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Editorials   Viewtiful Joe Impressions
- By Lander Clinton

Yesterday I got a chance to play my friend's import copy of Viewtiful Joe. The first thing I noticed when it booted up was how polished the graphics were. Everything is so polished that I was a little surprised to see a small clipping error (Joe's hands go through his head) in the opening cinema, but it's clear that Capcom put a lot of effort into this game's graphical style.

Aside from being cel-shaded, the game features a number of impressive touches. When Joe and his girlfriend Silvia are watching a movie, the screen is flickering. When Joe gets sucked into the movie, everything is slightly blurry and the game has film scratches and dust particles on screen; and when Joe becomes Viewtiful, so does the game.

At first Viewtiful Joe feels like a straight beat-em-up. He runs from one end of the level to the other, fighting countless foes and occaisional mini bosses, collecting power-ups along the way. However, Capcom gave reason to Joe's superpowers. Obviously if an enemy spins too fast, slow down time to knock him out- we've all done it, but if you need a floating platform down on the ground, slowing time will make the fan blades spin slower and it will fall. Joe can also slow time when being shot at so he can punch the bullets back to their origin- Neo never tried that.

Keep in mind that slowing time is only one of Joe's moves, and there's already this many uses for it. Although I didn't get far enough in the game, Joe will eventually learn to speed time, to zoom in and out of the picture, and to do several new fighting moves.

Even though Joe's basic fighting moves are the same combos over and over, he does it with such style that it never gets old. Punch, kick, and jump- that's it, but it's very satisfying to take out the weird zombie robot things that are just trying to go about their day by jumping and kicking them five times before hitting the ground. When they're about to attack Joe, a cursor indicates if they're going to strike up or down so you can dodge accordingly. If you get hit while slowing time, V-Joe will dodge the blow, but it will automatically turn him back into regular Joe and you'll have to wait for his viewtiful meter to rise back up.

The music in the game didn't seem very special. It certainly wasn't annoying, but if you take your concentration away from the action to listen to it you'll wind up getting hit.

Beyond the actual gameplay, the game also features a number of extras and features. In the Options menu there is a trailer for PN03, Capcom's rail-shooter due out a few weeks before Viewtiful Joe in the U.S. There is also some sort of Viewtiful Joe music video that was still locked.

When you start a new game, you're promped to choose Kids mode or Adult mode. The Adult mode has harder enemies, longer in-game movies, and a certain naughty picture in the background of the first level. It'll be interesting to see how the E.S.R.B. rates this game, having two settings. Maybe other game companies will start offering modes for younger players, but I'm guessing a BMX XXX "Kids" mode would send a lot of people to jail...

If you're looking to import and don't mind spending the extra money (Viewtiful Joe will only be $40 when it hits the U.S. this fall, and importing is more expensive than regularly-priced games), don't worry about the Japanese barrier. All the spoken words in the game are in English (except when Joe says the magical "Henshin a-go-go, baby!" to become Viewtiful, but you get the blathering-blatherskite picture). Make sure you have a Freeloader or anything that will let you play Japanese GameCube games first.