zero shift
Banned
While this game gets mentioned on Wii recommendation threads, I don't think it gets enough love.
To me it isn't just one of the greatest Wii games, it's one of the greatest games ever period, and it represented what I consider to be the pinnacle of the rail shooter genre.
Before I begin explaining why the game is so great, I'll start of with one of the biggest reasons to why it is so great, the controls. The Wii controls tend to get a lot of love/hate depending on the game. Skyward Sword, Punchout!, and Super Mario Galaxy are some examples of games that people would have preferred to use traditional controls as oppose to pointer/motion controls. This isn't the case for Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. The controls are universally praised. The Wii Remote provides quick and accurate aiming allowing the rail shooter genre to soar due to it no longer being held back by slow and muddy directional input devices. The fact that the Wii Remote and Nunchuck are held separately makes the came accustomed to long play sessions as the controllers can be comfortably held what ever ways players want even during tense situations.
Now onto the game itself. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is a brilliantly designed game. The first area starts of a little slow to accustom the player the control and game design, after the first area though much of the game begins to look like this:
Pics just don't do the game justice. The game simply grabs you for a rollercoaster ride that just doesn't stop. Wave after wave of enemies and their projectiles keep coming toward you. Much of this is possible due to the controls. As I said before the controls allow for quick and precise aiming. This results in the game being able to throw faster and tougher enemies at the player.
But the challenges that really stand out are the boss battles. Treasure has a knack of developing some of the best boss battles of all-time, and this game is no exception. Manny of the bosses are very memorable both in style and in execution such as Pacifire, Snapper Keeper, Hibaru Yaju, etc. But who really stand out to me is Ariana Shami.
When people talk about challenging bosses they often talk about Ornstein and Smough or Senator Armstrong. Personally though, Ariana Shami surpassed either of them to me (especially on hardmode). Took many retries but I eventually beat her and found the battle to be very satisfying.
The final reason what makes this game stand out is the sheer variety of it. I just don't mean environments but the game itself. While game like say Kid Icarus: Rising are well made, most of these other rail shooters feel more like shooting galleries as the player almost always just moves forward while enemies pop up. This is not true with Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. The game takes place in a full 3D environment as the character regularly twists and turns and interacts with the objects around them. The first boss makes this very apparent as the character moves all over the place during the fight. Not only that but the game also often switches to a sidescrolling 2D mode where the game plays not too different from Gunstar Heroes.
In short, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is an incredible game that deserves much more love. It was one of the best game of the previous generation and I feel that it should get more recognition. Truly a game that was worthy as a send off to the legendary developer Treasure. Anyone else agree?
To me it isn't just one of the greatest Wii games, it's one of the greatest games ever period, and it represented what I consider to be the pinnacle of the rail shooter genre.
Before I begin explaining why the game is so great, I'll start of with one of the biggest reasons to why it is so great, the controls. The Wii controls tend to get a lot of love/hate depending on the game. Skyward Sword, Punchout!, and Super Mario Galaxy are some examples of games that people would have preferred to use traditional controls as oppose to pointer/motion controls. This isn't the case for Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. The controls are universally praised. The Wii Remote provides quick and accurate aiming allowing the rail shooter genre to soar due to it no longer being held back by slow and muddy directional input devices. The fact that the Wii Remote and Nunchuck are held separately makes the came accustomed to long play sessions as the controllers can be comfortably held what ever ways players want even during tense situations.
Now onto the game itself. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is a brilliantly designed game. The first area starts of a little slow to accustom the player the control and game design, after the first area though much of the game begins to look like this:
Pics just don't do the game justice. The game simply grabs you for a rollercoaster ride that just doesn't stop. Wave after wave of enemies and their projectiles keep coming toward you. Much of this is possible due to the controls. As I said before the controls allow for quick and precise aiming. This results in the game being able to throw faster and tougher enemies at the player.
But the challenges that really stand out are the boss battles. Treasure has a knack of developing some of the best boss battles of all-time, and this game is no exception. Manny of the bosses are very memorable both in style and in execution such as Pacifire, Snapper Keeper, Hibaru Yaju, etc. But who really stand out to me is Ariana Shami.
When people talk about challenging bosses they often talk about Ornstein and Smough or Senator Armstrong. Personally though, Ariana Shami surpassed either of them to me (especially on hardmode). Took many retries but I eventually beat her and found the battle to be very satisfying.
The final reason what makes this game stand out is the sheer variety of it. I just don't mean environments but the game itself. While game like say Kid Icarus: Rising are well made, most of these other rail shooters feel more like shooting galleries as the player almost always just moves forward while enemies pop up. This is not true with Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. The game takes place in a full 3D environment as the character regularly twists and turns and interacts with the objects around them. The first boss makes this very apparent as the character moves all over the place during the fight. Not only that but the game also often switches to a sidescrolling 2D mode where the game plays not too different from Gunstar Heroes.
In short, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is an incredible game that deserves much more love. It was one of the best game of the previous generation and I feel that it should get more recognition. Truly a game that was worthy as a send off to the legendary developer Treasure. Anyone else agree?
