Gaming Target - GameCube: Viewtiful Joe

Written by Tim McGrew on February 21, 2003

First Impressions: So far, everything is looking Viewtiful!

Speaking as a 2D gaming enthusiast, nearly a relic from the 16-bit era and loosely based in the 32-bit era, I can honestly say that Viewtiful Joe, for lack of a better pun, looks beautiful. In fact, I would say it's going to be one of the most original design concepts this generation of which there have been plenty titles often dubbed as niche games where their appeal fell off for general audiences, but spruced up their particular genre in a number of different ways setting gameplay, as opposed to graphical, standards.

What Viewtiful Joe does, much like previous games in the 2D side scrolling action genre, is set a new level of excellence. At one point, Super Mario World did it on the Super Nintendo, then at another point, Comix Zone and Sonic the Hedgehog did it for the Sega Genesis, but both games benefited from truly unique designs that still appeal to gamers to this very day. What's unique about Viewtiful Joe is how it combines these same 2D action principles and applies them to a game in a manner that is simplistic much like the aforementioned titles, yet incredibly fun. In a day and age where more buttons are needed for control pads and far more emphasis is placed on the graphical flair of a particular game as opposed to the uniqueness of its controls and gameplay elements, Viewtiful Joe stands out like an apple in a see of oranges. Everyone sees it, everyone wonders why it's there, but you can't help but be intrigued by it and that same sense of intrigue is what makes Viewtiful Joe so unique.

The game starts off with you taking the role of a man known as Joe, an ordinary Joe if you will who has a superhero mentor who wears an incredibly outlandish blue costume revealing enough of his stomach to see that he has really let himself go weight wise and enough of his face to also see that he is aging a great deal. As Joe, you advance through the first level by defeating this old superhero and shortly after you do, he gives you the ability to transform into the super deformed Viewtiful Joe. As Viewtiful Joe, you'll play through a number of levels collecting points that increase your power set which is where the originality of this game lies.

You see much like other superheroes, Joe has a particular ability that puts him one step above his foes and this particular ability is to slow time. When you slow time, which can be performed by simply pressing the left or right analog trigger on the Gamecube pad, a graphical slow motion effect kicks in resembling the Matrix's bullet time effect. When you press the button, however, a meter on the top of the screen begins to drain dictating just how long you can stay within this super powerful slow motion mode and once the meter is drained, Viewtiful Joe will transform back to his ordinary self until the meter replenishes itself, which it does very quickly.

During these moments of slow motion, Joe has the ability to dodge enemy attacks, including physical attacks, bullets, and other projectiles, as well as increase his own strength in the standard physical attacks he deals as well as deflect and even counter enemy attacks. One example would be when a missile is fired from the ground to hit Joe in one of the later levels of the game which has Joe twirling around it in slow motion and completely avoiding it while another example has him slow time and punch a bullet fired at him right back at the assailant. Little effects like this just ooze style and it's something that is encouraged and exploited in a number of different ways during the course of the game.

Aside from all this attacking and fighting, Joe can also use his slow motion abilities to solve a number of puzzles that will be encountered in the game. Plus, Joe can also slow time so he can easily make it across difficult platform jumping sequences without falling to his death. With so much variety present in the overall design of the game, it's hard not to be giddy as a schoolboy at the mere thought of just how incredible this game is going to be.

For better or worse, the game's graphics are a super deformed style of Cel-shading with huge black lines circling every object giving the game a comic book type feel reminiscent of Yoshi's Island on the Super Nintendo and Gameboy Advance. Cel-shading is generally a love hate relationship with most gamers, but thankfully, Viewtiful Joe pulls off the effect quite nicely in this quasi 2D side scrolling title. Trees are in the background and foreground allowing you to see through them just enough to battle your way through the game and each object in the game casts real time shadows that are very stylish given the graphical style of the game. Plus, the game operates at a locked 60 frames per second no matter what's happening on screen. Love or hate the graphical style, it fits the game quite nicely regardless.

The game also has some decent voice work dubbed entirely in English along with some awesome sound effects both when you attack and when you manipulate the slow motion feature. The voice work is also sensitive to how well you are doing on screen uttering different phrases that congratulate you on a job well done or insult you when you're taking a beating.