Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble

Written by John Carswell  on August 16, 2005

First Impressions: Nine out of ten gaming sites agree: ?Viewtiful? puns are trite but irresistible.

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Although perhaps best known for its endless string of Resident Evil or Mega Man games, Capcom is not a company that shies away from taking a risk on something new. Whether it is Killer 7 for the GameCube or Steel Battalion for the Xbox, Capcom has proven its willingness to brave uncharted waters even when the result may not be a ?sure thing.? Viewtiful Joe is certainly a product of Capcom's innovative streak and one that has become an asset for both the company and gamers.

More of an offshoot than a sequel, Capcom and Clover Studio are now preparing to release a new take on the Viewtiful franchise with Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble. A pseudo-3D, side-scrolling fighter by trade, Red Hot Rumble appears to mix the accessible fun found in Nintendo's Smash Bros. titles with the characters, VFX abilities, and attitude previous Viewtiful Joe games. Although Capcom is keeping quiet about many details, they have announced enough to keep Viewtiful fans and game-hungry GameCube owners interests piqued.

The premise is simple: Captain Blue is preparing his next big film but is at a loss as to who should be the star. However, rather than be civilized and choose whoever is the most likely to grab free press by having a steamy affair with the producer, he instead decides to handle things in a more barbaric fashion. Viewtiful Joe, Blade Master Alastor, Sprocket, Silvia, Dark Emperor Jet Black, and the usual suspects are to be pitted against one another in visually fantastic and physically tasking duels, the winner walking away a star.

Known for its creative and flashy approach to combat, Viewtiful Joe has a lot to offer the fighting genre. Expect to see slick visual affects with a camera that swirls and zooms around the action at a pace that will make your synapses stand on end. However, don't expect to be able to unleash these landmark moments of mayhem without some work. Red Hot Rumble uses a power-up system that will have players scrambling mid-fight for ?VFX orbs? to launch attacks with enough power and flare to best their opponent and win Captain Blue's approval.

Held together by a story told via anime cuts that then blend almost seamlessly into the game's 3D graphics engine, Red Hot Rumble's action will take place over a number of distinctive and thematic levels. Playing on the movie set motif, players will be showing off their moves atop moving biplanes, active factories, and Hollywood's many staple village settings. These levels will also be bustling with activity. Gamers should prepare to have their senses overloaded as numerous NPC ?extras,? ranging from relatively innocuous birds to far more intrusive enemies, invade their TV screens.

The physical levels themselves are far from static as well. Many featuring multiple tiers and highly-interactive elements, players will find themselves leaping between moving platforms, using (or avoiding) barrels, and generally causing untold destruction. Coupled with Viewtiful's dizzying special effects that light these levels in countless blooms of color, icons, and particles, Red Hot Rumbles' arenas provide a perfect showcase for the intense "eye candy" feasts that Hollywood loves and have typified the Viewtiful franchise.