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Platform: Nintendo DS
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Publisher: Capcom
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Developer: Clover Studio
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Medium: Cartridge
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Players: 1
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Online: No
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Also on: (n/a)
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A sketchy entry in Capcom's Viewtiful franchise.
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Considering the hardware it's running on, Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble looks pretty good. In fact, with the DS held about five feet away, the title is almost indistinguishable from its more advanced GameCube and PlayStation 2 brethren. Held closer, however, the sacrifices made to get the title running on the DS become a bit more obvious: lower polygon counts on the characters, low resolution textures. Though it's really not fair to compare the graphics of portable titles to those of much more powerful consoles, it's a testament to the crew over at Clover Studio that, even if just at a distance, Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble looks rather similar to the console Joes.
Of course, this all comes at a price. At most, there's two enemies on-screen at a time, which slows down the action the series is traditionally known for. But it's not too bad, one enemy jumps in as another is defeated and the framerate stays solid. That is, until you encounter an environmental obstacle. The presence of these environmental obstacles - spinning saw blades, trains running through the middle of a stage, deadly lasers - brings the game to a choppy slideshow. Thankfully, the environmental obstacles aren't so prevalent that this becomes a major problem, but it's definitely annoying.
Speaking of slow down, Joe's ability to slow down time remains intact. However, his other powers didn't fare so well in the portable transition. Fast-forward is gone entirely, replaced instead by Scratch, which quite literally allows the player to scratch the screen to damage enemies and solve puzzles by tapping the R trigger. Zoom-in has been modified a bit and is now called Slide, activated by dragging a finger vertically along the side of the DS screen. Whereas the action normally takes place on the bottom screen, with a zoomed-in view of Joe on the top, Slide temporarily switches the screens, stunning enemies and permitting players to solve puzzles by touching a specific part of the environment, such as a button, lever, or keypad.
Entirely new to the franchise is Joe's Split power. By running their finger across the screen horizontally, players will find the environment split in half horizontally. This allows for some nifty puzzles, as that obstacle on the right side of the screen can be dragged above the barrel of TNT located in the middle, and a quick uppercut later, that obstacle isn't a problem.
As can be expected by these new abilities and the limitation of two enemies at a time, many of the scenes in Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble focus on puzzle solving instead of straight action. That's not to say there's a dearth of fighting, as most scenes require the defeat of a set amount of enemies before solving the puzzle, but most players will likely spend more time attempting to solve the puzzles than fighting that initial wave of baddies.
Since most of the action-based fighting mandates button-pressing and most of the mental-based puzzles require use of the touch screen, the end result is a tad schizophrenic. It's even worse, when Double Trouble attempts to balance its dual natures by, say, throwing out an enemy that can only be killed by touching, as the transition from mashing buttons to precise strokes on the touch screen ends up a bit clunky and imprecise. Worse yet, many may end up bored or upset that they can't spend most of the game with their preferred gameplay style, as some will favor the puzzles and some will favor the action.
Furthermore, those coming for the action will likely be disappointed for the first chunk of the game. Even on Adults difficulty, the first few levels are rather easy, so easy that the first boss can be rather simply defeated, on the first encounter, without taking a hit. Though the difficulty ramps up in later stages, there will be those who grow tired before reaching that point.
Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble isn't a horrible game. It retains the core gameplay of its console-based ancestry, resulting in a solid 2D beat'em up with clever puzzles and smart use of the DS's capabilities. The problem is that the 2D beat'em up parts and the clever touch-based puzzle parts are two separate beasts that just don't mesh well together. Taken in small bursts, which I must note are quite simple thanks to an auto-save feature, Double Trouble is a fun distraction. But extended bouts with the game just highlight these flaws in its nature, making Double Trouble all the more difficult to recommend to anyone except diehard Viewtiful Joe fans.
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