Life Is Viewtiful
This game rocks i loved every minute of this and the other 3 thats have since been relased viewtiful joe is a great game full of laughs and cheesy bosses just cant go wrong with the b-movie plot all im gunna say is HEN-SHIN-A-GO-GO-BABY

Classic
An instant classic, Capcom's beat-em-up platformer is a rarity on a gaming system that library is sadly lacking fighting games.

yes
the game is fun. some difficult parts. cool visuals.
classic quirky style and humour.
if you love platform games, you wont find better.
if you dont love platform games, its moderatley entertaining.
but for the low price. everyone should try it out.

Fun.
If you are an adventure fan and have a GameCube, this is a MUST BUY as well as the 2nd one that is to come out soon.

One of the best
This is a game full of fun with a very different game style. One should't miss!

Best Game ever
Viewtiful Joe is the second of the Capcom 4 games to hit the stores. The idea behind these games is to make good and unique games without spending too much money and using small development teams. P.N.03 was released in Japan a while ago, but did not sell a lot of copies. The game was a lot of fun to play, but the hardcore hi score driven gameplay didn�t appeal to everyone. Viewtiful Joe looks like it can do better. It�s a fun little platform/fighter game filled with Matrix-like slow motion and other effects. The in game movies, screenshots and the playable levels on the US demo disc already made a lot of Viewtiful fans worldwide.

The story is cheesy, funny and bizarre, like a good B-movie or comic even. It starts with Joe and his girlfriend Sylvia watching a movie featuring his favorite superhero, Captain Blue. Surprisingly though, Blue gets defeated in his own movie. On top of that, the bad guy reaches out of the movie screen and grabs Sylvia. It�s up to Joe to rescue her with the help of a weakened Captain Blue. This may sound pretty lame, but expect a lot of funny side characters and weird plot twists.

So much for the story, now for some good news for importers: This game is really import-friendly! Most of the menus and the voice acting are in English. The only things you won�t be able to read are the subtitles to the cut scenes and the explanations to the items in the shop. Understanding the game is one thing, but liking it would be nice too, so you probably want to know if it�s any good. Well, read on!

Graphics:

Cel-shading may or may not be your thing, but you have to admit that Viewtiful Joe looks really special. The game captures the feel of superhero comics like no other game. All the characters and backgrounds have thick black outlines giving them a hand-drawn look. The great thing about this style is that the characters in the game look exactly like the artwork on the box; you won�t feel cheated by pretty box art with this game. All the characters look like they walked right out of a comic book. Their animations are great, and even though most enemies return in multiple levels, they often wear other clothes and do new moves. The whole game plays in 2D, but all the backgrounds are 3D, this allows for some great camerawork. When you jump the camera tilts up instead of panning up with you and you�ll often walk around a corner to enter another part of the 2D level.

The best part of the graphics is probably the VFX effects. You can slow down time, speed it up, or zoom in on Joe. All these features give him new moves and combos. VFX stands or Visual Effects and that is exactly what you get. Slowing down time makes the background all blurry and makes Joe�s moves look even more impressive, Speeding it up makes Joe move so fast you see him multiple times at once during his combos. Zoom in on Joe and he does even more acrobatic attacks and poses between attacks. All in all Viewtiful Joe is a great looking game with a unique style.

Sound:

The sound in Viewtiful Joe is not only good; it�s a very important part of the gameplay. All the enemies make a distinct sound with every attack they do, so you can choose how to dodge or attack by listening to them. A lot of the time enemies (especially bosses) don�t stop attacking when they�re off-screen, so their sounds are sometimes the only thing that can save you. Not just the enemy sounds are good, the rest of the sound effects are done nicely too. Slow down time for instance, and every punch you land has a satisfying deep echo to it. Another great touch is the audience that cheers for you when you pull of good combos, making you want to do an even longer combo next time.

The best thing in the sound department is the voice work. Joe and the other characters all have a voice that fits them perfectly. And Joe talks a lot in the game. He calls enemies �too slow!�Ewhen he dodges them, yells with almost every jump or attack he pulls off and has a smack talk conversation with every boss he encounters before fighting him. As good as the voices are, they�re not always easy to understand. You can read the subtitles if you can read Japanese, but you probably can�t. The music is effective but not memorable, the tunes fit in perfectly with the chaotic fighting but you probably won�t catch yourself humming them on the train.

Gameplay:

Viewtiful Joe is a very challenging game. The gameplay is a mix between a platform game (Mario) and a side-scrolling fighter (Double Dragon). Before most enemy attacks, you�ll see a skull, marking where they�re going to hit you giving you time to dodge their attack. This sounds very simple but I assure you it gets really difficult in the later levels. Right from the start you have to watch enemy attack patterns to dodge and fight them. In most games this is only necessary when fighting bosses, but Viewtiful Joe forces you to study every enemy closely. The fighting is pretty complex, partly because the VFX effects are far from just nice gimmicks. You really need to master them to beat the game. A lot of enemies and most of the bosses may seem unfair, but once you find a way to use your VFX powers to avoid or counter their attacks, you�ll see that none of them are impossible.

There are two difficulties from the start, Kids and Adults, and you unlock V-Rated mode by beating the game on Adults mode. All the modes have the same levels and the same amount of enemies; they just take more hits to beat, move faster and hit harder on the higher difficulties. The game is divided into seven levels, each with an impressive boss waiting for you at the end. During the levels there are a few points where you can trade in your points for upgrades, like new moves, extra hearts and lives. These are also the points where you�ll start over when you lose all your lives. You can�t save at every continue point though, so you�ll often find yourself playing a lot longer than you planned, which can be a good or a bad thing.

Playability:

The great thing about this game is that it combines pretty complex fighting with very simple controls. You use the control stick to move Joe around and to make him dodge up or down. �A�Emakes him jump (twice if you�re Viewtiful), �Y�Emakes him punch and �X�Emakes him punch. Doing combos is really easy, just throw a few punches and kicks in and Joe strings them together with great style. The VFX moves are also simple to pull off; hold �L�Eto slow down time, hold �R�Eto speed it up, press �B�Eor �C-stick�Eup to zoom in and press �B�Eagain or �C-stick�Edown to zoom back out. You have to get to certain points in the game where you earn your VFX powers first though. You can combine VFX moves with attacks in a very cool way. Try do dodge an attack; the enemy you dodged now is dizzy and easy to hit. If you hold L now, time slows down and the dizzy enemy gets a bulls-eye mark over him. If you hit him you�ll do a lot of damage and he�ll fly away. Also if you hit one enemy with a bull�s-eye mark and keep on holding �L�E every enemy gets a bull�s-eye mark, so you can do massive damage all around you. Another good tactic is to hold �L�Eto slow down and press �B�Eto zoom in. Zoomed in slow motion punches hit really hard and work great against bosses. These are just examples; there are many cool ways to fight a group of enemies using your powers. You always have to watch your VFX bar though; it empties while you use your powers. If it�s completely empty, you�ll become regular Joe again for a short while.

Life Span:

The game may not be very long if you play it through in one go, but you probably won�t pull that off. Every boss and a lot of other parts of levels are really hard and take a lot of practice to get through, so you�ll spend quite some time playing Joe. There are a few fun things to unlock by finishing the game in the various difficulty modes, so that�ll keep you busy at first. The game is also great for high score fanatics. After each section you get rated for V-points (score) defence and time. At first most of your ratings will say �Baaad!�Eor even �Crappy!�E but practice and you�ll be able to earn some �Awesome!�Eand �Viewtiful!�Eratings. This game can keep you busy for a while, but it�s nowhere near an epic RPG or something. It�s solid fun playing it though, and can keep you interested quite long if you like improving your scores.

Final Say:

This is one of those games that will get good grades in the magazines and get a group of dedicated fans. You�ll probably read about it in retro articles in the future, where it will be hailed for its gameplay and for ignoring current mainstream gimmicks like stealth and realistic graphics. It probably won�t sell as much as games like Enter the Matrix or the Hulk though, because it�s just not a game with a lot of mainstream appeal. All we can do is just play it, have a great time and hope Capcom will continue to make games like this. Importing it is a safe bet, you�ll be able to understand most of what�s going on and read about the rest on the internet. If you can�t wait for the US or PAL release there�s no problem with importing it, it works fine with a freeloader.

This game is amazing
Buy this game, its the best 2d fighter i have ever played, easy to pick up hard to put down.

amazing !
a great game, return to the beat them all of capcom who is the best in this style of video game; buy it now!!

what a game!!
great game, buy it now !!!

Capcom on its best.
Viewtiful Joe is one of the most original games released in years. The game is very stylish and the gameplay is top notch. Viewtiful Joe is very challenging and almost completely in English. A must have!

Maybe the greatest game ever?
Pink Lycra. There just isn't enough of it in video games. So Capcom have bravely stepped-up to the plate and given us a game, starring a Hot Pink hero, clad in a spandex jumpsuit, that isn't afraid to be laid back and humorous in style, whilst containing some rock-solid gameplay at its core. Like a piece of candy with a stone centre, Viewtiful Joe is sweet and tempting to the eye, but underneath is solid rock.

Our hero is introduced in the opening cut-scene as a bubble-headed, California-accented Sk8r Boi, on a date with his girlfriend Silvia at the local movie theatre. Whilst she pesters him for attention, Joe fights her off, determined to catch the flick. On the screen in front of them, Captain Blue - Joe's own personal superhero - battles his arch nemesis. As Joe wrestles with Silvia, Blue is shockingly defeated, and Silvia is dragged into the screen by the evil villain. Captain Blue is knocked into the real world, and commands Joe to enter the movie world to retrieve her, and save the universe!

Once this rather neat segue has occurred, your control of the action begins. Captain Blue acts as your guide, explaining the moves you'll need to battle the mechanical and mutated hordes, rescue your girl, and save the day. The Gamecube pad works surprisingly well for a game that is, at grass-roots level, a beat 'em up: the stick moves you around, with up and down enabling you to dodge moves; X serves as punch, and Y as kick, with the A button making you jump. The action is initially laid-out on-screen as if you were watching old film footage: scratched and blurred (a nice effect), with the film 'leaders' bordering the screen. However, once Joe receives the V-Watch from Captain Blue (the key to changing into your super alter-ego), Joe utters his word of power - Henshin - and standing before you is...VIEWTIFUL JOE!

Viewtiful Joe is stronger and more agile than normal Joe (naturally), and is armed with a far wider range of moves. For a start, Viewtiful Joe can, with a second press of 'A', jump even higher (in the typical Capcom fashion) than your 'regular Joe'. In the air, Joe can perform punches and kicks, which are essential for making combos and chains further into the game. To kick-off the action a tutorial begins, with Captain Blue as the tutor. On-screen graphics guide you through the available moves, and the key to victory is soon revealed: when an enemy is about to strike, an icon of a yellow skull in a jagged red box will appear either high or low on your body. Pushing the stick in the correct (opposite) direction to the skull will make V-Joe dodge the move, and will cause the enemy to be stunned. Once stunned, the enemy is weakened towards your attacks; more susceptible to both punches and kicks, and to the use of your special abilities.

The special moves in Viewtiful Joe are a thing of genius. As the game is set in the Viewtiful world, i.e. actually within a movie, your powers are - ingeniously - based upon movie techniques. The first move acquired is the Slow Viewtiful, which operates like Bullet Time: engaged and toggled with the left trigger, the amount of skill that can be employed with just this one move is incredible. The most obvious is that V-Joe has more time to react, so can dodge enemy attacks with greater aplomb. Similarly, your own moves can be timed and executed with more precision. On top of that, combos and juggles are easier to execute, and on top of that, multiple attacks against multiple enemies can be chained together for larger point scores and greater rewards. Just when you thought the limit of its (already vast) usefulness had been tapped, Slow also allows you to dodge bullets and even strike them to return to - and damage - your attacker. With a single, perfectly coded special move, Capcom have opened up a new world of possibilities. Slow is no mere gimmick, and the gamer finds an even wider use for its charms further into the game...

The next power-up of major impact is Mach Speed. With a press of the right trigger, V-Joe speeds-up to sound barrier-breaking levels. This allows V-Joe to deal with a far greater number of enemies at once, and can be powered-up even further. At its highest level, Mach Speed sends numerous copies of V-Joe around the screen during its use, which is useful for striking a larger number of background items and collecting items dropped by downed enemies.

Of course, all this power comes at a price: Joe must wait for his VFX bar (the source of Viewtiful Joe's power) to refill before it can be used. Slow and Mach drain this bar (as do all types of special move), so must be used with both skill and cunning - it's not possible to just fly through a level, Mach Speed on, enemies smacked down in all directions, for example. The VFX bar can be increased in size, however, so that its effects can be longer lasting: cans of film (with the requisite pink 'V' emblazoned on the side) are dotted around the levels, and collecting 50 increases your VFX bar by a notch.

Defeated enemies drop Viewtiful tokens, and collecting them increases your Viewtiful total. The greater the combo employed using your special moves, the larger the number of tokens gained. The Viewtiful total is equivalent to cash, which can be redeemed in the 'shop' option at the end of each level (and, occasionally, mid-level). The shop allows you to purchase many useful items, such as extra energy for your life bar (represented by hearts, in a similar fashion to the Zelda series of games), Cheeseburgers (which replenish your life bar) and several other helpful trinkets. More importantly, though, you can also buy further special moves for use in the game. These add yet another layer of depth to the experience, as each can be employed with the existing specials in a multitude of ways. For example, if you buy the Air Joe move, this gifts you with a mid-air combo that makes chaining attacks together more simple and effective.

The third major ability to complete the triumvirate is Zoom. By tapping the B button, the camera goes into extreme close-up, and V-Joe's moves alter yet again: kick will attack opponents either side of you, jump will propel Joe upward with a corona of energy around him (damaging enemies) and holding punch will start a flurry of blows called the Red Hot One Hundred. When these three are all set to go, the player can begin to experiment with combining them. For example, you may find yourself surrounded by a group of four enemies, one of whom fires bullets whilst the others attack with feet and fists. Noticing the skull icon appear at your feet, you push up on the stick to dodge the incoming attack, and the first enemy is dizzied. You press and hold L, and the action slows down immediately. A target appears around the foe, and you tap punch from your aerial position, sending him flying. You dodge the next attack, land, and launch a kick at the next enemy's legs, who then catapults into the air, whacking your first attacker in the process. You turn and uppercut the next baddie, just in time to see a bullet fly towards your head. Hitting punch sends the projectile back at the gunman, destroying him and carrying-on the chain. The guy you have uppercut is now descending toward the ground in a heap. You zoom-in with B and hit kick, spinning to smack the final two attackers. Finally, you let go of the L button, and time returns to normal with you the stylish and unscathed victor. Slick. And that's just a basic set of moves. Just wait until you start using the Mach speed properly, and buy a few more attack moves from the shop...

A lot has been made of the visual aspect of Viewtiful Joe, and it's when you see the game in motion that you understand the importance of both the general aesthetical presentation and the perspectives the camera employs. 'View' is the key part of the title here, and shows Capcom's emphasis: Joe is, at its heart, a scrolling platform beat 'em up. However, much like the old superhero films it gently lampoons, Joe also contrives to take a dilapidated genre and put a massive spin on it. Not only does the game deliberately include clichés, such as hovering platforms and sewer sections, it blasts them apart by skewing the perspective and altering the way you interact with these levels. The most obvious inspiration for this approach appears to be the old Megadrive game Comix Zone, which similarly placed the character in a fiction-within-a-fiction. Joe takes this a step further. Although the layout of the levels is superficially similar to platform action games of yore, another dimension is added by both the use of 3D effects and your special abilities.

Early in the game, V-Joe must jump on top of a rocket-propelled bus in order to clear a large jump. The bus cannot reach the other side in its normal trajectory, and clever use of your different functions is necessary to make it across. In another section, a leaky pipe drips onto a switch on the floor, but isn't large enough or heavy enough to trip it. Again, figuring out how to manipulate the physics of the game solves the puzzle and trips the switch.

Such puzzles increase in both frequency and complexity the further you progress. Coupled with the unique perspective, which chooses cinematic angles to display the action, and you have a weird, but brilliantly effective, platform action hybrid, that operates on a two-dimensional plane, but works-in and utilises the power of polygons to create an M C Escher-like world. Scenery plays as big a part as both your character and the enemy characters do.

One of the most exhilarating and enticing features of Viewtiful Joe is the boss encounters, which are frequent and challenging. The equivalent of 'mid-level' bosses appear, normally at the end of a section, and these require the use of many of your acquired powers. When first encountered, these enemies are often mistaken as the end of level boss, such is the difficulty. For example, early in the game, you face an attack helicopter within a banquet hall. The mechanical death-machine comes crashing through the ceiling, spewing bullets at you and dropping enemies at the same time - a tough proposition. Yet this is merely a lackey-type, and a breeze compared to villains such as Davidson: the homeboy Rhino who likes to set you on fire, or Alastor: another super-hard supervillain with powers comparable to your own.

Cel-shading waxes and wanes in popularity with the general public, with many seeing the visual effect as trivial and childlike. You would have to go a long way to discriminate against the visuals in Joe though, as the impact they create is immediate and startling. Set in a comic book-style fictional universe, Joe takes Cel-Shading further than ever before, by creating a baroque, pseudo-Gothic dreamland of faded pastel shades and heavy black lines. Much in the style of EC comics of the 1950s, the surreal imagery and dark, rich comic-horror hue is offset by the characters, which are drawn in the Japanese 'Sentai' style.

Sentai generally refers to teams of heroes in the Power Ranger and Voltron style, where a team can combine their powers to fight evil. It can also refer to individuals, though, which is where Viewtiful Joe comes in - the heavily camp and over-the-top wackiness of Sentai suits the genre to a 'T'. Additionally, the cuteness of the characters - miraculously - melds perfectly with the very Western backdrops, with both bolstering the impact of the other.

Joe is divided into both levels and sections of levels, and you are graded on your style and efficiency at the end of each. These grades range from 'Viewtiful!' to 'A'wesome, right down to 'D'oh! The game obviously doesn't take itself too seriously - a theme that rings true all the way through: Captain Blue is a washed-up, corny figure with a pot belly who spouts motivational speeches about finding your 'hero-ness'; Joe is a blonde moppet of little brain, who comes across as a lobotomised surfer dude, and the villains spout tongue-in-cheek clichés and painful ripostes. Thankfully (and finally), Capcom have employed some decent voice actors to deliver the lines and, whilst the dialogue is seldom laugh-out-loud funny, it is quite witty, and always well delivered.

Sound effects are perfect in tone as well, and really excel whilst special moves are being used. Whilst using the Slow move for example, the pitch and timbre of the effects compliment the actions exactly as you would expect them to (deeper, more bass-y, lasting longer), and even help with the altered timing of moves. Music is typical superhero movie cheese, underpinned by modern techno beats - the tunes are less energising than the sound effects, but create an adequate enough backdrop to the action.

An important aspect of the game's setup to note is that of the difficulty level. Not only is Viewtiful Joe significantly larger than many similar titles, it is also extremely difficult. Capcom have used a similar setup to Gamecube Resident Evil, by giving the difficulty options unusual and misleading names - in Viewtiful Joe, the two initially selectable options are 'Kids' and 'Adults', which is seriously misleading. 'Kids' is, in fact, what ought to be termed 'Normal' difficulty, and 'Adults' is, undoubtedly, 'Hard' mode. Gamers who feel as if their maturity and game-playing skills are being slighted by selecting 'Kids' mode needn't worry: this mode offers a stiff challenge, despite the misleading appellation.

For a game that demands a great deal of practice and refinement of skill from the gamer, there are bafflingly few opportunities to save, and long sections in-between them. On top of this, the option to replay a section does not appear immediately upon completion of a level, which is an odd move on behalf of the developers. Levels can be quite substantial and, even though the loss of a life will start you at the beginning of the last section, the use of a continue (vital for beginners) will thrust you right back to the start of the level - often a good few minutes of play time behind. This constitutes the only flaw in the game. Due to the title's nature, a better spread of save points and a 'replay level' option would have been welcome additions to the mix. Still, judicious use of save points by the player should prevent this from becoming too much of an issue.

What Capcom have done with Viewtiful Joe is tweak and fix and improve a genre until it is all but unrecognisable. What makes it so effective and modern is the variety, quality and consistency in the game world. It truly is in the hands of the gamer which moves to use in any given situation, making Joe such an unusual and unique proposition. Many reviewers will miss the point, and criticise the high difficulty, but Joe is a game that demands practice and skill, as well as lateral thinking and fast reactions. Seldom do games provide such freedom, or such a sense of satisfaction, and there really are no flaws in the game that detract from that satisfaction: it is technically flawless; deep and flexible; tough but fair; pretty yet brainy... and hugely fun and rewarding.

So, step into your skin-tight Lycra and prepare for a thrilling, action-packed spin through movie fantasyland. Henshin a go-go, baby!

Amazing
This game is just amazing, one of the best games I have ever played.