Fast and furious shooting action is the name of the game.  Treasure enjoyed near notorious levels of fan boy love from hardcore gamers in the 16 bit era, and as one of the lucky few who had a copy of Gunstar Heroes when it was originally released, this is one of the very few instances since the launch of the PS2 that Treasure’s formula of avant-garde level design, multitudinous boss battles, and blistering action has truly worked.  Pick up those Wii-motes and prepare yourselves, like the back of the box states; fierce battles lie on the horizon.

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is everything I’ve wanted from Treasure since they briefly resurfaced from the Eldritch depths of Abyssa Mediocara to deliver the stunning Gradius V in 2004.  This game starts out as an on-rails shooter in the vein of Starfox or  Space Harrier, but any conventions are quickly shattered by the fist-pumping pace at which the awesome is consistently delivered (truthfully, the game owes much to the cherished memory of the superb quarter munching G.I. Joe arcade shooter from the early 1990′s).  Gamers can move freely around the entire screen, but earn extra bonus points for remaining bound to the ground (risk, meet reward).   There’s a crucially necessary dodge manoeuvre that awards players a split second of invulnerability against the legion of firepower being splattered across the screen.  Or instead of dodging, a properly timed melee attack can send powerful projectiles spiralling back at their creators, once again juggling uncertainty with sweet remuneration.  Now try doing all that while independently controlling both your character, and the crosshair of their gun.  You’ll be on your hands and knees giving thanks for your chargeable smart bomb in no time.  But fret not, while there are many moves to master, and “Sin and Punishment: Star Successor” demands you grasp them immediately; thanks to the perfect clear and concise control scheme, they become as swimming to a fish in the time it takes to pick up the controllers.

Truly, the rock-solid controls is the foundation that manages to hold the rest of the game’s lunacy aloft, making what appears to be pure bullet chaos not only manageable, but downright desirable.  “Sin and Punishment: Star Successor”, when played with the recommended default control scheme feels like that natural evolution of the old-school light gun game, only now you have a character to control as well.  The nunchuk attachment serves as the character, using the stick to move, and the two buttons to either jump or dodge.  The wii-mote becomes a player’s gun, all offensive actions mapped easily and literally at the gamers’ fingertips.

With the controls honed to a razor’s edge, this allows Treasure to concentrate on what they once did better than anyone else in the industry; develop latrine rodent crazy levels that defy even the most imaginative gamer.  If you expect to follow one course of action, the gamer veers wildly into left field and takes you on a ride that’s even better.  Sin and Punishment: Star Successor may at one point switch perspectives and become a pseudo 2D shooter, while at another drop gamers into a haunted forest and expect them to turn away supernatural foes with the muzzle flash from their weaponry.  All while peppering boss fights that increase in size and fury as the game progresses.  Gamers hungry for action will find little to complain about with Sin and Punishment: Star Successor’s chaotic smorgasbord.  Taking a page from the book of modern gaming, Treasure as well have eschewed limited continues in favour of a system that resets the score counter whenever a life is lost, meaning the game is actually something that can be finished by mortal gamers, but those looking to dominate the online leader boards have some practice time to log in.  I know, points?  In 2010?  But there is something oddly refreshing about combining manic gunplay and epic boss battles with the primitive, bestial gamer instinct to place on that top ten list that always follows the GAME OVER screen.

Rebuttal Witness:

That’s not to say that all is right in the world of Treasure’s frantic return to form.  The game’s attempt at telling a story is the very antithesis of both cohesion and interesting.  Pitiful anime stereotypes crash headlong into Star Trek levels of techno-babble and Popular Science terminology to create a hodgepodge of a headache that will have players dashing to the skip button whenever a cut-scene starts up (it’s like the story’s quantum condensation fields are beyond our ability to measure. It’s resonating with the aria!)  And it’s also ugly, like Steve Buscemi ugly.  Character designs are downright bizarre, and everyone’s faces look blank, frozen into a funeral parlour visage of creepy contentment.  The playable characters look like a cross between emo-kid clothes models, cadavers, and the downright disturbing youth population from the Village of the Damned.  Thankfully, the game moves at a frenetic enough pace that most gamers will find themselves lovingly oblivious to the fact that Sin and Punishment: Star Successor looks like it came out in the fall of 2002.

The Verdict:

During my days in Animation school, I often saw a game just like Sin and Punishment when I closed my eyes.  That game however was more inspired by Dark Horse’s phenomenal Dirty Pair comic from the and 90′s and featured humourous levels of destruction rather than general oddness…le sigh…

-J