Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble

Joe and friends assemble for crazy party game action on the PSP.

You'd think that fast-paced action and mini-games would be the ideal sort of content for a PSP game. The system's portable nature plays well to small bite sized chunks of gaming, so by association you'd think that Capcom's Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble would be a sure fire port of an already fairly competent GameCube title. You'd think that, but ultimately that ideal scenario doesn't end up becoming reality. While a fairly faithful port of the console version of Red Hot Rumble, the PSP version just can't manage to find any legs of its own thanks to some horrendous controls and downright confusing objectives.

A Full Roster
If you're a fan of Viewtiful Joe, or at the very least the Kids WB animated series, you'll recognize a slew of characters in Red Hot Rumble. Besides the obvious inclusions of Joe, Viewtiful Joe, Captain Blue, and Sylvia, you'll be able to duke it out with the likes of Sprocket, Alastor, Dante (from Devil May Cry) as well as a number of boss characters from the first two games. Each character has unique strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own unique attacks and movement abilities. From a variety standpoint, the different characters (and there are a ton of them) help to give each level in the game a breath of spontaneity. Unlocking characters is as easy as simply playing through the main single-player levels or completing special challenge missions. As such, before you know it, you'll have a pretty deep stable of playable characters at your disposal.

Going Through The Motions
The eclectic cast of characters are a blast to experiment with, although ultimately end up disappointing considering that the admittedly hectic action can't seem to match their zaniness. In the single player campaign, you get to pick a character and play through special levels that are broken down in to different "takes," mimicking the movie-themed nuances that were found in the original Viewtiful Joe games. Each "take" has you squaring off against an opponent, with each of you trying to accomplish some sort of goal. Objectives include things like collecting more gems in a certain amount of time than your opponent, defeating more enemies, or destroying a certain number of special objects. The objectives themselves are pretty straightforward and enjoyable, however, the game's controls makes even the most simple of tasks a frustrating mess.

Each character has a number of different attacks at their disposal, including special VFX powers that can be activated if you pick up a corresponding VFX power orb. For example, if you pick up a Slow VFX orb, you can press the shoulder button to initiate its power for a few seconds of slowed-down time. There are also some new powers such as Sound Effects, which lets you unleash a sound-based attack at enemies. The attacks and powers themselves are easy to pull off, but it's in the most basic of movements where the game really starts to show its weaknesses. Each character can jump and double jump, but the controls feel sluggish and unresponsive at times, which ultimately sets you up for missing jumps, missing items, and sometimes lost lives. Since the game runs at a pretty fast pace, these problems become that much more frustrating. Hit detection on both enemies and objects is also hit and miss, which when paired with the sketchy jumping mechanics, results in a gaming experience that feels more counter-intuitive than enjoyable.

Viewtiful, But Ugly
Despite my annoyances with the controls and hit detection, there's plenty to enjoy in Red Hot Rumble, particularly if you're a huge fan of the show or the game series. The deep roster of characters is impressive, as is each one's unique attacks and abilities. But if you're really looking for a truly classic Viewtiful Joe experience on your PSP, you're more than likely not going to find it here. Let's just hope that Capcom has a new adventure in the works.

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