Score: 48Score Breakdown
Too Little, Too Late
I bought this game because it was part of the Capcom 5, and I didn't think a highly-respected publisher like Capcom would let me down. But they did.
The game has a number of glaringly large faults. First of all, it has no plot. Some might say that the one cutscene in mission 9, and the cutscene at the end when you beat the game count as a plot. I read one article about it online and the writer could barely contain himself he was so excited about the end. It was not a plot. It was awful. You can't have a plot shocker when there was no plot to begin with. The storytelling in this game is worse than the original Donkey Kong, maybe even Pac-man. That's right, a worse story than Pac-man, because at least Pac-man didn't even pretend to try.
Then there is the combat system. The game's only claim-to-fame feature is the dance-based dodging techniques, which work pretty well. But beyond that, the game-play and combat are just repetitive and plain boring. I pretty much just tapped A as fast as I could through every single level. I didn't have to aim, auto-targeting did that for me. And for a game based on dodging skills and techniques, I barely did this either. An occasional tap of the left and right buttons (to spin left and right) got me past all but the toughest foes. Simply put, it was a button-mashing shooter. Who designs a button-mashing based shooter?
Another way to fight, the Energy Drivers, are more powerful attacks that used up your energy bar. But to be honest, you didn't need them at all. I didn't even know I had them until mission 5. And I didn't even use them on the final boss, I just tapped A a lot faster than usual for him. If I were to play through again, I would only use the suit with Griffin, an attack that sends out a big shock wave in all directions. I had some fun for a few levels using this attack. I would ignore all of the spots for cover, dodge lasers as I ran forward, leap over the enemies and launch the powerful Griffin attack right in the middle of them.
The fact that this (possibly suicidal) technique is fun elevates it above all of the rest of the game-play. But that isn’t saying much.
The levels were awful. Most of the missions take place in a bunch of white-washed rooms that are quite literally recycled and re-arranged in different ways to make new levels. These are the blandest levels I have ever seen in a shooting game. There is an outside level later on, but they somehow make alien planet canyons boring as well.
Also, for a game based on dance/dodging, the techno beats sucked. I turned off the volume on my tv for half the levels and used my own music, I couldn't stand the repetetive bass lines of PN 03. I actually listened to the TimeSplitters
2 soundtrack from Free Radical instead. The other audio is also awful. I couldn’t stand listening to the same stupid laser sound effect hundreds of times per minute. Their was only voice acting in two scenes, and I wish there hadn’t been.The bosses were lame, the regular enemies were lame, the AI was shoddy. You're supposed to rack up points to buy better suits and upgrade them. Usually I'm a sucker for RPG elements like this, but I bought as few upgrades as I could to beat the game. I never do that. This game turned me off that much.
The main character didn't turn me off. She's pretty hot actually, possibly the hottest video game character I've seen. This is the game's biggest selling point. An attractive digital ch
aracter. They try to use that to your advantage, by making the final suit you unlock (by beating the game on hard mode) a highly-revealing outfit. I didn't fall for it, you shouldn't either.Vanessa also looked very good graphically, but her appearance is one of the few good things I can say. The visuals on the Energy Drive attacks were also pretty sweet, and listening to the bosses blow up was satisfying (watching them blow wasn't so great, bad visuals there). And finally, the game was short, it took me less than 4 hours to beat. That's right, being short is in the list of GOOD things.
The final 3 levels were a little better than the first 8. These last levels contained the 2 cut-scenes, stronger enemies, some new room designs, and an actually difficult boss battle. But having a single good boss battle does not save a game. The slightly better stuff was too little, and came too late.
So to cut to the point, don't buy this game. If you have nothing else to do, Vanessa can be fun to look at and dodging can be entertaining for about a half hour. But don’t make my mistake and play through the whole thing, looking for something more. Because there isn’t anything.
