Sin & Punishment: Star Successor - Wii

Sin and Punishment: Star Successor...Treasure's latest foray into strategic shooting action is certainly one of their best. If you have played and enjoyed Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, Gradius V, and/or the original Sin and Punishment, then you should already have this game. If you have not played any of the aforementioned games; or perhaps you did and they did not 'click' with you; read on...Inside Star Successor lies possibly the deepest rail-shooter ever made, but you must throw aside the traditional current-generation notions of what makes a good game.First, Star Successor is a short game; and can be beaten in as little as 3 hours. By conventional notions this is seen as bad, with modern action games offering 10-20 hours. Modern action games, however, tend to employ repetition (or worse yet, backtracking and fetch quests) as a means to lengthen the play time. Take the last shooter game you played for example; you probably fought the same wave of enemies over and over again. Sin and Punishment, on the other hand, delivers a solid 3+ hours of non-stop enemy diversity; including roughly 20 unique boss battles (much more if you consider that most bosses are split up into separate phases). In this respect Star Successor ends up being much like a good music album; by the time you are finished you haven't had enough, and you'll want to play through it again and again.Second, if you are playing Star Successor for the enjoyment of playing through a cinematic action-fest, with the only end goal to beat your enemies one at a time, and finally beat the game, watch the credits, and never to return to it; you will be sorely disappointed. With regards to story and cut-scenes, they are for lack of a better word terrible; you'll eventually find yourself skipping them as they just get in the way of the gameplay. With regards to the satisfaction of beating the game, there is only a little. The true fun in Sin and Punishment comes from subsequent playthroughs, where the goal is not to beat the game but to get the highest score possible, which you can compare to others via the online ranking system. Much like an old-school shooter in the arcades, where all you have to show for beating the game is a bunch of lost quarters...the real satisfaction is from nailing a high score.The scoring system in Star Successor rewards chaining consecutive enemy hits without getting hit yourself, and deflecting enemy projectiles. High scores require not getting hit [often] and not dieing, and this requires more than anything strategy. You will need to memorize enemy/boss patterns and employ the best strategy to take them out fast and effectively before they have a chance to attack. This is a game of strategy, memorization, reflexes, and fast thinking.Take on this challenge and you will be greatly rewarded. Of course if all you want to do is beat the game you can simply spam the dodge button, hit 'continue' on 'game over', and repeat until the final boss; but then you are missing the point. Enjoy :)

I was a bit skeptical about this game since it has been labeled short and difficult for some. Lets get a few things straight, this game is meant to feel like an arcade shooter and with the perfect shot or wii blaster. The challenge is ridiculous at times and sometimes I wonder if it is possible to complete solo. It is, but you have to die a million times before getting really good. I think the length is just right since challenge is so high and collectables are meant to be discovered by replaying completed stages. Completists will find twice the amount of gameplay if one intends to complete 100%. Remember my ratings are for the wii and not to be compared with high def systems.Ratings 1-10 with 1 horrible and 10 the best ever.Graphics: 9.0 Very brilliant, creative, and sometimes scary. Not realistic, but more artsy.Sound: 8.5 Sound effects are on point, music makes you feel like you are in the arcade.Gameplay 8.5 Easy to pick up, not too difficult to master. Only hard thing for me is with perfect shot using the c and z buttons to dodge and lock on at same time can be a bit difficult in heat of battle.Length: 8.0 Some would say it is too short if you just play straight through.Replay value:8.5 People who are hard core gamers will find plenty opportunity to replay for months, especially with friends.Co-op 8.5 While playing with a friend, only one person controls a character and the other just a cursor for shooting, this makes the game easier for two players without getting confused who is who. I would like to see a battle mode online and at home for friends.Overall rating: 8.5 While this game is great in my book, there are a few things that could be worked on, but overall is worth the money.

The photo says it all. Did not recieve the game only a blank CD-R disc. Also, the game was sealed poorly. Seems as though someone opened it up, swapped the game for a blank disc, then taped it up.

It's on rails and you pretty much just hold the trigger down constantly while moving the cross-hairs. The bosses are pretty much impossible until you figure out the trick to beating them. The story is pretty thin, but that's not what I was interested in in the first place.Basically, your hand will hurt and you will get bored of the repetition after a short playing time. They could have made it a bit slower paced and more suspenseful.