Sin & Punishment/Tsumi to Batsu (N64, 2000)
Graphics-8.5 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge-7.5 Story-6
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-8 Fun-7.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7.5
+
Strafing, dodge rolling and double jumping from the get go
Lock on aiming (After Burner, Galaxy Force 2) however you can only lock onto one enemy at a time and you have to aim fairly close to them and the shots become weaker when you use it so you'll want to not use it as much as possible
Twin stick (stick and c-buttons) movement and aiming controls
Partial control config (reverse vertical aim toggle, three setups but can't map each button to what you want without emulation)
Difficulty options (easy or normal w/ easy being default)
Pretty nice tutorial (interactive, each explanation is skippable)
Almost fully voice acted (minus the tutorial and ending, not the best acting though)
Very good bosses overall (and lots of them, multiple phases and often multiple parts to shoot)
2+ mini-bosses per level
Skippable cutscenes
Pretty good variety (some side view and bird's eye view segments, some rotating boss arenas, some cabal-style segments and one run 'n gun segment)
Platforming and basic melee in a rail shooter - 3D World Runner/Dynamite Duke
Can reflect enemy shots back at them with the sword and it's required for some boss fights
Asymmetric 2-player co-op (player 2 controls the crosshair - intended as a single player w/ two controllers setup apparently)
Great art direction overall, Some large and detailed models
Romance in a shooter
+/-
Save feature´- you unlock a level select by beating the game
Fairly frequent checkpoints
14+ credits on default/easy (fairly easy to rack up continues as you gain 1 per 100 enemies killed)
Very short melee attack range
Pretty steep difficulty curve after an easy first level
Trippy and confusing story (more exposition really would've been useful here) with some silly scenes like one character shooting a radio
Automatically switches characters between some levels (they play the same though)
Sometimes overly long cutscenes
Get knocked over almost every time you're hit
Nods to Cabal, Contra and Missile Command (final boss)
No acceleration control
-
Some control/interface issues (can't map dodge roll to a button (L or R could've been used), kinda slow aiming - seems impossible to avoid all damage and kill all enemies, the lock on isn't completely reliable at times and there's no button for quick target switching - becomes less and less useful as the game goes on for the most part, occasionally hard to judge distances or hit boxes on projectiles)
Annoyingly short time limits on boss fights (start losing HP after it runs out)
Trial & error (hard to read some attacks and hazards, some parts where you automatically turn just as you're about to pick up a health power up)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (the bomb segment (armadillo part on the train, some parts of the final level are brutal while others are pretty easy, need to switch to manual aim and have super tight aim+hit several times in melee when it gets close even on easy mode), airplane level 4 boss - the camera is just too much here)
Sometimes annoying sfx (the cat, the girl when you get hit)
No alternate weapons and no smart bombs (only power ups are points, time and health)
Some framerate drops
Sometimes limp/floaty animations
Sometimes unfitting cutscene music
Notes:
-Have to use Project64 to play the english rom and have to use the parallel rdp graphics plugin
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-8 Fun-7.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7.5
+
Strafing, dodge rolling and double jumping from the get go
Lock on aiming (After Burner, Galaxy Force 2) however you can only lock onto one enemy at a time and you have to aim fairly close to them and the shots become weaker when you use it so you'll want to not use it as much as possible
Twin stick (stick and c-buttons) movement and aiming controls
Partial control config (reverse vertical aim toggle, three setups but can't map each button to what you want without emulation)
Difficulty options (easy or normal w/ easy being default)
Pretty nice tutorial (interactive, each explanation is skippable)
Almost fully voice acted (minus the tutorial and ending, not the best acting though)
Very good bosses overall (and lots of them, multiple phases and often multiple parts to shoot)
2+ mini-bosses per level
Skippable cutscenes
Pretty good variety (some side view and bird's eye view segments, some rotating boss arenas, some cabal-style segments and one run 'n gun segment)
Platforming and basic melee in a rail shooter - 3D World Runner/Dynamite Duke
Can reflect enemy shots back at them with the sword and it's required for some boss fights
Asymmetric 2-player co-op (player 2 controls the crosshair - intended as a single player w/ two controllers setup apparently)
Great art direction overall, Some large and detailed models
Romance in a shooter
+/-
Save feature´- you unlock a level select by beating the game
Fairly frequent checkpoints
14+ credits on default/easy (fairly easy to rack up continues as you gain 1 per 100 enemies killed)
Very short melee attack range
Pretty steep difficulty curve after an easy first level
Trippy and confusing story (more exposition really would've been useful here) with some silly scenes like one character shooting a radio
Automatically switches characters between some levels (they play the same though)
Sometimes overly long cutscenes
Get knocked over almost every time you're hit
Nods to Cabal, Contra and Missile Command (final boss)
No acceleration control
-
Some control/interface issues (can't map dodge roll to a button (L or R could've been used), kinda slow aiming - seems impossible to avoid all damage and kill all enemies, the lock on isn't completely reliable at times and there's no button for quick target switching - becomes less and less useful as the game goes on for the most part, occasionally hard to judge distances or hit boxes on projectiles)
Annoyingly short time limits on boss fights (start losing HP after it runs out)
Trial & error (hard to read some attacks and hazards, some parts where you automatically turn just as you're about to pick up a health power up)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (the bomb segment (armadillo part on the train, some parts of the final level are brutal while others are pretty easy, need to switch to manual aim and have super tight aim+hit several times in melee when it gets close even on easy mode), airplane level 4 boss - the camera is just too much here)
Sometimes annoying sfx (the cat, the girl when you get hit)
No alternate weapons and no smart bombs (only power ups are points, time and health)
Some framerate drops
Sometimes limp/floaty animations
Sometimes unfitting cutscene music
Notes:
-Have to use Project64 to play the english rom and have to use the parallel rdp graphics plugin