Last year Capcom surprised us with an excellent old school platform action game in the form of Viewtiful Joe. It was part of the Capcom 5, a series of Gamecube exclusive highly original games designed by small Capcom studios. Unfortunately there's not much left of the Capcom 5 today, PN03 wasn't that great, Killer 7 and Viewtiful Joe aren't Cube exclusive anymore and Dead Phoenix doesn't look like it will rise from its ashes anytime soon. That doesn't mean Capcom 5 was useless though, it may not have been the Gamecube savior we hoped for but Viewtiful Joe showed developers that daring ideas can sell if executed well. The sales were enough to open the way for a sequel, which should be ready in October this year. Are we really waiting for a sequel to a game that was a nice variation to all the sequels and movie licenses we normally see? You bet we are!

 

When a sequel to a good game is anounced it's always exciting to see which way it'll go. If it's not a lot like the previous game it could just as well be a completely new game, but it also needs enough new things to explain the 2 behind the title. Some sequels get so many new features you don't even notice it's a sequel and some sequels stay so close to the original games you have to open your Cube to check if you inserted the right disc. From what it looks like now, in Viewtiful Joe 2 this balance seems to tilt slightly towards being like the original. The graphics style is more or less the same, the backgrounds are sharper and more detailed but it's still in the quirky 2D/3D that made Viewtiful Joe look both great and unique. All of the original's VFX powers make a welcome return and it looks like the difficulty level is also about as high as in Viewtiful Joe. So far so good, but lets look at what is new.

 

Viewtiful Joe 2 has enough new features to make it feel like more than a few extra Viewtiful Joe 1 levels. First of all there are new VFX powers. Capcom talked about a Replay power, which you can use to repeat an action three times. You press the Replay button before you hit an enemy, press it again after you hit him and the game shows your punch two additional times. You can also use this trick to pick up three hamburgers while you only found one. The downside to this new power is that all the damage you take during the replay is tripled as well, so caution is needed. Not completely new but used in new ways is Joe's Six Machine. You may not even remember Six Machine from the first game, but it was the small aircraft thingy that Joe used in the space shooter level late in the game.

 

In Viewtiful Joe 2 Six Machine gains a lot of new uses, it can transform into a lot of useful things. Think of a racecar, a cannon, a drilling vehicle and a submarine and you'll get the idea. The most important new feature in Viewtiful Joe 2 is not something that Joe does though, it's Silvia. Joe's girlfriend is now a fully playable character with her own set of Viewtiful moves. She doesn't hit as hard as Joe does but she has a gun to make up for it. You can even invite a friend over to play alongside you, although it's still a bit unclear how the VFX powers work when you're not the only one using them.

 

For fans of the original Viewtiful Joe this game almost can't go wrong. It looks like it plays very much like the original but with new levels, new enemies and a few new gameplay features. This sequel could also attract more gamers with its two player cooperative mode, there are a lot of people that have been waiting to play a game like this with a friend since Super Probotector (Contra for our American readers). Stay tuned to Cube-Europe if you're interested in this game, you can expect a hands on preview and a review as soon as a playable version surfaces.