Viewtiful Joe 2 – Review

Of course there's plenty of hype out there for this game, and with good reason. Viewtiful Joe (1) was an excellent game, in fact probably the best game I've played in years. It was incredibly innovative in game play, the graphics were astounding and very stylistic, with lovable characters that had great scripts and attitude, and seriously, there is basically nothing negative to say about VJ1. I gave it a 10. And trust me, I had dreams about a VJ2 coming out the rest of the year, after finally doing all there is to do in the first VJ, and there was a LOT to do.

But really, VJ2 did not live up to standards to me. Here's an itemized list of what makes this game.... well, not that great. I'll open up by saying that I can't say that this game is absolutely awful. If you never played the first VJ, this is worth looking at for you. In fact, highly recommended. If you've ever seen (but not played) VJ1, then you'll probably like this game too. Basically, the vast majority of what was great about VJ has been inherited in this game. The same game play returns, even with a few new tricks and maneuvers to make things interesting. Same wonderful graphics, and even the same voice actors, who did a great job in the first one. But the thing is, the only good things about this game really, are things inherited from the first, and therefore, I really can't count them for that much.

The things that are new in this game, and are good, include a few new moves, and trading out with Silvia is pretty fun. Silvia's actually fun to play, especially her Desperado move is fun to do, where she targets up to 8 enemies in her range and then goes ballistic firing shots everywhere. It's cool to look at and does fair damage. The much hyped Replay VFX move is cool looking, and has some interesting side effects, such as electrically charging Sylvia, so you're immune to high voltage areas and enemies. This was similar to Joe using Mach Speed to catch on fire and become immune to heat attacks. When you change characters, the heat or electric shield stays with you. Cool.

After this point, things go downhill, compared to the first VJ. First off, I was sorely disappointed by all, I repeat, ALL of the novelties that this game was hyped up to be before the release. For one, it was advertised as being 2 player simultaneous, and a lot of rumors were spread about that. Let me disillusion you right now: THERE IS NO 2 PLAYER. AT ALL. Not even alternating. That was my first let down, but it was one I could live with.

Next, the Replay VFX feature. Sounded like a really cool idea for a move, and especially since it was reported to "triple your damage!" Well... yes, it does triple your damage, but... What they don't tell you is that only Sylvia can do it. And after you've played with Sylvia for a bit, you realize that A) you can't use Replay with your gun attacks, which are fairly powerful. You can only use Replay with your melee attacks, which with Sylvia, are all kicks. This is really weak because B) Sylvia's kick is easily less than half as powerful as any of Joe's moves. Let me make sure that sinks in: EASILY LESS THAN HALF as powerful as Joe. Meaning, when you do a slowed spin kick with Sylvia and Replay it for triple damage, we're talking you just did about 1.2 times as much damage as Joe doing that same move WITHOUT Replay. So really, if you don't need her guns, or you don't need electric moves, there's really no reason to play as Sylvia. When you realize just how incredibly weak she is, she's not even fun to play anymore. She doesn't get any work done. Which also means that for all but one or two bosses where her gun is more useful than getting close with Joe, you really don't play her for any boss fights. She can be fun during levels where the enemies are weak, but for anything that takes more than 3 hits, she really isn't worth playing. That was really sad to learn. We're talking she's weak to the point that it's frustrating.

Next, there's the panache that the first game had. Every character, good and bad, major and minor, had a really cool attitude. Funny speech, acted like a bad-ass, had lots of style in their attacks, and looked really cool. Joker, Gran Bruce, Hulk Davidson, Captain Blue, Alastor, you name them. In this game, you really have only 3 characters. Big John, who you will see over, and over, and OVER again, is irritating to no end. He's not funny. He doesn't have attitude. He doesn't have style. He has a walkie talkie. But a prop does not make you cool, unless it's a top hat with a big gold dollar sign on it. This guy was seriously lame, and you'll see him over and over again, in place of bosses you might actually want to see again, which are rare in this game. They really overplay this Big John guy, and I don't see what's so special about him. All the normal enemies are basically "Oh he's just like that guy from VJ1, but not as cool." There's really no showmanship from anyone in this game, other than Joe and Sylvia. And those two do it right, I'll admit, but basically everyone else in this game is lame, particularly the bosses. With the very prominent exception of Frost Tiger, THAT guy had style, and was awesome in all aspects that this game has failed in, more on that later. Otherwise, the thesis of this paragraph is: VJ2 simply does not ooze with style the way the first one did. There are very detailed graphics and backgrounds, complete with little Easter eggs of posters of bosses from the first game in the backgrounds and fun stuff like that. But the script and characters don't have the same glitz, glamour, and pizazz that made the first game really memorable. This, of course, is also a little minor of a thing to complain about.

What IS a major thing to complain about is game play, and this game needs a lot of work in that department too. There are lots of good things to say about the game play, in terms of its individuality, its innovation, etc. However, nothing that couldn't ALSO be said about VJ1. There is plenty to complain about, though. My major beef with the game play in this was the style of play. And by "style", I literally mean the showmanship and stylistic approach to fighting that the first game had, has been almost completely lost on this game. For starters, the whole game has a much bigger focus on puzzles rather than fighting, and I can't list that as a complaint. There's nothing wrong with a puzzle-oriented beat 'em up game. In fact, I welcome that change of pace. But one of the major overlying themes and really, a puzzle, to the first game, was "how do I beat that guy?" Most major normal enemies (such as Bianky, the stripe sleeved big guy from the first game) and all the bosses, had specific ways the creators wanted you to fight them. They were pretty much impervious to attack, except during specific intervals, or after specific attacks. And even then, most of the time you had to use a specific one or two certain attacks of yours to really be effective against them. And a large part of the enjoyment I got out of VJ1 was learning how to beat these characters. For Bianky, you wanted to stand a certain distance from him to provoke him into using his jumping buzz saw flip, and have him jump over you, so that his back was turned to you. You knew you did this right because unlike Bianky does in other situations, he stood facing away and looked around the room confusedly, with question marks over his head. This was the obvious tell that you figured out how to make him vulnerable. At which point you unload on his back with your strongest close range attack, the Slow Red Hot 100. Similar strategies were taken with bosses, starting with the first: Charles the 3rd (pun intended). With Charles, he would drop stalactites from the ceiling, and you had to hit them back at him. Knocking him out of air, and having him lie on the ground was an obvious cue that now he's weak, and it's time to hit him. If you tried to attack him at any other point of his pattern, he was pretty much invincible. Or at best, you could do splinter damage to him, but not like the damage you can dish out when he's lying on the ground after being whacked with a rock.

Well, VJ2 does not have this. At all. Every enemy, including the tougher normal enemies, and pretty much all the bosses, have the same strategy: Slow Red Hot 100. Whenever you can, pretty much. And you pretty much always can. The big theme in game play to the first game was, "this guy will be basically impossible to beat, unless you know exactly what we want you to do to him. In which case, he'll be incredibly easy, but still fun to beat because it will require some style to do." This game, the theme changed to "Well, we prefer you beat this guy this way, but if you want to just hit him with your strongest move, that'll work almost as well." Which may also translate to you as "Don't waste your time figuring out how to beat him the way we want you to, because when you figure it out, the payoff in damage for doing it 'the correct way' isn't going to be very big, and you'll beat him almost as fast just strong-arming your way through him." In other words, no incentive to do things the cool/right/style way. When this element is taken out of game play, the game is no longer fun to play. You're just walking forward and hitting everything the same way. The only enemy that I've seen so far who isn't like this is Frost Tiger, mentioned earlier. You really can't do damage to him effectively, unless you do it the way they want you to specifically. And the way they want you to do it is pretty unique, not too too hard to figure out, and makes him fun to fight against when you figure it out. But every other boss, including the boss of the game, basically all you do is hit him as hard as you can, all the time. No waiting for a point in his pattern, no making him do a move to leave him vulnerable... You just do what you were doing the rest of the game. It makes it really boring and repetitive, and no point of the game is really memorable. It dulls the entire experience.

Finally, even when you've poured out your soul to finish this game, there is no payoff for beating it. Nothing cool is unlocked. When you finish VJ1, you get a harder difficulty, and a character unlocks. Hmmm, maybe if you beat it on the new difficulty, you get a new character too? Hey, you do! And another even harder difficulty... what's THAT unlock?! This game, only unlocks "chambers", which are like training grounds and special short missions. So far, no one's found anything cool from unlocking chambers. And even beating it on harder difficulty levels, only unlocks more harder difficulties. Um.... payoff? Where? Not finding it in this game.

Now that I've beaten it and did most of the chambers, and there have been no reports of anything cool being unlocked... I'm really considering not playing this game anymore. Ever. But I still find myself coming back for a few rounds of VJ1, because I remember how cool it was to play according to Fire Leo's rules, and Mach Speed the rocks so his fire can't hurt me, then dodge 5 of his attacks to stun him, then unload as long of a Red Hot 100 on him as I can before he snaps out of it. That was intense. This game? Uh... all I can remember is fighting Big John for like the 18th time, and doing what I always did. Red Hot 100 to the face. The whole match. Until he died. Boring.

If you've never played a VJ game, you should still try this game, because it's really different from every game you've ever played, and seriously, you are in for a very enjoyable and new experience. But if you've played VJ1, stick to your guns. Rent this thing or borrow it, and beat the crap out of it the first day as though every enemy was your standard Jadow goon, just to learn the plot line because there are hints of a 3rd installment. No, that's not a spoiler to you, Captain Blue himself alluded to this being a trilogy in VJ1. But really, the only redeeming value of playing this game to me now, is that WHEN VJ3 comes out, and I'll buy it hoping that it redeems the value of the series as a whole... I'll know what happened in the 2nd's plot line. That's all.

Capcom agrees with me. Alastor himself tells you in VJ2, "If you don't own Viewtiful Joe, go to your local retail video game store and buy it now!" He's right. THAT game is really worth it.