Rarely has a Wii game looked so beautiful, even before the disc is in the machine it’s a visual treat with the box’s reversible slip sporting Yashushi Suzuki’s intricate artwork that informs the game itself. Locales are rich and varied, from underwater tunnels to decimated cityscapes and onto outerspace itself, although it’s the enemy design that’s deserving of the most plaudits. Bosses are the high watermark in this regard (the dolphins with laser tails holding a special place in our own hearts, although others will have their own personal favourites) but even the cannon fodder is wonderfully realised – and typically strange – with levels patrolled by S & M robots on stilts and skittering tadpoles.
A sequel to a 10 year old cult classic that never made it out of Japan, Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Skies is that rarest of beasts; a Wii game that panders to the hardcore. It’s so much more besides as well – a glorious ride through twisted artwork and twisting bullet patterns, it’s one of this year’s greatest pure gameplay experiences, regardless of platform.
Two playable characters head up the charge against the onslaught of enemies, and both offer subtly different play styles. Isa is the default choice, a jetpack-sporting kid with a Charge Shot that acts like a mini smart bomb. Kachi is his female counterpart, using a hoverboard to scoot between bullets and with a Charge Shot that’s got a Rez-style lock-on effect, having the ability to take down multiple enemies once the button’s released.
A swift dodge is available to both, as is a melee attack, handy in close encounters but equally useful in batting back missiles. Those are the basics, and they’re well served by the Wii’s multitude of control options. The premium configuration utilises the Nunchuck’s analogue stick to control characters while the Wii Remote is in charge of the shooting reticule.
While this game never asks anything more of the player than dodge and shoot, it conjures up surprising new ways to ask that simple question, happily segueing from 3D to 2D gunplay or throwing in an extended jetbike-powered shootout. It even flies deliciously close to becoming a survival horror in one night bound level, with the character’s guns doubling up as a flashlight as they work their way through a forest riddled with possessed houses and dark spirits.
Sin and Punishment Successor of the Skies’ levels are punctuated by these epic fights, with enemies ranging from hulking mechs and colossal beasts through to one-on-one encounters. They provide some exhausting tests of attrition, though it’s an ecstatic exhaustion that’s felt once they go down in show-stopping and screen-filling explosions.
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