Lights. Camera. Action. Welcome to the world of Viewtiful Joe. In 2003 Capcom released Viewtiful Joe for the Nintendo Gamecube, and it was a delight to play. In that game you play the role of Joe, an average guy that gets caught up in a crazy action movie. His goal was to rescue his abducted girlfriend Silvia from the clutches of pure evil, as she was pulled into a movie. The real question was how was he able to fight, or even follow her into that realm? Captain Blue, a previous star of action movies, pulls him into that realm, leading us to a Last Action Hero experience. Joe receives his powers from Captain Blue, which allows him to go on his mission to save his girlfriend.

This game was an instant hit on the Gamecube, which found it winning a few accolades and awards. Because of its popularity on the Gamecube, Viewtiful Joe -- previously an exclusive title -- was ported to the PS2, where a whole new group of people were able to enjoy the game. The popularity was so great, that they released a second game, Viewtiful Joe 2. In this game, you could play as Viewtiful Joe, or his girlfriend Silvia. Again with the quirky style, music, and game-play, it was again a very popular game. After this game, Viewtiful Joe Red Hot Rumble was released, with mixed reviews. It was a game, which took the characters of Viewtiful Joe and mixed them in a Smash Brother’s styled world. While it sounded great on paper, it did not fully deliver.

This would bring us to today, where Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble is released, and permanently an exclusive to the Nintendo DS. This one mixes the world of Viewtiful Joe, with the DS, which sounds like a great idea when you consider how their powers could be activated. This game also follows the main theme of the previous ones, which made it such a success. With this transition from the console system to the handheld, he brings along some new powers, which are just ready to rock at the touch of a stylus.

Previously the world takes place in a movie, and as in the previous games the power-bar/gauge was a spool of film. This feature is again ported into this game. This time -- for the most part -- it takes place outside of the movie world, but Joe discovers he is able to use his powers in the real world. Now this power-bar needs to recharge after each special attack. One of the returning attacks for the VFX (The V stands for Viewtiful) is VFX Slow. This slows down everything on the screen, including Joe. This allows for Joe to dodge many of the enemy’s attacks -- or reflect them to their source – while considerably adding to the power of your own. This ability will be your best friend, as executing it with a combo can cause an enemy to be knocked head over heels, allowing you push the nails deeper into them.

A new power is the VFX Scratch, done specifically by the stylus. This ability rains down justice with a fiery blow, as it causes items to fall from above and crush them. The more you shake, rattle, and roll, the more objects fall, which means the more damage you will cause. This is not limited to enemies though, as you will find yourself also doing this to certain areas of the world to allow you to proceed. With this you can knock a boulder out of place so that you may continue on your marry way.

Then there is the VFX Split, again used by the stylus. This allows you to split the screen horizontally, allowing you to splice it how you like it. This is very innovative in the game, because you will often be called upon to splice a wall so you can continue jump through it. There will be a border in the middle of the screen, where the bottom part will be the standard screen where you are currently standing in, and the top part will be where you spliced it. You can cause things like a spouting fire hydrant to spew water onto a blaze so that you can continue, dodge top down lasers, or add in a ledge so that you can reach the most difficult heights with few problems.

The VFX Slide, allows you to swap the top screen, with the bottom screen. This will give Joe the ultimate edge when it comes to battling, because it gives him an incredible boost in power. In this mode your enemies will quake at your advancements. Finally there is the VFX Touch, which is again triggered by the stylus. Only this can only affect certain background items, you will use it to turn gears, activate switches, or pull levers. In this mode you may also touch certain enemies to destroy them, which would be the only way to permanently eliminate them.

What is quite nice is the VFX Slow ability works with many of these abilities, so you can take your time to hit your most difficult shots, only at the expense of your VFX gauge. If this gauge runs out, Joe will lose his Viewtiful powers, and return to being a regular Joe until the bar recharges. You will be much more susceptible to damage, so you best not let that bar fade to black. Collecting fifty V-Tapes will increase your gauge by one section, which you will need to do constantly to be affective in the game.

Now for those that do not know, this game is a fighting platformer. You will have go to different entrances, and exits through the game. Then you will be required to scale tall buildings to boot. With the listed abilities, you will need to chop your competition in two, and really float like a butterfly, and sting like a bee. You will take on multiple enemies, which is the most fun part and the most difficult thing. You never take on more than three enemies at a time, which is something I would like to be dramatically increased.

The background is generally interactive; as either you will have swinging sickles swooping back and forth, buttons to press, or even your sidekick sister to help you out. I found dealing with some of the background components the more difficult things to deal with, other than some of the boss battles. This added a good deal of verity, as you constantly find yourself moving your stylus on the screen, which was great. This took full advantage of that component -- interaction with the stylus -- which leads to a unique experience in a fighting game.