At the beginning of each of Star Successor’s fantastic stages (I fought my way through a robot hanger bay, buzzed a fortress in the sky, tunneled through an industrial complex and flew down the center of a giant underwater vortex, among other locales) players get to choose whether Isa or Kachi will attempt the level, and a Nintendo rep informed me this wasn’t a simple gender preference.
For one thing, Isa and Kachi control differently in combat. While Isa sports a sharp sword, Kachi prefers a series of increasingly powerful kicks for her melee attack; where Isa can strafe targets freely, Kachi must lock onto foes before her shots track the target. New to Star Successor is the charge shot, performed by holding down A; Isa’s charged shot is a giant explosive projectile that does considerable splash damage, while Kachi’s is a set of homing projectiles which can track up to eight targets individually or converge on one for greater damage. (A Nintendo rep pointed out that while charge shots have a cooldown period before they can be reused, Kachi’s cooldown will depend on how many of her eight projectiles you’ve chosen to fire.)
For another ”“Â though Nintendo wouldn’t provide me with more detail ”“Â I was informed that character choice will subtly change how Star Successor’s fully-voiced in-game cinematics (in both English and Japanese) and story elements will play out. Though it’s almost not worth mentioning here, you can also have a friend pick up a Wiimote and lay down some cover fire, ostensibly as the character you’re not controlling, but only Player 1 gets the full experience; your friend has no visible avatar, just a crosshair, and can only dispense the game’s weakest type of ammunition to support you.
While some will no doubt play Star Successor for its beauty and others to demonstrate their prowess racking up high scores in the game’s online, international leaderboards across multiple difficulty levels, the main draw of Star Successor is surely the dozens of aforementioned boss fights. Having experienced half a dozen bosses and sub-bosses for myself, I can honestly inform you that they are constantly surprising, always keeping you on your toes dodging attacks and searching for vulnerabilities… and quite fun as a result.
Early on, the game pits you against a giant enemy bird with only a few different attacks, including sending a series of roly-poly minions down the ramp of an desolate highway, straight towards you, and it was pretty obvious to me that the correct course of action was to bat the minions right back at the bird with a few swipes of my sword. Sure enough, this racked up damage quickly, and the fight was over. But if I thought that this would be the way future bosses would treat me, I was in for quite the surprise. One of the next bosses I encountered, a sinister-looking organization member named Orion, had no less than four different attack patterns and a shield that granted full invulnerability from my attacks, and I saw at least three different ways of doing damage.
But even he was nothing compared to the giant spiked turtle-like creature I encountered in a giant industrial shaft. In order to even get close to this creature, I had to fly through a series of deadly rings of projectiles, dodge its massive claw swipes, and evade gigantic spiked stone missiles launched from its back. After circling around the nasty flame breath emanating from its mouth, I found my first opportunity to do some real damage, but I then had to dodge out of the way of its snapping jaws, and fend off scores of boulders that fell from the sky as the giant beast shook the mine shaft in its fury. As it turns out, there were actually plenty of ways to take down the turtle, including reflecting stone missiles and rocks right back at its body and slashing at close range.
But what I didn’t realize, until our Nintendo rep pointed it out, was that if you do very specific, stylish things at just the right time in boss fights, you can earn medals ”“Â Wii Achievements, basically ”“Â as well. Sure enough, when I slashed the monster’s jaw just as it lanced out to swallow Isa whole, out popped a medal. And though I wasn’t able to pull it off during my session, I was told that if I dislodged all four of the creature’s feet from the shaft walls with reflected missiles, another medal and bonus points might await me.
Truth be told, a good deal of Sin & Punishment: Star Successor’s value will be in its (as yet undisclosed) story and play length, and without having time to fully appreciate all the game’s stages, I can’t honestly recommend you purchase or preorder the game without consulting a full review. But that doesn’t keep Star Successor from being one of the most polished and detailed titles I’ve seen at a preview event. If it does indeed have many more times the content I saw at the 2010 Nintendo Media Summit, it’ll be a sure purchase for shoot ’em up fans this June 7.
Bonus Round: If you’ve read this far, chances are you’re as excited about Sin & Punishment: Star Successor as I was. Perhaps you’ll even buy it. In that case, I’ve got a special surprise for you that just might give you a head start on the online competition. I briefly quizzed Nintendo’s Julian Chunovic, lead translator on Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, about his top five tips for achieving the best scores, and here’s what he had to say.
Now, this is just me personally ”“Â these aren’t the proven tactics ”“Â but I’d say first of all, don’t overrely on your standard shot. Always be looking for a chance to counter or use a charged shot. That’s huge.
Number two is, don’t overrely on rolling. You’re invincible while you’re doing it, but then you’re vulnerable for a short time period afterwards. There’s a lot to be said for moving the analog stick in fine adjustments instead. Don’t always feel like you need to roll.
Third, if you’re going for big scores, put your feet on the ground whenever you can. (Editor’s note: though you’ve got far less mobility, whenever Isa or Kachi are grounded, your score will continually increase.)
Fourth, when using the melee attack in a defensive capacity, don’t press the melee button three times to get the full 1-2-3 chain. If you use light single taps, the animation will reset, you’ll recover faster from the swing, and you’ll be able to slash again quickly for improved defense.
Lastly ”“ and I’m serious about this ”“ be observant, and practice makes perfect. As you go through the stages over and over, you’re going to notice details you never saw before, you’ll find items that you’d swear you couldn’t knock back as a missile that you actually can, because it had just never occurred to you to try and hit *that* before. There might be objects in the background you can blow up… or a way of destroying something that is actually more efficient at earning you points. So be observant.
- 1 2