had a negative view of this game from day 1 would be an understatement. I read the reviews and saw all the buzz about this game but from what I had seen I wasn’t sure I was talking about the same game as everyone else. Viewtiful Joe, which apparently is a purposeful mistranslation of Beautiful Joe, didn’t look like a game I would ever have interest in. The main character, Joe, wore “pink”, had all sorts goofy stances, and the cel shading just didn’t seem like it worked for this game. I anxiously waited for my copy to show up because I wanted to know what was so great about this game.

My copy arrived and Dots and I played it for a while. After about 90 minutes or so of playing on “Adults” I just looked over at her with a look of utter confusion. This game was terrible, what on earth was everyone raving about. I hit the Penny Arcade forums to find out what the deal was. I had to ask the people that claimed this was a top notch game what I was missing. It turns out, I had missed everything. Not only did this game have a very hefty learning curve, the game as a whole is an acquired taste.

Graphically speaking, Viewtiful Joe has a very interesting style. The use of cel shading was executed very nicely and it really gives you that feel of an old school 2d side scrolling platform game, contrary to my initial thoughts. The use of shading and lighting also accentuates the comic book styling that the game is aiming for. Overall I thought the game looked great. It is not like anything you have seen recently even with the popularity of cel shading still on the rise. I don’t want to touch too heavily on the sound aspects, but I will say that the music and sound effects do a great job of drawing you further into the comic book feel of the game.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/viewtifuljoe/ss03_thumb.jpg[/floatright]The one aspect I want to focus a little more on is the controls as I feel like they will make or break this game for you. The gameplay will also play an important role so I will try to cover those as a single entity. The controls are laid out in a typical fashion with jump, kick, and punch. As you would expect, or wouldn’t expect in my case, pressing up on your control stick will dodge a low attack and pressing down dodges a high attack. The buttons unique to VJ are VFX Zoom, VFX Slow, and VFX Mach Speed. These buttons play an integral part in learning to play VJ properly. You cannot treat this game as another beat em up game, you absolutely must use your VFX powers. That was the mistake I made and I got very frustrated that I kept dying very early on in the game. Where the gameplay and controls merge is in regards to Joes Viewtiful FXs. The powers themselves are pretty self explanatory, but how they work in conjunction with defeating enemies is not.

Like any platform game there is a certain level of thinking involved and these VFX powers are your means to an end. Of course with most enemies you can just punch or kick them, but the real devastating attacks come from dodging and counter-attacking. If you dodge a low attack and immediately use your VFX Slow and attack that enemy you enter “Rock On” mode. “Rock On” mode essentially kills people with one punch and stringing a lot of attacks together earns you huge Viewtiful points. Viewtiful points are what you use to purchase new abilities and attacks. That being said, your VFX powers are there so use them.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/viewtifuljoe/ss08_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]VJ has a Kids and Adults mode, do yourself a favor and start with Kids. The difficulty of the game increases pretty fast and will become impossible if you don’t have a firm grasp on how to use your VFX powers. Let me prepare you by saying that you will probably experience high levels of frustration while playing VJ, but the game is totally worth it so stick with it. The main thing that makes this a challenging game is the limited number of save points. You can only save at certain times and we have become spoiled recently with the ability to save at any point or time. That coupled with the fact that if you lose all your lives you start back at the beginning of the level leads to much frustration. Consider yourself warned.

While I had a very bad feeling about this game even after playing it the first time I really enjoy it now. I learned how to play the game properly and I really started to get into the graphical style of the game. My genre of choice right now is platform so while it should have been a perfect fit it took a little while for me to appreciate this game for what it was. I do realize that Viewtiful Joe is not for everyone, Dots just didn’t get into VJ at all, so if you don’t like games with learning curves steer clear of VJ. Even if you consider yourself a hardcore platform gamer you may want to give this one a rent before you lay down the money. I do have to say that this one really snuck up on me and I am glad I stuck with it.