Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble tries to pick up where the Gamecube VJ's have left off. I loved the gamecube versions, they took a decent side scrolling fighting game and made it great by giving you the ability to use 3 theatrical-themed powers (slow mo, fast mo, zoom in). Each power added a little something extra to make the fighting great, and the ability to combine them together to stomp even harder on baddies was just mind blowing. For example, slow motion makes all your attacks more powerful, except you move in slow motion too, which means that if you want to smack a guy, then run across the screen to smack another (keeping the game slow motioned is the only way to chain combos, which help make more money to buy more cool stuff, so you want to do it) it will take awhile and a lot of your power bar. Combining slow mo with fast mo makes you move normal speed while everything else is slowed, which allows you to dominate much longer on one huge combo chain. zoom in gives you different attacks, as well as stunning minor enemies. Chaining zoom with your other powers gives you the most powerful attacks in the game, a kick that hurts anything around you, and a high damage punch which gives the best DPS against most bosses.

As for the DS version, the game has changed. Combos are gone, at least as far as i've been able to tell. The powers seem less potent as well, and also less in touch with the games movie theme. slow motion is still there and still works the same way. fast motion has been replaced by "scratch" which drops random shit on enemies when you scribble on the screen with your stylus while holding the right trigger. "split" has no use in fighting that i've been able to find. what it does is take the main game screen and split in half horizontally, allowing you to access closed in areas that you can only access when using this power. for example, they like to take a closed square and make you "split" the top off of it by dragging it away, and then jumping in before the power cancels itself. doing this correctly leaves you in the closed in box where theres usually a switch or something. then you get to repeat the process to get yourself back out. whee. the other new powers are called "slide" and "touch" the former lets you swap the main screen with the screen from the top DS screen, which is usually a close up of your character. this is kind of like the game cube versions' zoom in, but without giving you more attacks, so all its really good for is stunning a couple minor baddies. "touch" can only be used while "slide" is on, so after you slide the screens, you use the stylus to touch stuff on the screen. unlike the majority of powers in this game, touch can actually be used to kill stuff. however, it can only kill or damage tiny little bad guys that look like they've been added to the game for the sole purpose of being something for touch to kill. none of the regular baddies are affected by being touched at all, the only time you need to use it to kill something is when tiny looking dog things appear, because for some reason they can ONLY be killed using touch. Touch's main purpose (since killing baddies isnt really an option) is, guess what?, interacting with the enviroment! every room it seems has a lever or something that you need to touch to operate. In the game cube versions you could work levers and such with a punch or kick, or both. in this game you need to slide the bottom screen up, then touch whatever. Basically what these new powers do is make the game suck. Instead of comboing sick powers to ruin baddies, you use slow motion and "scratch" to kill baddies, then use all your other powers to solve stupid puzzles. and i call the puzzles stupid because they tell you what power to use to beat them. you'll just be running along and spot a lever in the background, then big flashing text saying "TOUCH." thanks, DS, im sure i couldnt have figured that out myself. no need actually throwing an obstacle in to the game that you yourself dont tell me how to beat.

To be fair, i havent tried using scratch with slow...but on the other hand, its fucking impossible. you need to hold the left trigger to slow, and the right trigger to scratch, no big deal, except they also expect you to be drawing on the screen while holding both triggers!!! do the DS designers and programmers assume everyone has a third hand or something that i'm missing? well, to be totally honest, you can tap the right trigger once, which allows you to drop one thing on a baddie. now, it usually takes 5 or 6 things falling to kill something, so maybe you're supposed to hold slow motion on, tap the right trigger, then grab the stylus with your right hand and draw real quick. but that is nigh on impossible for me because im LEFT HANDED. i use my left hand to write, which makes this combo pretty damn unintuitive for me, and a tenth of the rest of the population as well.

all in all the game has the same look as the other games, and it is an average platformer too. but i am just so mad at the developers for ruining all the powers. i mean, just because the DS has a touch screen doesnt mean you have to use it in every game at every oppurtunity, especially when you're already expecting us to be using both hands already.

this game would get like 3 usually, but since they took a great game with a great combo system and a great freedom to chain powers and ruined all of it, i give the game a 2/5 for right handed people and a 0/5 for lefties.