August 12, 2004 - PlayStation 2 owners who don't have GameCubes missed out on one of the most original, interesting, and visually entertaining new action titles around last year with Viewtiful Joe. Initially announced by Capcom as one of its prominent "GameCube Five," (which also included Dead Phoenix, Killer 7, Resident Evil 4, and P.N.03) this previously Nintendo-exclusive butt-kicker may well go down as the best of the bunch (RE4 fans may say differently, but hey -- anything is possible), and as luck would have it, we PS2 patrons are about to get our very own try at the Viewtiful one as well when the long-awaited port finally hits Sony's system later this month.
Directed by Devil May Cry and Resident Evil 2 veteran Hideki Kamiya, Viewtiful Joe tells the story of an average guy named -- you guessed it -- Joe. Your typical, average guy, Joe is out on a movie date with his girlfriend Silvia when something bizarre happens. During the scene in the film when Joe's favorite superhero Captain Blue battles a giant monster, Blue is mysteriously defeated and the creature reaches through the screen and grabs Sylvia. Stunned and ready to save his woman, Joe travels into the movie realm himself and is given a mystical watch by Captain Blue so that he can become a superhero himself. Powered up and ready to go, it's now up to Joe to find his beloved and bring her back to safety.
Though visually unique and superbly designed, Viewtiful Joe is as wacky as it is beautiful. And to give players a better idea of what kind of weirdo characters they can expect to meet in the PlayStation 2 version of the game, we've listed some short biographies of the main protagonists in the text below. We hope you enjoy them and urge you to check back with us again soon for more!
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| The Facts
Play as Joe and fight the forces of evil with your hot-pink cape
2D, side-scrolling fighting action set in 3D panoramas
Unique, cinematic combat system uses VFX Powers such as Slow, Mach Speed, and Zoom to obliterate enemy forces
Use your VFX Powers to solve puzzles and take down big, bad bosses
Wacky, cel-shaded, comic-based characters and environments like you've never seen before
Earn "Viewtifuls" to purchase additional killer moves and items between episodes
Seven episodes spanning at least 10 hours of gameplay
Multiple difficulty levels
Progressive scan support The Concept
We didn't know what to think of our boy Joe when we first met him. His ripped muscles, stylish attire, and glowing yellow eyes seemed to indicate superhero status, but the slightly squatty frame and pink cape threw us for a loop. Could we ever take Capcom's new Joe character seriously as an action hero? The answer is yes, and it only takes a few minutes behind the controller to begin to truly appreciate the brilliance of Capcom's daring design. Though the story is straightforward, all we need to know is that Joe's girlfriend Silvia has been mysteriously sucked into a movie by an evil force to provide us with more than enough motivation to hop into the red tights and commence with the beatdown.
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