Viewtiful Joe: Retrospective Part One

If you know the name Viewtiful Joe, chances are you either played the first game or you recently played Marvel vs. Capcom 3 wondering “Who the hell is he?” Debuting in 2003, Capcom’s Viewtiful Joe made its splash as an exclusive game for the Nintendo GameCube, a system which had very little third-party exclusives. As part of the Capcom Five (five supposedly GameCube exclusives), the game was created to showcase and engage players in stylish over-the-top action using Viewtiful Joe’s VFX powers. The first game was released with critical acclaim but lukewarm sales. Still Capcom didn’t abstain in trying to expand the brand by releasing a sequel, porting both games to the Playstation 2, a Nintendo DS game, another GameCube spin-off (rereleased on the PSP) and its own anime. Three years after his debut, Viewtiful Joe seemingly faded into obscurity until he made appearances in 2010 Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars and 2011’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.

The first Viewtiful Joe was one of my most highly-anticipated games for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. The game caught my interest when I saw screenshots depicting its titular tokusatsu-inspired hero, whose design was clearly homage to Japanese superheroes such as Kamen Rider and Super Sentai (Power Rangers in the states), I couldn’t help but fall in love with it, especially Joe’s transformation catchphrase “Henshin-a-go-go-Baby!” Another aspect, albeit shallow, that excited me was its GameCube exclusivity, which Nintendo was in dire need of and since the GameCube was the only current generation system I had at the time, it was a breath of fresh air to play a non-Nintendo game that Playstation 2 or Xbox owners didn’t have (not that it really mattered, but I was 17). I believe I got Viewtiful Joe on day one and I was surprised it was only $40at launch during a time when the average game was $50. Viewtiful Joe is a 3D side-scrolling beat ‘em up on a 2D plane. Even though Joe has a nice array of punishing moves, the game’s uniqueness comes from the use of his finite but regenerative Viewtiful Effects, short-handedly known as VFX. These powers solely exist in Movieland and grant him such abilities as Slow, Mach Speed and Zoom. The powers can also be used in conjunction with his attacks to deliver some seriously stylish combos chains as well as additional techniques. But the powers do more than help Joe dispatch foes, it also helps him solve puzzles scattered through out the levels. For example, platforms levitated by rotors can come down by using Slow to decrease the speed of rotor letting the platform gently drop. Each level is broken into sections and you’re scored depending on well and elegant you defeat enemies and solve puzzles. "MACH SPEED!"

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 8 years since I’ve played the first Viewtiful Joe! Despite not winning any popularity contests like its cousin series, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe was a fine game and my favorite in the entire franchise. Esthetically, the Viewtiful Joe world successfully blends Japanese superhero flare, classic Hollywood movies and American comics into one strangely cohesive package. The wonderfully cel-shaded graphics was not the only aspect helping bring the game to life; the voice acting was sublime as well. Even with the purposely cheesy dialogue and situations, voice acting was solid throughout. The gameplay was simple but addictive, and puzzles were challenging but fair, there really wasn’t much more I could ask for. At the end of the game, I was satisfied and played through the game three more times (I started on Kids, Adults, V-Rated).

The game rewards you with unlockable characters, a music video and the hardest difficulty, Ultra V-Rated (which I think I completed). The unlockable characters have the exact same path as Joe, but differ only in properties (Sylvia is quicker but weaker, Alastor can glide), and this brings me to the elements I disliked about Viewtiful Joe. The story progression for unlockable characters is exactly the same as Joe’s except lacking original dialogue. In its place is reversed dialogue and the actually story is told through text. It feels really cheap and I would have preferred original scenes for all four characters. I also wasn’t so fond of the underwater and sky levels using Joe’s Six Machine. And remember the whole Capcom Five GameCube exclusivity I spoke earlier about? Yeah, it did not remain, as a year later Viewtiful Joe was ported to the Playstation 2. The PS2 version is exactly the same except now Dante from Devil May Cry is an unlockable character and a new “Sweet” mode is available which is easier than Kids. As I said before, Viewtiful Joe sales weren’t up to snuff and Capcom hoped at least a PS2 release would boost sales. Unfortunately it did not and sales were worse than the GameCube. I’ve seen footage of Dante in game; It wasn’t really impressive and his dialogue in the cutscenes is actually reversed voice clips from Devil May Cry 1. And I personally think it was a bit overkill to have Dante playable, when the character Alastor himself is already an obvious reference to the Devil May Cry franchise, but that’s just me.

Viewtiful Joe is a fun and innovative game and it’s a shame it wasn’t more popular. The game is dirt cheap now and you shouldn’t have problem finding it, since you can play it on the Wii as well. This is just the first part of my retrospective; the second part will discuss the sequel, Viewtiful Joe 2 and the Nintendo DS game Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble.