Genre: Action
Perspective: Behind view
Gameplay: Rail Shooter
Setting: Sci-Fi / Futuristic
Published by: Nintendo Co.
Developed by: Treasure Co.
Released: 2000
Platform: Nintendo 64 (N64)
A series of Sin And Punishment games are not usually referred to as "scooters", but are attributed to the genre of "rail shooters", which in my opinion often forms incorrect expectations for the player, since the first coming to mind games of this style are usually House Of The Dead or Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Sin And Punishment does not have almost any of the advantages of the above games. There is no simple, but exciting history, the game does not scare the sudden appearance of enemies. In Sin And Punishment, there is no such thing as "recharging", at least in the form in which it is familiar to everyone.
Sin and Punishment was released in 2000 on the console Nintendo 64 and was one of the latest games for this console. The release was limited only to the Japanese region, and in the West only a small part of the players knew about the game, but in 2007, thanks to the service, Wii's virtual cone about the game was learned in the rest of the world.
However, the fate of the development of the game is interesting. Treasure was impressed by the new Nintendo 64 controller, and, in particular, its innovative stick and wanted to create a game that would fully reveal the potential of the controller. At that time, the well-known Super Mario 64 was already released, where thanks to the stick it was possible to control the hero in three dimensions, which to some extent turned the game industry market, revealing the controller's capabilities and setting a new management standard in video games. But the strange form of the controller of three pens meant the use of a gamepad in two different modes: left and right.
With the right execution, the left hand of the player interacted with the stick and was responsible for the movement of the hero of the game, while the right hand used the available buttons for all possible actions of the hero.
The left execution, where the right hand would steer in games, was practically absent. Treasure in this idea saw the potential, controlling the sight of one thumb was an excellent idea, which for some unknown reason is not used by igrodel players. Thus began the development of the game, code-named "Glass Solder".
It is worth noting that the yard was in 1997, and similar experiments in management seemed innovative. The developers of computer games saw an analog stick for the first time, and Nintendo faced a difficult task: to teach developers to use new functions, or to force them to come up with new opportunities, otherwise we would still play on crosses. You can draw a good analogy with the Wii U and its Wii U Gamepad: maybe in 20 years the controller without a screen will seem to be a savage contemporaries.
However, the development of the game was delayed. First, there were problems with the "introduction" of the new control system: the stick in the right hand seemed uncomfortable from unaccustomed, there was no certainty that the players would accept this idea. There were even rumors about the development of a special sensory device for the Nintendo 64 controller, like a gyroscope, to replace the stick with motion control. Later, there were problems with programming 3D models. Treasure staff numbered less than a dozen people and did not accept any outside help, fearing that their fragile game concept could fall apart into small pieces with the arrival of a new person. The company lived a game for three years, and eventually its final version still appeared.
The plot of the game in the best traditions of Treasure is in the near future: it is 2007 (it is symbolic that the world appearance of the game happened in this year). On the planet Earth massive hunger, food supplies are sorely lacking. Scientists from all over the world decided to grow the "mutants" derived from laboratories in order to provide food for the population. But, as it usually happens, everything went not according to plan, and the creatures began to grow, mutate and hunt people. The US government expelled a group of soldiers to eliminate the threat, but in addition to their direct duties to eliminate the "raffins" (as the locals nicknamed the mutants), the military began to terrorize the population of Japan. A group of rebels, led by a woman with supernatural powers called Kachi, is fighting against the aggressors in the form of mutants of raffins and American soldiers. The main characters of the game - Saki and Ayran Jo - are members of the rebel squad, and it is for them that the player has to play.
The plot of the game in the best traditions of Treasure is in the near future: it is 2007 (it is symbolic that the world appearance of the game happened in this year). On the planet Earth massive hunger, food supplies are sorely lacking. Scientists from all over the world decided to grow the "mutants" derived from laboratories in order to provide food for the population. But, as it usually happens, everything went not according to plan, and the creatures began to grow, mutate and hunt people. The US government expelled a group of soldiers to eliminate the threat, but in addition to their direct duties to eliminate the "raffins" (as the locals nicknamed the mutants), the military began to terrorize the population of Japan. A group of rebels, led by a woman with supernatural powers called Kachi, is fighting against the aggressors in the form of mutants of raffins and American soldiers. The main characters of the game - Saki and Ayran Jo - are members of the rebel squad, and it is for them that the player has to play.
Management in the game remains the way Treasure imagined it at an early stage of development, that is, the gamepad is used in the left version. Using the stick, the sight is controlled, and with the help of the cross the movement of the main character. Also, the player with the help of the left trigger has the ability to jump. For shooting, it is enough to pinch the right trigger, after which the accuracy of hitting the enemies completely falls on the player's thumb, which with the stick must shoot out crowds of emerging enemies. In addition, there are two combat systems: manual or automatic. For switching between modes, button B answers.
The game is a rail shooter, a mechanic resembling a shmap. The protagonist at a very fast pace you need to destroy opponents, with little room for respite. To avoid enemy bullets, you need to constantly move around the screen, and it is desirable to do this by jumping or repeatedly pressing the cross, which gives a small invulnerability. If the enemy is selected close enough, then once the sharp click on the trigger, the main character will hold a close attack with a laser sword. The melee is the most powerful in this game, but its use is limited. In addition to attacking at close range, it can be used to repel enemy cartridges back to themselves. And the caliber does not matter at all: from small bombs to whole rockets.
The first half of the game you play for Saki - a young guy, a member of the rebel group. But after some plot twists under the control of the player his girl Ayran gets. There are no differences in the management and abilities of the heroes, and their change is explained only by the turn of the plot. Japan after the active actions of our hero in the literal sense of the word will be flooded with the blood of monsters, and our hero Saki, hitting the fountain of enemy blood during a tense battle, will change, becoming a monster, half-human, half raffin. These changes will affect not only the appearance of the hero and his physical abilities: the mind becomes clouded, he becomes unbalanced, cruel and furious. Ayran, seeing all the changes in his beloved person, will give up the urgent advice of his leader Kachi about the decisive measure of annihilation of the half-monster, thus starting the battle not only for liberation from the oppression of the military and raffins, but for the life of his loved one, despite his condition.
The first half of the game you play for Saki - a young guy, a member of the rebel group. But after some plot twists under the control of the player his girl Ayran gets. There are no differences in the management and abilities of the heroes, and their change is explained only by the turn of the plot. Japan after the active actions of our hero in the literal sense of the word will be flooded with the blood of monsters, and our hero Saki, hitting the fountain of enemy blood during a tense battle, will change, becoming a monster, half-human, half raffin. These changes will affect not only the appearance of the hero and his physical abilities: the mind becomes clouded, he becomes unbalanced, cruel and furious. Ayran, seeing all the changes in his beloved person, will give up the urgent advice of his leader Kachi about the decisive measure of annihilation of the half-monster, thus starting the battle not only for liberation from the oppression of the military and raffins, but for the life of his loved one, despite his condition.
If we talk about complexity, then this is all very ambiguous. The main obstacle to be overcome by the player is a limited amount of "continue". Sin And Punishment provides the player with only a few attempts, after which, in case of failure, one has to start again. However, there is a circumvention of such a small number of continuations: if you destroy 100 opponents without losing a life, the reward will be an additional attempt. The first training levels provide an opportunity to "fill" as many continuations as possible from the enemies easily evade, and their number with skillful destruction will help to gain about a dozen additional "continue". This scheme resembles a game on arcade machines, where you have to pay for the continuation of "blood", or just very good to play. Repeatedly during the passage there was a feeling that the game was obliged to go out on automatic machines, but I could not find evidence of this fact. Otherwise, if we talk about complexity, then fans of "shmapov" game should come to taste: the number of bosses is sufficient to not make bored, and intermediate levels are rich and diverse.
Sin And Punishment is a nice classic, which was able to pass the test of time. Watching what's happening on the screen is nice, some of the findings of the game process even now look fresh and in a new way. Graphic performance, unfortunately, does not shine, but after ten minutes of intense play on this drawback do not pay attention. The complete passage of the game takes about 3-4 hours, but to beat the game on the first attempt, most likely, will not work. Well-designed gameplay will not make you bored, and the re-launch of the game does not weigh. The innovative use of the gamepad made the game unique for its time, but at the moment such control methods do not seem to be anything unusual, which only proves the correctness of the choice of the game creation vector. Who knows, maybe Treasure is getting a new game development plan, where the use of the Wii U GamePad touch screen will be an integral part of the gameplay?