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Viewtiful Joe
Clovering us with a Viewtiful experience
Certain games almost feel
created to be overlooked.
While the most common
gamer would say something
like: “Yeah…Ico is like that, or
something”, we feel that Viewtiful
Joe was bound to that fate from
the very start. Rather than being
the overlooked game of the pile,
however, it ends up being beneath
even that. Ask all of your gamer
friends, and we guarantee that
nine times out of ten, they’ve
never even played Viewtiful Joe.
You know what comes next. We
tell you it’s a brilliant 2D beat-’emup,
you turn the page and head
straight for the classified ad with
the lady’s bum on it. Fair enough.
Still, you should really hear us out,
because Viewtiful Joe is probably
your undiscovered gaming
passion. Despite being incredibly
difficult in places, the fighting
and platform elements will keep
reeling you in.
Engaging, beautiful and
innovative are just three
adjectives we’d use to describe
the game, and you will too if you
take our advice and seek it out.
While the difficulty may outfox
some, the game (credited as
Clover Studios’ first) is stylised
like a French animation, bearing
more than a passing resemblance
to new classic Okami.
The storyline revolves around
Joe, an average guy whose
girlfriend Sylvia is kidnapped
by the Jadow, Joe’s enemies
include his former hero Captain
Blue, an infuriatingly hard shark
called Gran Bruce, a big beetleheaded
fool named Alastor and
a posh vampire called Charles.
If you think it sounds mad here,
wait until you see it in action;
the design in Viewtiful Joe is
completely original, with every
setting and villain looking like the
product of a twisted painting.
Also, the three abilities you
can use (slow and fast motion,
zooming in) are an important part
of the experience, as opposed to
certain games that tack them on
as a gimmick. The three of them
(especially the slo-mo) make the
combat mighty and violent, with
the combos on offer just adding
more fun to the experience.
We should stop here given that
our praise of this game could go
on forever, but remember this
about Viewtiful Joe: it’s one of the
few games we can think of that
may have actually improved with
age. In 20 years when we’re old
and grey, this’ll still rule our roost.
Viewtiful Joe can be picked
up for around £3 delivered
on Amazon second-hand, or
new copies at the same price
have been spotted in some
Woolworth’s stores and on
eBay. There’s no excuse to
ignore this brilliant game. |
