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[tetsuoxb]

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[Jonnyram]

Personally, I'm not keen on how the "cut scenes" are handled, but the game action seems sound. The slide mechanic is interesting and adds a bit more thought to the gameplay. I don't look at the zoom screen much really, but I can't complain about that.

Seems alright really, if a little on the easy side, when compared to the first game (i.e. the only other one I've played). The graphics are great for the DS though. The music is good too, lots of good fake surround moments.

 

[nubbe]

Sounds all good. Looking forward to it!

 

[tetsuoxb]

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[C- Warrior]

Yeah, I am not a huge fan of having to "Slide" up the frame to trigger the next scene in the cut scenes either... I kind of wish they were more scripted, but I think the criticism in famitsu was unfounded.

Famitsu doesn't review games, they check the amount of money hats on conjuction with the game hype and popularity, x's 2 of the company's popularity divided by 1.3 which equals the score.


Question:

Does the game get over complicated?

It's a handheld. Viewtiful Joe games were always hard as is. Does the whole screen swapping/shuffling/zooming/slowing just get too 'overdone' especially considering it's a handheld?

And how are the visuals? I've seen vids but they all blow up the picture so it's kind of hard to tell the true quality?

Given the small screen size, does VJ on the DS look roughly comparable to the GC versions?

 

[Lyte Edge]

Just picked it up (Wed. release...weird!) and played for a little while. The action takes place on two screens, with the top screen always showing a zoomed-in view of Joe, and the bottom screen showing all the action and camera angle changes. Is this the first DS game to display 3D on both screens? I thought the system wasn't supposed to be able to do that.

Game play is basic Joe; same moves as the previous games, but the new VFX power is "scratch," hence the game's name. You activate this mode by holding down the R button and then sliding the stylus/thumbstrap across the screen, and it will cause objects to fall down ontop of enemies from out of nowhere. The problem is, much like the use of the touch screen in Castlevania DoS, this just doesn't feel right and seems to hinder the game play rather than enhance it.

Stages are broken up into smaller sections; you beat up some enemies and get to the end of a room and get graded like normal, but the play areas are far smaller than the console versions. It doesn't really matter since the game has no load time, however.

Visually, the game looks pretty nice; everything is still cel-shaded, but it looks like a cel-shaded game would on the PSOne (think Fear Effect or Slap Happy Rhythm Busters), with jaggies galore. Sound is very good and the first stage BGM is a DS version of the original VJ's first stage. There is no spoken dialogue during cut scenes, but during game play, all the voices are present, including the announcer's "Just go for it!!" line.

So far I'm finding VJ Scratch to be a good portable version of the console originals, but it remains to be seen how the touch screen will affect my opinion of the game; this game really didn't need to use it.