Viewtiful Joe 2

More Action. More Enemies. More Viewtiful.

NA release: 18th November 2004
JP release: 16th December 2004
EU release: 1st April 2005
Developer: Clover Studio
Publisher: Capcom
NGC Magazine Score: 87%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

I enjoyed the first Viewtiful Joe, despite it being so difficult that I had to resort to cheats. It was frantic action with some interesting moves, fun level design and puzzles they utilised the abilities well. Despite never getting good at the game, it still enthralled me until the end.

Viewtiful Joe keeps the same core gameplay but I noticed something interesting. I was expecting the same level of difficulty (or more, as that is what sequels tend to do), but the action replay codes didn’t work. This turned out to not be an issue as health never seemed to be a concern. I definitely wasn’t better at the game, it’s just that the game is really easy. Boringly so – I can’t imagine how people that mastered the first game would have felt.

There are some new mechanics. You can swap between Joe and his girlfriend Sylvia at any time. She is equipped with guns so she can attack at range. While she has the same slow motion ability as Joe (which lets you fire a lot of shots – your VFX bar seems to last much longer), she has a “replay” instead of the fast forward ability, which lets her repeat a single attack three times in quick succession. It feels useless in combat, but is useless for puzzles.

The puzzles themselves just felt unintuitive to me. There’s one where you have to use a button to stack up crates. You have to wait for the button to reset before you can press it, so I was trying to time it perfectly with slow motion. I had to look it up, the solution was the replay ability, which activated the button multiple times (even though you have to wait with other attacks). The rules are different for no reason and there’s nothing to say the game works in this way.

With those issues, I just struggled to get into the game at all. The puzzles were more annoying than thought provoking, and the combat just something that slows down your progression.

Fine

For all our reservations, Joe 2 remains wildly imaginative, heart-breakingly individual, full of charm and stupendously fun. Three cheers for Capcom, then, eh?
Jes Bickham, NGC Magazine #105

Remake or remaster?

A collection would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Viewtiful Joe 2.