A Rare Treasure

Through the grace of the virtual console, North American gamers got to experience Sin & Punishment for the first time on the Nintendo Wii. Before the next game comes out in a couple of days, I’ll give you a crash course in the original, formerly available only in Japan.

For those of you uninitiated, Sin & Punishment is an on-rails shooter in the vein of Starfox or Ikaruga. What sets it apart from other shooters (among other things) is the melee attacks that you can perform when enemies get too close. They are more powerful attacks, but take greater skill to execute.

The aspect of the game that stands out the most is the control scheme. For the purposes of this feature, I’ll assume you’re playing with a classic controller. If you’re not, stop living in the past. It’s a little difficult to learn the scheme, but works will once you get the hang of it. The D-Pad strafes Saki (the main character) back and forth along a horizontal axis. Either of the analog sticks movies the target reticule. As in any other on-rails shooter, Saki moves on his own. The R shoulder button jumps (or double jumps). The L shoulder button shoots when held, or slashes with Saki’s sword when tapped. Pressing A switches between free targeting on an auto lock-on. So, only 1 face button is used. It’s a little confusing at first, and the game is incredibly well-suited to use the Wii’s IR sensory for aiming.

Sin and Punishment is an N64 game through and through, from the polygonal graphics to the midi sound track and cheesy voice acting. The game’s graphics function well enough for what it is, but like all 64 games, it has not aged well. The resolution is quite low, and because some of the levels use a lot of the same colors, it is sometimes difficult to understand what is going on and decipher what is an enemy or obstacle. Oh, well. That’s the price of 3-D gaming. At some point, it will always look aged.

Behind a 64-bit mask is a pulse-pounding shooter. The action is intense and non-stop. It’s a pretty difficult game until you figure out the attack patterns of the bosses and minions, and it’s really rewarding to finally beat the really difficult bosses and then dispatching them with relative ease the next time around. It’s kinda like finding a magnum in Resident Evil: now you know the boss doesn’t stand a chance.

This one’s definitely worth a download if you’re into retro shooters. There’s quite a bit of depth to the game’s scoring and chain systems, so high scores are fun to try to beat. The only down side to buying it is it’s 1100 Wii points, since it’s a Japanese import (however, the original version had English voice acting). It’s an odd amount to drop on a game, but you’ll eventually find use for the odd number of Wii points left.