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In case you missed out on the last ones, you can catch up with the links below:

Viewtiful Joe Part 1

Viewtiful Joe Part 2

Viewtiful Joe 2 Part 1

Now strap in, because the rest of this game is pretty tough, but also really great! If you can persist to the end, you won't be disappointed. 

Episode 4: Thunder Boy Lives Twice

Once again the setting here is excellent as you’re now in some kind of ancient feudal Japan setting, complete with ornate Japanese structures, short bridges, and statues. The biancies here are dressed like Samurai. You’ll do a lot of fighting here, then at the end, you’ll see a spring. This can be tricky. Use Slow to spring really high and then Zoom in order to do an upward thrust and hit a bell at the top. 

This level has a really cool mini boss—a giant Buddha statue that shoots missiles and attacks with a giant hand! Enemies will also attack you, and lasers will occasionally run across the ground, so it can be hard to focus on defeating the boss with everything happening at once. The only way to defeat the statue is to hit the missiles so that they return to the statue and then use Slow to do max damage. 

The level has one big puzzle, and it can be confusing. It’s a rotating room puzzle in which you must get three artifacts and put them into place. There are three rooms. Two of the rooms have switches that will shift the rooms around in a different order (one room will be stacked on top and the other two on the bottom). Find the three artifacts and keep them with you. You will have to punch them in order to move them (you can’t just pick them up, ugh). Yeah, this part’s tedious, but just keep shifting the rooms until you figure out how to get to the next area and the artifacts will jump into place. 

You finally make it to the boss and it’s Big Lee! Joe and Silvia recognize that it’s actually Big John disguised as a martial artist (complete with a little mustache), but Big Lee acts like he doesn’t know this “Big John.” This scene is hilarious. You’re about to fight Big Lee when all of a sudden he’s struck by lightning and falls away. This reveals the REAL boss of this level, and it’s…duh duh duh—Alastor! 

Yes, Alastor is back, and this is another funny scene because he dumps the story and even mentions the first game (hinting that you should go buy it at the store). He pulls out the script, but Joe points out it’s the script from the first game. He tosses it aside. “You’re a worthy opponent.” HA. So you fight this guy again, and it’s just like the fight from the first game. You’ll notice that his life is really low from the start. Something fishy is going on here. 

After beating him, the film reel starts glowing with a black haze. It’s the black film! It corrupts Alastor and turns him into Emperor Alastor (a bigger, uglier man-bat-type monster). This is the real fight, and it’s tough. Also, long! Alastor will still shoot swords and lightning at you, but now he has a fast spin attack that can be hard to dodge if you’re not ready for it. The fight is also made longer because every time you attack Alastor, he will get knocked back, meaning you can’t do a lot of damage on him at once. But pay attention, stick it out, and you’ll defeat him again. Tough boss, but a really cool one too. 

Episode 5: Ice Edge 

We’ve made it to the ice level (every good game has one). Joe and Silvia find themselves on a snowy mountain, and they need to climb to the top. Biancies dressed as eskimos will attack you, and along the way, watch out for avalanches (there are a LOT of those). The first puzzle requires you to get past a geyser. In order to do this, push a small snowball under a tree branch, then jump up and hit the branch so snow will fall off and make the snowball grow bigger. Once it’s huge, you can roll it over to the geyser and block it so you can cross. 

One section has you climbing a tower, which is oddly reminiscent of Ice Climber. You’ll need to break through some layers of ice, jump on clouds, and use Zoom to hit the UFO at the very top in order to get a keycard. Take the keycard to a lift and jump on for a ride. It’s a nice smooth ride until you run right into Big John (this guy doesn’t give up). This causes all of you to fall into the ocean. 

The next section is an underwater submarine shooter section, which is neat, but difficult. Using Mach Speed here is useful, as it dispatches enemies quickly. When you see blocks of ice, switch to Silvia because she has a drill that can break the ice. At the end of this section is a battleship. Take out the turrets, then shoot Big John, then shoot the last turret. This part can be frustrating because there’s so much happening on screen that it’s hard NOT to get hit. You don’t want to rush this section because you’ll get hit a lot, so take your time. 

With the underwater part over, the sub surfaces in some kind of ice cave. You’ll see some things frozen in the background (like a woolly mammoth). There’s an annoying puzzle here. You have to break through several horizontal layers of ice at once. You would think that Mach Speed would work since Joe catches on fire, and fire melts ice, but no, just before reaching the end, the ice will grow back. The only way to get past this is to use Slow and Zoom, then have Joe uppercut and he will consecutively break through each layer of ice (I had no idea he could do this). The rest of this section is a moving platform area in which you fight enemies. Also, watch out for spikes. 

We’ve made it to the boss. Looks like we’re going to fight Big John again. BUT WAIT! A huge white tiger appears and slashes through John! Could this be the end of John? (let’s hope so) The tiger reveals himself to be Frost Tiger. He’s the brother of Fire Leo, but he’s not fighting for revenge, he says. He has a rainbow oscar, and he says if you really want something, you have to be willing to fight for it. So here we go. 

This fight is really tough! It’s similar to the Fire Leo fight from the first game. Frost Tiger will run around a circular track and throw out snowballs. He will also shoot out flying ice things that will automatically find you (you have to use Slow to dodge them). You’ll want to avoid the lower level since Frost Tiger can do a huge ice attack that is impossible to dodge. In order to hurt him, use Mach Speed on the snowballs so that Joe gets his fire aura, then hit Tiger to make him lose his chilly aura. Dodge three swipes from him, then attack. I found that the best strategy was to use Red Hot Kick (a special move you buy in the store), then Zoom (which will cause Joe to do a flaming downward kick). It’s still really tough, and this will be a long fight. The frustrating part here is that you will have a very small window to attack Tiger; wait too long, and he will start running again. The music here is great, intense and exciting. You might also want to be using Take Two, which will allow you to come back to life immediately if you die. 

With Frost Tiger defeated, Joe gets the oscar, but now he sees there are two Silvias. Which one is the real one? Joe is seduced by the evil Silvia, and he gives her ALL the oscars. Suddenly she changes into a golden android and flies away. Oops! Our heroes are in big trouble now!

Episode 6: Do Androids Dream of Romantic Scene?

They’ve done it again, folks. This is another boss rush level (just like the first game). However, it’s better than the first game because this episode focuses on a heartwarming story. Joe and Silvia find themselves back in the prehistoric world, and you’ll notice that the film is all grainy. Our heroes meet Dr. Cranken again, and the golden android is with him. He spouts some villainous dialog and says that the android will destroy our heroes. The android’s name is Miss Bloody Rachel, and she can shape-shift into different forms. 

You’ll fight two battles back-to-back, Big John and Flinty Stone. Both of these battles are just as difficult as the first time (actually, I found them to be more difficult). These are long fights as the bosses will have five colored lifebars. After being beaten twice, Rachel is not sure why her calculations were off. Joe says it’s because she doesn’t have a reason to fight; she has no heart. She’s puzzled…what is a heart? 

Now the two heroes are out on a city street. A huge UFO is out in the distance. Joe is super excited to get on the UFO, but first they have to get to it. This is where the game repeats that annoying bus puzzle from the first game, but don’t worry, it’s much easier as all you have to do is jump on the bus, use Slow before the bus hits the ramp, and the bus will somehow shoot into the air and crash into the UFO (it’s so ridiculous that I love it). 

You’ll fight Rachel again, this time as Cameo Leon. Afterwards, Rachel admits that she has some kind of inner feeling. Joe and Silvia are getting through to her. One last fight. I was hoping it would be against Alastor, but NO, it’s against Frost Tiger (UGH). This fight is so long and difficult, but you should know exactly what to do (using a Take Two is extremely useful). After the battle, Rachel sees the error of her ways and willingly gives all the rainbow oscars to Joe and Silvia, but then she is electrocuted by lightning. Dr. Cranken is not happy. 

The fight against Dr. Cranken is pretty easy compared to the battles you’ve gone through so far. He’ll be surrounded by a barrier, and will be attacking you with three or four extendable arms with drills or saws on them. You’ll notice a yellow orb on one of the arms. Jump up and attack it. It will change colors until it breaks. Now you can attack Dr. Cranken. That’s all there is to this fight. But after beating him, it’s not quite over. Now Cranken’s head will be floating in the air with eight arms shooting out from it in all directions. A moving orb will circle around the center, so jump up and break the orb, then attack the head. This is, once again, fairly easy. 

With Dr. Cranken defeated, Joe and Silvia now pick up the lifeless Rachel. But Joe realizes that her main battery is fried, so he replaces it, and she’s alive again! Our heroes have made a new friend, which is really touching. Now it’s time to face the Black Emperor and defeat Gedow once and for all.

Episode 7: Starship Viewties

Joe and Silvia are now in Gedow’s space base, which resembles an alien spaceship to an extent. There’s a new enemy here, a xenomorph-type creature that will do a spin dash, latch onto you with its long tongue, and throw out little baby spider things. You can only hurt these enemies from behind. 

There’s only a couple rooms in this level that are puzzles. One room has three buttons that you have to push, but they’re out of reach. You have to use Slow on the enemies and then knock them in the right direction to hit the buttons. Another room is a timed puzzle. Here you will need to use Silvia to replay-hit several sets of buttons, which can be tough because you have to use a moving platform to get some of them and sometimes enemies will get in the way. 

One section is an anti-gravity room (meaning you can jump really high and slowly descend). You have to carefully navigate through corridors and avoid spikes, which can be tricky. The rest of the level is a gauntlet! You’ll take on a fighter jet, then a walking fighter jet, then Big John in a tank (what’s with this guy?), and then waves of enemies as you progress on a huge elevator. It actually gets a bit repetitive, but perhaps that was because I was eager to get to the boss. 

Joe and Silvia finally make it to the control room, and the Black Emperor is waiting for them. He calls out to his huge robot companion, which assembles and becomes Dark Kaiser. Joe and Silvia call in Six Machine, which forms Megabot. This fight is similar to the first game’s against King Blue, but it’s not as good. The setting is really cool as you walk around an astroid belt and can see every single planet in our galaxy. Dark Kaiser will shoot out waves from the sun, send out fire dragons, use a planet to emit bouncing orbs, shoot out eight vertical lasers, and THEN he’ll disappear and reappear showing his weak spot. This fight isn’t that hard if you know what you’re doing. Dark Kaiser will do the same things in the same order every time, so you simply have to dodge his attacks and wait for the opportunity when he shows his weak spot. 

With Dark Kaiser defeated, it seems that it’s all over. Suddenly Jet runs in and grabs all the rainbow oscars. Joe is wondering what his dad is doing here. That’s when Jet reveals that…

Spoilers!!!

…he is actually the Black Emperor! Yes yes, I know, this is the exact same thing they did in the first game, only here it’s Joe’s dad, not Silvia’s, but I think that’s the point. Jet now transforms into a white costume (which is really cool btw) and uses his power to turn Joe and Silvia back to normal. He takes them into the real world, on a movie awards stage. Everyone is watching. You’ll have to fight Jet without your powers, but this is actually pretty simple: use Silvia and jump up and kick Jet three times in a row. That’ll do it. The audience starts cheering for Joe and Silvia, and they remember that word: “Henshin!” Now the fight is on!

This man-to-man fight is really cool. For some reason I remember it being really hard, but it’s actually pretty easy (on Kids mode, Jet Black only has three lifebars, not five). Jet will float around at a fast pace, so use Mach Speed to keep up. He will shoot out fireballs, do a huge sword swing, and even change the atmosphere to anti-gravity. Jet will have a fire aura around him, making him invincible. Use Red Hot Kick to dispel it, then let him have it! This is a fun fight, made even better by the incredible music, epic and exciting (it’s the best song in the game, and one of my favorite final boss themes). This is a better fight than the first game’s fight against Captain Blue, I think it’s much more memorable. 

With Jet Black defeated, Captain Blue fills us in on what happened. Jet used to help Blue back when he was a young movie director, but one day he found a black film, and it corrupted him. He became obsessed with finding the rainbow oscars (this is very similar to the first game’s plot, I know). The black film turned Jet into the Black Emperor, and he scoured the universe searching for the rainbow oscars so he could become all-powerful. 

The game ends on a cliffhanger. Blue asks Jet, “Where did you get that black V-watch?” Jet responds, “Yeah, uh, about that…” Suddenly a huge castle shows up in the background. Earth is in need of saving once again! This is clearly leading to the third game. In fact, if you recall, in the first game Captain Blue said that the earth would need to be saved two more times. This means that Hideki Kamiya was probably planning a trilogy. The third game would reveal the origin of the black V-watch and would probably have another parent be the villain LOL. Whatever the case, Kamiya has said that he wants to finish the trilogy, but Capcom won’t let him. This is especially frustrating because I think that Viewtiful Joe would do very well on the Switch. What do YOU think? Would you play a brand-new VJ game on current consoles (or even a port of the first two games)? 

As for Viewtiful Joe 2, it’s a fantastic game, superior to the first in every way. If I had to sum it up, I would say that it’s a challenging yet fun puzzle-action game. It’s probably a bit too hard for kids, but if I could beat it (on Kids Mode, mind you) then I think your average gamer could finish it too with enough persistence. The levels are longer and more interesting than the first game’s. Also, the bosses are once again excellent. Frost Tiger is clearly the hardest boss in the game, but the fights against Cameo Leon, Alastor, and Dr. Cranken are really fun. That last fight is also really epic. The movie cutscenes are also longer and more funny than the first game. Overall, this game needs more love! 

That’s it, guys. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!