In 2000, Nintendo released an arcade-style shooter developed by Treasre that sadly never made it to the United States until the Wii was released and emulated onto Virtual Console. Those who were fortunate to play the game on the actual N64 were in for a treat as it was one of the best arcade shooter of its time. A decade later, Treasure unleashes a sequel on the Wii itself much to everyone's delight. While the story behind the game is lacking, the action REALLY makes up for it.
You take control of two characters: Isa and Kaichi as you try to progress through the 7 stages (8 if you include the tutorial level) in order to escape the mayhem that is a futuristic, apocalyptic Japan. To get through the stages is simple: point or aim at the screen and shoot everything. The action of Star Successor is intense and you don't spend a single second relaxing or slacking off while fighting a hoard of enemies or encountering one of the many boss fights that this game has.
This game comes with 3 different control schemes: the Wiimote/nun-chuck combination, Classic or Classic-Pro controller and the GameCube controller. Each can be modified to suit the needs for anyone who plays it, though the Wiimote/nun-chuck combo is the best choice. Simply aim at the screen and hold down the fire button to unleash a never-ending barrage of bullets to do damage, tap the fire button to unleash a quick melee attack (great for deflecting other attacks back at enemies), rapidly tapping the fire button will unleash a melee combo, a jump and evade button to make sure that you don't die or take a lot of unnecessary damage. In addition to the formula from the N64 game is the lock-on target mechanism, enabling you to aim your reticule at the specific target that you need (though your shots will lose power while doing so) and the charge shot for maximum damage. Using a charged shot will take time to pull off and be able to execute another so use them wisely.
In regards to the two characters Isa and Kaichi they play a lot differently from one another. They still have the same firing power and speed but their melee and charged attacks are what sets them apart. Isa's melee attack activates as a beam katana with a lot of range and his charge shot is a massive ball of energy that causes absolute destruction to whoever it hits at the expense of manually targeting to be sure that it isn't wasted. Isa's charge shot is quick to charge yet it takes a long time before you can do it again. Kaichi on the other hand is not as good as Isa and quite frankly the game is a lot harder with her. Melee attack wise is very short and is not as effective as Isa's. Charge shot wise is a number of orbs that home in on the closest targets and can take out several enemies at a time. However it takes forever to execute it and it takes just as long to be able to pull off another way. Isa is more of a beginner's/novice's style character while Kaichi is more of an expert's style with her numerous limitations.
Sin and Punishment is a very short game unfortunately, though that will not matter much seeing as how this game is one of the hardest Wii games in existence. Even on Easy mode the game does not hold back. Normal mode is rather challenging especially the final boss and Hard mode will truly drive you insane from the amount of deaths you suffer. You will die a lot while playing Star Successor though some of the difficulty will go down as soon as you figure out the boss patterns. And to make matters even worse, dying will cause you to lose all of the points that you accumulated up to that area. So in order to pull off the best personal scores, or upload them online to show the world just how awesome/hardcore you are, you REALLY need to push yourself to limits and beyond to pull off that feat. This game will put your targeting, shooting, dodging and abilities to the test. Some deaths can be rather cheap (final boss) though the game itself is still fun.
Another disadvantage that this game has over other rail shooters such as House Of The Dead, Resident Evil Chronicles and Dead Space Extraction is the multiplayer. All multiplayer is, sadly, just an extra reticule on the screen. One player takes control of whatever character they pick while the other just shoots. The second player has no charge shots, no melee attacks and no auto-targeting. Their job is just to rank up more points for the other player, which is a shame cause this could've easily been the most intense multiplayer game on the Wii by far.
Graphic wise, Sin and Punishment does not hold up to what the Wii is truly capable of. Music/Sound wise makes up for it. A lot of catchy techno tunes can be heard while blasting through enemies, fitting for the futuristic look that Treasure was going for. Also unlike some Japanese imports this game enables us to play with either the horrendously bad English voices or the tremendously good Japanese voices which is a good thing.
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is a very short rail-shooter for the hardest of hardcore gamers to enjoy or those who are interested in shooters as long as they can accept the amount of deaths thrown at you. Multiplayer is severely lacking and it is easily the hardest game on the Wii thus far. However those who can get around all of that will be pleasantly surprised with what this game has to offer.