The Viewtiful Joe series used to be one of Capcom’s most promising franchises. After a big debut outing on GameCube and PS2 (the later featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series), it got a direct sequel, a multi-console Smash-like spin-off, and side story exclusive to the Nintendo DS.
For a while there, it felt like Joe would be around forever, and in some ways, he has. Like the cast of Capcom’s similarly ill-fated Darkstalkers series, Joe got an anime adaptation, loads of merch, and multiple guest spots in crossover titles like Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and the most recent iteration of Puzzle Fighter.
But what’s really puzzling is why Capcom let the series die after that. Unlike Okami, also developed by Capcom’s former studio Clover, none of the Joe games have ever been ported to modern consoles. Fans have never stopped asking for more of both though. Those fans also include Hideki Kamiya, Joe’s humble creator. In a recent YouTube video, Kamiya-san lamented:
“I’d love to work on them if I ever get a chance. I actually had the story for a third Viewtiful Joe all thought out. I’ve always wanted to make it. I wonder if Capcom would let me make another Viewtiful Joe… Okami, too. I feel like I left that unfinished, so if we could make that happen as well, I’d be happy.”
The beginning of Viewtiful friendship?
Okami did continue on in the form of Okamiden in 2010, another DS exclusive, but Kamiya wasn’t involved there. By that time he had already moved on to co-found Platinum Games, a team born from the ashes of Clover, which was dissolved in 2006. Platinum’s initial releases were all collaborations with publisher Sega, including MadWorld, Bayonetta, and Vanquish.
They’d later partner with Activision, Konami, Square Enix, and even Nintendo, but never with Capcom. It’s been assumed that there may be some bad blood between the two companies, preventing them from revisiting any of Clover’s former franchises.
But now that Kamiya-san has left Platinum, the door may open for the legendary director and his former employer to make viewtiful music together again. With its Fred Durst-meets-Power Rangers lead character, 2.5D cel shaded graphics, and gameplay that bridges the gap between the platformers of yesteryear and the character action games of today, everything about Viewtiful Joe screams early-2000s. It’s an era that many people today are nostalgic for, proven by the runaway success of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Metrid Prime Remastered, and that “Woman is my favorite guy” song everyone liked for about a month.
Testing out the waters with ports of the first two games on modern consoles couldn’t be such a risky move, right? Has the re-release of a GameCube game ever done poorly on Switch?
