Props to Drax for recommending this for this list; I’ve spent a lifetime restarting the first couple of hours of the game before dropping it for whatever reason, so this was the push I needed to actually beat the thing- something serendipitous about finally completing a game all about preserving old art.

One of the first things that struck me after finishing the game was the way it had made me appreciate some of the genre shifts of Kamiya’s games a little bit more; realizing the applicability of your powers, not just in the context of the combat, but how they might interact with the environment or could be used to solve puzzles.

I think Viewtiful Joe manages to blend these sorts of interactions more seamlessly into the natural flow of gameplay than some of his other titles, but it’s made me realize the uniqueness of the mechanics that have defined his games- in this case, even though you’re manipulating time, an action that’s been explored in countless other games, the applications of it are pretty singular: impacting objects in the background or slowing down explosions to maximize their damage.

Having to then discover their expanded use outside of combat feels more justified; what other game is going to force you to take down star destroyers by slowing down (or speeding up) the world around you? Doubt it’s going to make something like the Space Harrier sequence in Bayonetta any less tedious to play through, but I can see the value in it a little more- a swing for the fences inclusion to see how these mechanics could work in another genre.

I’d also say that there’s a push-and-pull as far as the genre of Viewtiful Joe itself; Matthematosis mentions this is in his tremendous video on the game, but the lack of enemies during major boss fights really does feel like a standout omission- especially in a game steeped in Sentai action, sending enemies hurtling into some mad scientists’s killer robot would feel totally in-keeping for the setting and more complimentary to the action than some of the clockwork fights that exist in the game as-is. And maybe this is byproduct of being at the intersection of different design philosophies, one foot in classic beat ‘em ups, where enemies are as much a tool as they are obstacles, and the other in “pure” action, where you want to boss encounters to be these big, climactic spectacles free from a procession of goons undercutting the drama.

Understandable, but slightly disappointing given how the much game relishes in the spectacle of racking up your score when you send Bianky’s flying or turn a missile back and watch the slo-mo damage rack up. I think the camera suffers a bit from these competing priorities as well, often obscuring hazards and bosses to the point that I left with the sense your host of damage-avoiding abilities are meant to mitigate what can feel like intensely cheap shots (one of the few games where I’ve wanted an Odin Sphere style map to keep track of everything)- but those are always the sorts of grumblings I leave Kamiya’s games with.

I’d echo LukeGirard’s review of the Wonderful 101 by saying I could sit here all day and rattle off annoyances (pretty sure I had an out-of-body experience on Fire Leo), but that’d be a discredit to how rousing I found the whole game to be; for all the stylistic differences throughout his career, from your fight against the odds in Resident Evil 2 to Sol Cresta’s fireworks sendoff, there’s an unmistakable optimism and a celebration for life that every one of Kamiya’s games has left me with. Don’t know why I thought Viewtiful Joe would be any different, but how can you not be left cheering by the end?

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A couple of extra thoughts:

Between this, Okami, and Killer7, Capcom has produced some of the nicest-looking and most visually evergreen games- maybe ever? Especially love some of the extra effects that strain the 4th (5th?) wall, like the crowd cheering when you get an especially high combo or the director commenting whenever you pause.

On that same note, I think the Ukemi is an especially cool recovery mechanic, making even failure come with an execution barrier, and encouraging you to stay in the fight, even when you take a hit.