Sin & Punishment: Star Successor | Review (Wii)

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor Review. Quite possibly the best boxart ever.

The original Sin and Punishment released in 2000 for the N64 in Japan, but never made its way to the states on Nintendo’s last cartridge based console. Instead, North American gamers were able to experience the fast based on-rails action of the title through the Wii’s Virtual Console service. Sin and Punishment is exactly what the name states — well, half of it, anyway — an intense action romp with crazy difficulty. One major factor in the game’s difficulty level were the funky controls. Even on the Virtual Console re-release, dual analog solutions provided by the Classic and GameCube controllers did little to simplify the game. That’s not to say Sin and Punishment was unplayable, far from it, in fact. Nintendo announced Sin & Punishment: Star Successor on October 2, 2008, and released the title in Japan in October of 2009. Localization hopes were dim for Star Successor as its target release in North America was pushed back from Holiday 2009 to early 2010 and eventually Summer 2010. The sequel we were never supposed to get has finally arrived, though, and it solves every issue with the first game while taking its intense action to the next level.

Sin and Punishment on the N64 had a wacky story — one that I’m still not quite sure of. In the first game, the world’s population had increased so much that food was becoming scarce. In order to counter this, scientists created new biological life forms known as the “ruffians” for the world to consume. The ruffians eventually attacked their creators and a war ensued. A group known as the Armed Volunteers arose to defend Japan against the ruffian onslaught, but they oppressed the Japanese people in the process. The Savior Group led by Saki then attempts to defeat the Armed Volunteers along with the ruffians once and for all. Star Successor is a direct sequel to the first game, but can easily be considered a stand alone title. Players take control of either Isa or Kachi, who are on the run from the “creators”. There’s a war between two dimensions, inner space and outer space, with inner space being the dimension from the first Sin and Punishment. Isa is a rookie soldier from inner space and also the son of Saki, while Kachi is an outer space alien disguised as a human that has lost her memory. Inner space orders Isa to kill Kachi, but when he refuses, his own kind becomes his enemy as they unleash the creators to hunt them down. Of course, none of this is explained in-depth in the actual game, but can be read in the instruction manual. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor isn’t about story, though. It’s all about the action.

An underwater battle.

Like the first game, Star Successor is an arcade style on-rails shooter. Players can move the character — either Isa or Kachi — left and right with the Nunchuck’s stick, jump in the air, hover, and dodge, but everything is on a set course. Many of the same gameplay mechanics from the first game are present in the sequel, including the ability to unleash a powerful charge shot at foes and attack with a beam sword at close range. The difference here, though, is that the beam sword can be used at any time manually instead of automatically in the first game. Being able to use the beam sword at any time is a really helpful asset, as many bosses get up close and one particular boss early in the game teleports faster than the character can shoot.

Boss battles are often huge.

This is where we get into the beef of Star Successor: the shooting. Other than the game’s first stage, which acts as a tutorial for new players, there are too many enemies on screen to count, all rushing at and around the player’s character. Furthermore, the character is racing through levels at a very fast pace, adding to the sense of urgency. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor goes above and beyond what the first game presented as a challenge, due to the amazingly fluid control scheme offered by the Wiimote that allows for more enemies coming at the player; in short, players won’t feel extremely overwhelmed, but they will still die frequently throughout the game. IR pointing allows for pin-point pixel by pixel aiming that can’t be done on a dual analog configuration. For players who are looking for an even more intense challenge, though, Nintendo and Treasure haven’t left them out. Hard More is already insanely difficult, but Star Successor also allows players to use the Classic and GameCube controllers to blast away enemies. This alone, while fully working and superior to the N64 original’s controls, adds another layer of difficulty to an already intense game. In layman’s terms, the non-IR controls aren’t bad, the game is just incredibly fast paced.

The wreckage of cities are but one of many environments in the title.

With so many enemies rushing at the player and the action going by so fast, a steady framerate is a must. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor has a perfectly fluid framerate without sacrificing visual quality. The game doesn’t look as fantastic as Super Mario Galaxy 2 or Monster Hunter Tri, but at the same time textures aren’t muddy and the overall art style of the title is great. One major drawback for Star Successor is something that plagued the first game as well: it’s short. The first game clocked in at around three hours, and the sequel runs at around six to eight hours depending on the difficulty mode. Luckily, Nintendo and Treasure have added online leaderboards where players can upload their personal bests on each of the game’s stages. This addition alone adds a good few hours of replay value into the title, but going the next step by including online co-op certainly could have been achievable.