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Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Nintendo Wii) Review
Review by 
8.8/10 from 22 user ratings
 
I have been wanting to write a new review for the Negative World for quite some time now. I have posted a few reviews of mine on the site, but they were all written back before we set up the review functionality here. I think my most recent review was for Resident Evil 4; not the Wii edition, the Gamecube game. As you can see, it has been awhile. And it was a tough decision choosing which game to use to break my born again review virginity with. Although there are recent games which I think are superior to Sin & Punishment: Star Successor (Super Mario Galaxy 2, for instance), when all is said and done, I decided to choose a game that deserves to have more attention called to it than it has received.


If this doesn't make you think of Gradius, I don't know what will.

My first experience with the Sin & Punishment franchise, as it was for many in the West, was the recent release of the original game on the Virtual Console. I bought it on a whim, hopped into it, and was instantly hooked. It reminded me a lot of Starfox 64, a game which, despite having several sequels, has never been matched since. Sin & Punishment was a bit short, and the controls were iffy, but I was instantly in love, and gave the game several playthroughs. When the sequel was announced, I had reservations as to whether Treasure could hit the same magic so many years later, but let my expectations get fairly high nonetheless.

Little did I expect the successor (pun intended) to surpass my already high expectations and then some.

So what exactly is Sin & Punishment: Star Successor? Well, the quick answer is that it is one part of the aforementioned Starfox 64 combined with one part Ikaruga (mostly the balls to walls nonstop action part), with a whole lot of Gradius boss rush thrown in for good measure. You can choose to play as either the boy (Isa) or the girl (Kachi), which have similar moves, with just enough variety between them to make it worth trying them both out. There is a story involved, but it is semi-ridiculous and often barely coherent, and the story bits are mostly brief and unobtrusive before they let you hop right back into the action.


Somehow everything becomes more badass when it is underwater.

For the majority of the game you play in a 3rd person perspective on rails with full control over your character, ala Starfox 64, although there is a ton of variety in how you play, including 2D sections, a vehicle section, and a couple of areas and bosses with control / perspective mechanics that are unique to them and them alone. There is also a ton of variety in the environments; you will battle across cities, underwater, in fortresses, even in outer space. There are a few control options, but I can't really see the point of using anything but analog to move and pointer to aim and shoot. The game is incredibly intense, and feels like an onslaught that rarely lets up. You are generally dodging and shooting at everything in sight like your lives depends on it ("because they do"), although you also have a melee attack which can be used both to attack enemies whom are near, and to deflect certain projectile attacks back at enemies. There are lasers and projectiles and all kinds of things flying all over the screen, environmental elements to dodge and destroy, hundreds, if not thousands of enemies per stage, and multiple bosses, with multiple life bars, often with multiple forms, with many of the bosses followed directly by another boss. Think the boss rushes of the Gradius games, but not constrained to a single stage. And unlike the original Sin & Punishment game, there is a fairly forgiving checkpoint system, which is a very good thing, because this is a super tough game, and you will be dying a lot (provided you play on medium or hard.)

Simply put, this game feels like the evolution of the intense action SHMUPs of the 2D era, brought into the 3D world in brilliant form.


One of the many bosses whom is large, angry, and totally inconsiderate of your basic survival needs.

The graphics are also pretty exciting, if not technically the most impressive, and fit the overall creative feel of the game. The music is fast paced and catchy, and keeps you coming back for more. Overall the presentation is very slick, outside of the aforementioned goofy storyline and the somewhat poor quality voice acting that often goes with it. And if you were a fan of the first Sin & Punishment game but felt it was a bit short, I have good news for you; Star Successor is significantly meatier, probably close to twice as long as the first game. High score nuts will also find an incredibly deep scoring system for both individual stages and the entire game, and online leaderboards which, despite a few annoyances in menu navigations, work very well (and due to the poor sales of the game, it is very possible to place high up in the leaderboards!) There is even a 2 player co-op mode, though the second player only controls an on-screen cursor for shooting.

I could go on and on, but in the end it comes down to the fact that Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is an incredible game, and way too many people never gave it a second glance. You probably already own Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M, and you may even have a copy of Monster Hunter Tri or Red Steel 2 in your possession. But if you pass on Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, you are missing out on not just one of the best Wii games of the year, but one of the best Wii games yet, period. It's that good. So get on it, son.

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 Excellent  9.5 / 10
10/04/10, 10:30
 
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I actually JUST bought this!

Played through the 2nd stage on Easy, and I can't wait to play some more. The underwater stage was kick-ass, and I LOVE the scoring system. I'll be playing this game for years, so it seems.

Cool fact: The top score on stage 1 Easy in Canada uses the Zapper! WTF?

EDIT: Great review Zero, score seems appropriate! Looking forward to more reviews

Posted by 
 on: 10/04/10, 18:28   Edited:  10/04/10, 18:30
I bought it.


I just haven't opened it.

Posted by 
 on: 10/04/10, 18:43
I too liked the game

I rented it from GameFly. Then I bought it from GameFly.

It's my GOTY runner up so far, after Red Steel 2

Posted by 
 on: 10/05/10, 02:04   Edited:  10/05/10, 02:04
@anandxxx Well get on it dude! I guarantee you this is better than anything you are playing right now, including Wii Music.

Posted by 
 on: 10/05/10, 04:38
I want to get it. Really I do. Played it at a Ninty kiosk recently at a local Gamestop and I was saddened that I can't afford it right now.

The last new retail game I bought was Monster Hunter Tri and SSF4.

Posted by 
 on: 10/05/10, 13:41
Game is absolutely incredible. Easily Treasure's best.

Posted by 
 on: 10/05/10, 16:07
Wii Music? Did Anand get to you too!?

I won't argue that the visuals aren't technically lacking in some ways, but I think the game just sets up so many creative environments and enemies and such that it feels exciting waiting to see what comes next.

And yeah, the leaderboards are a pain to navigate, but I have still enjoyed them a bunch. There is no quick way to get between your rankings for different difficulty levels / characters / stages, but generally I play through a stage, submit it, and go check that score right away anyway.

Posted by 
 on: 10/05/10, 20:57
True.

You forget though, I was on 56k Internet until recently, I guess I'm used to excessive waiting for small things. But this is definitely an area where the game (and Nintendo as a whole) could do with some serious improvement.

Posted by 
 on: 10/05/10, 23:37
The fact that you keep comparing it to Starfox 64 means I will definitely get this game.

Now that Other M is done with, I'm wondering what to get next. I really wanna play Silent Hill Wii too.

Posted by 
 on: 10/05/10, 23:52
To be honest, the original felt more Starfox 64-esque to me (though that might just be because it has similar graphics, but then, both Starfox 64 and the original S&P are "slower" paced games...)

This one feels more like an intense 2D SHMUP in 3D. But it still has a lot of Starfox 64-esque elements.

And it is better than the original S&P, by far. Though I still recommend both.

Posted by 
 on: 10/05/10, 23:58   Edited:  10/06/10, 00:01
It's so sad that it took so long to get a shooter like this on the Wii... and the fact that there are so few.

Ridiculously fun "core" game that makes proper use of the Wiimote functionality.

Posted by 
 on: 10/06/10, 01:38
Is it really so far removed from a light-gun game? I mean, it's different, but this specific sub-genre was always pretty rare.

@Zero
Wii Music fans are legion! Join usssss...

Posted by 
 on: 10/06/10, 02:00   Edited:  10/06/10, 02:01
YES it's far removed. The focus is completely different. In light-gun games, the gameplay consists entirely of shooting things that pop out in front of you before they can harm you, and reload at strategic times. I literally just summed up the experience of playing every light-gun game ever made in that one sentence.

S&P is nothing like that. Nothing. It is not even a facet of its gameplay.

Posted by 
 on: 10/06/10, 02:56
@anandxxx Short answer: Play it and find out, fool!

Long answer: I don't have a super ton of experience with light gun shooters, but I've played a few from Time Crisis to Terminator to House of the Dead to Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles and even when they get intense, they're usually slower paced games. S&P: SS feels much more like a 2D SHMUP brought into 3D (as I, apparently, keep having to repeat over and over...)

Key point: In most light gun shooters, you pull the trigger to shoot. In S&P, you hold it to get a steady stream of laser fire. If they had you pulling the trigger to shoot every time it would make no sense, since you are pretty much CONTINUALLY shooting. It would destroy your trigger finger. And the game would have to be redesigned anyway, since it just wouldn't be possible to keep up. Also there is no reload, because if there was, you would get obliterated, since there is no time to reload.

And this isn't even getting into the major difference, the fact that you control your character on screen. We're not talking about moving around a little bit here and there, this is a very intense game. Dodging enemy attacks is important, and you will almost constantly be doing it (to the point where it can even feel a bit spammy at times.) Choosing the best path through the environment is also important,.

Quick (spoiler!) example: There is a boss which attacks while you are running along a moving set of trains... basically a parallel set of tracks, so you have to keep jumping back and forth between the train cars to dodge his fire attacks, and then run up to switches and hit the switches that correspond to the track he is on, to make the train cars you dump off run into him. Meanwhile there are enemy troops and such you have to keep moving around blasting, but you can't fly for too long because the wind is heavy and you can only stay in the air for 5 seconds before being blown away, so it takes a sort of combination of short hops and on-ground dodging and rolling while targeting multiple enemies and avoiding all of their fire and charges.

Tell me that sounds like a point and shoot light gun shooter.

And THEN, if you want to play for score, it gets even more intense, because you get high scores not just by how many enemies you destroy, but also by not getting hit, and also by landing on the ground and running/jumping versus flying around everywhere, so those other non-shooting elements come into play even more.

Simply put, it's like ten times the game of your typical light gun shooter.

Posted by 
 on: 10/06/10, 03:04   Edited:  10/06/10, 03:08
Well, now that we all gang-banged Anand into acquiescence, he has no choice but to buy the game and experience pure gaming bliss.

Posted by 
 on: 10/06/10, 09:12
Haha, I should've known better than to bring that topic up. I still maintain that the world has never really received many of these games.

And I told you, I already have the game. But NOBODY can make me play it!


(...gang-banged?)

Posted by 
 on: 10/06/10, 18:14
I'm in the same boat as Anand. I bought the game, I have it in my house, sitting on my shelf, mere feet away from my Wii.

Haven't played it yet.

Posted by 
 on: 10/06/10, 18:22
@anandxxx@GameDadGrant You guys have serious issues.

Posted by 
 on: 10/06/10, 20:29
Seriously... just put the god damn disc in the console already. It's a good time.

Posted by 
 on: 10/07/10, 12:16
@Zero@Hinph
Thirded! Game is awesome, getting my ass kicked on easy but I'm having a blast!

Anand, Grant...DO IT NOW!!!!

Posted by 
 on: 10/08/10, 03:54
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