This game is great! Honestly, when I saw screenshots a few months ago and read/skimmed the descriptions of the game, I had no interest in it at all. Though I was glad to hear that capcom was bringing back the 2d beat'em up... but after having played the game, and watched the movie also included on the disc, I am SOLD!
Not really too sure what the story is--not that the story matters much in a beat'em up. But it looks like Joe has "fallen into the world of the movies" or some bullshit.. anyway, "Captain Blue" (Superhero with a big gut and a big outie belly button) gives you your abilities in the first stage of the demo. In the included movie on the disc, some big green dinosaur/lizard/gater guy says he's the one who gave captain blue the scar on his face (or defeated him or something...)
Anyway, Joe seems to have 6 special abilities. A skull icon appears either high or low when an enemy is about to attack, and you can duck or jump accordingly to dodge the attack. This will cause the enemy to spin (cuz he missed the big swinging punch/kick) and leave him dizzy and open to attacks. If the demo is to be believed, ability 1 is just ducking, and ability 2 is jumping. 3 is "SLOW"; 4 is "hyper". 1 and 2 can be done at anytime. After you meet and "defeat" Captain Blue in the first stage, Blue tells you that "you hero-ness has awakened", then gives Joe some bracelet/gauntlets to wear. When Joe says "Henshin!" (or "Henshin-a-go-go, baby!), Joe becomes Viewtiful Joe. Now there will be a meter/bar (drawn as a film strip) that will be drained whenere you use "Slow" or "hyper". 1 and 2 don't use up the meter. When you use slow, the enemy moves really slow, and joe's punches and kicks become more powerful (sends enemies flying into other enemies and objects). Hyper throws this cool horizontal blur effect on the screen and Joe can basically be in multiple places at once (read: beating on multiple enemies at once). Also, the slow and hyper abilities are used for puzzle-solving... You need to use "Slow" to slow the propellers of a flying platform to make it fall/descend; using hyper makes the blades spin faster thus making the platform rise. Very cool.
The movie shows Joe using some of Captain Blue's moves; this is probably what make up some of the other abilities.. The movie also showed "ZOOM", but the screen already zooms when you use slow so I wonder if that's a seperate ability or just an older movie..
Oh, lastly, you can collect "Viewtifuls" (coins with V's on them) to boost your meter/bar.. seems to be over 100 Viewtifuls in the demo.. think it's 50 viewtifuls for each new chunk of meter; I got two upgrades so I'm guessing there's least 100..
Btw, what does everyone think of that trailing scarf? Reminds me of Shinobi on PS2..
Topic: Viewtiful Joe :thumbsup; (Read 6823 times)
