Viewtiful Joe

Viewtiful Joe is a side-scrolling adventure with highly stylised cel-shaded graphics that look literally like a moving comic book. The big gimmick with the gameplay is the "viewpoint" fighting system, which lets you speed up or slow down time whenever you want. The system works beautifully and allows for the kind of balletic, slow-motion fighting that Enter The Matrix utterly failed to deliver.

The viewpoint fighting is more than just a gimmick, as many items in the game, from bad guys to bullets, move too fast for the human eye to see. Slow down time, though, and you can duck and weave your way through a hailstorm of missiles and take down your enemies before they've had a chance to even move.

The only problem with Viewtiful Joe is that it's so unremittingly hard. It's heartily advised you choose the "Kids" difficulty level, because even that is anything but child's play. The various puzzles can also be a bit tricky but they're all internally consistent and don't come anywhere near spoiling this superb game. --David Jenkins

The feature that sets viewtiful joe apart from the rest if the vx abilities. Slow mo, match speed and speed up give you the ability to give some matrix style beatings as well as playing a part in some of the puzzles. The vivid colours, black outline and crazy characters set it apart from other titles.

On the surface VJ may seem like a shallow side scrolling platformer but in fact it is far more in depth. You can knock enermys in all directions into the moving backdrops or into eachother.

VJ isn't so much about getttin to the end but it's how you get there. The cooler you make it look the high the score, hence viewtiful joe. Preorder this game now, it definatly deserves the 5 stars i gave it due to it's amzing level of fun. You'll come back and play it again and again.


Capcom's beat-'em-up   September 10, 2003
32 out of 36 found this review helpful

Viewtiful Joe is an extremely stylized quasi-2D side-brawler in which the main character, Joe, journeys into the land of the movies in search of his kidnapped girlfriend. Joe quickly meets up with his mentor, Captain Blue, a super-hero, who endows his abilities onto the young, inexperienced character and then sets him off to kick some serious enemy booty. At first glance, Viewtiful Joe seems like a straightforward beat-'em-up with a warped graphic presentation, but as you progress through the title you'll discover its at-first-hidden depth. Joe's polished control mechanics -- the way in which you can effortlessly slow down time, speed it up, or strike fascinating poses in fights, and more still the interaction between Joe's abilities and the environments -- are what ultimately set this punch-and-kick offering apart from any other. To call them well done would be the understatement of the year. At times, manipulating the character through the worlds and fighting characters feels close to flawless. Meanwhile, the game's graphic presentation, from the intentionally dark-lined, cel-styled worlds that Joe explores to the advanced particle system, breathtaking slow-time and speed-time effects, and fluid animation that drowns every character, is just gorgeous.


Can you say 'Blinx'?   September 26, 2003
M. D. Smart (London, UK)
7 out of 231 found this review helpful

Excuse me, all you people crying out how incredibly original this game is... 'Blinx' on XBox did EXACTLY the same thing with time controls over a year ago (although without the ghastly cel-shading). It wasn't perfect, but it WAS original. Also, the new 'Prince of Persia' game will be out soon, which uses the time system far more effectively and stylishly than this. If titles like 'Viewtiful Joe' are all the Gamecube has to crow about, no wonder it's going bottoms-up at such a rapid pace.


Viewtiful, simply viewtiful   October 24, 2003
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

well, what an extraordinary game. right from the beginning it pulls you in. You are Joe hapless hero searching for his missing girlfriend who has been sucked into a film. With a little help from your hero captain blue, Joe is on his way. You have powers that speed up action, slow it down and zoom in for the ultimate posing! the idea is to complete each stage as viewtifully as you can ( a meter lets you know how well you are doing). The graphics are superb the amount of detail is phenomanal. I would buy a 'Cube just for this!
The sound is a bit cheesy, typical of japenese games but it adds to the mayhem!
The slow down mode is alot like the matrix 'bullet time', you can watch as your beat the living daylights out enemies- watching them fall back slowly after every punch, also using the slow down mode lets you punch back homing missiles and gunfire to great effect.
The speed up mode lets you annailate about 10 opponents in the space of a second!
The zoom in feature means you can do all manner of poser kicks and punches combining them with the time functions.
This game is the best i have played for ages ( well, since wind waker anyway) the simple but addictive gameplay is rock solid and the satisfaction of using all the powers to get huge viewtiful combos and cheers from the audience is great.
i suggest you buy this game NOW.
Graphics= 9/10 ( cel shading is becoming more and more common but this pulls it off)
sound = 7/10 ( cheesy soundtrack but cool voice overs and FMVs)
gameplay 10/10 ( horribly addictive)