Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble

When playing Red Hot Rumble, one is immediately reminded of the Super Smash Bros. series. This is a fast and frenzied four-way fighting game with a large cast of playable characters, about half of which aren't available to you until you unlock them. I'll admit right off the bat that I didn't spend any time unlocking these characters and probably never will. I'll also admit that I played this game solo, like so many other games on my backlog that are probably best enjoyed with friends. But I'm happy to report that I kind of liked it. This isn't Viewtiful Joe 3, and thank God for that. This is instead a spin-off fighting game with minimal plot. I spent no more than three or four hours dabbling with the very limited "story" mode. The Viewtiful Joe series heavily spoofs Hollywood and the movie industries. (I can't remember if I made that clear when reviewing either of the first two games. Oh well.) And the point of Red Hot Rumble is that a director is looking for an action movie hero to star as the lead in his next movie. So he holds an open invitation fighting tournament and the grand prize is the starring role of his upcoming film. Now, I compared gameplay to that of Super Smash Bros., but it's also a little bit Mario Party-esque in that each quick battle is a minigame of sorts. "Defeat the most enemies." "Collect the most orbs." These directives, and many others, give purpose to each minute-long round of fighting. Unlike in Smash, you're not simply trying to destroy your opponent. Attacks to opponents will hinder their progress, for sure, but the goal is just scoring the most points. Almost like the "coin battle" games in Smash that nobody ever wants to play. Now, this is clearly a game designed for multiplayer action, but when I read reviews, they all said that three-player and four-player games were maddeningly chaotic. So it's nice to hear that I'm not missing out on much by not forcing some friends to play Red Hot Rumble with me. Not that I would have done so anyway, even if reviews were glowing. The pace is a little too fast, the characters a bit too unvaried, and the overall experience falls just shy of "enjoyable." But at the end of the day it's still a better note for me to end my time with the series on than Viewtiful Joe 2 was.