Viewtiful Joe

Viewtiful Joe (Japanese: ビューティフル ジョー, Hepburn: Byūtifuru Jō?) is a video game developed by Capcom's Production Studio 4 for the Nintendo GameCube. It was originally released in 2003 as a part of the Capcom Five under director Hideki Kamiya and producer Atsushi Inaba. Viewtiful Joe was later ported to the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) by the same design team under the name Clover Studio. The Japanese version of the PS2 release is subtitled Aratanaru Kibō (新たなる希望?, lit. "A New Hope"). The game's story concerns Joe, an avid movie-goer whose girlfriend Silvia is kidnapped during a film starring Joe's favorite superhero, Captain Blue. Joe is shortly thereafter thrust into Movieland, where Silvia is taken by the villainous group known as Jadow. After accepting a special V-Watch from Captain Blue, Joe transforms into the tokusatsu-style persona "Viewtiful Joe" and sets out to rescue her.

The gameplay of Viewtiful Joe features traditional 2D platform side-scrolling intermixed with 3D cel-shaded graphics. Abilities known as "VFX Powers" grant the player special actions for combat and puzzle-solving, such as slowing down or speeding up time. Viewtiful Joe was critically acclaimed for its unique visual style and gameplay, earning itself a number of awards from various media publications. A minor commercial success, the game spawned a few sequels with releases seen on other consoles such as the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo DS. An anime adaption of the game was also produced.