Playback: Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies

I love the developer ‘Treasure’. Masters of their craft, everything they do is packed full of ideas, all running at 500mph. Many people will have heard of the likes of Ikaruga and Gunstar Heroes, so instead I’d like to give a mention to Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies.

Out now on the Wii, the game is an on-rails shooter where you are constantly moving into the screen whilst enemies blaze a trial across your path. Your main weapon can be fired in a steady stream with you aiming manually, or you can lock-on to a target which negates the need to aim, but you will see a decrease in firepower.

As well as guns, if an enemy ventures too close you can also smack them about with a melee attack (which is useful for batting away projectiles). You also get equipped with a jetpack/hoverboard so with the press of a button you can soar effortlessly into the sky.

[drop] It may all sound like standard stuff, but Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies is full to bursting with inventive, cinematic set pieces that sees the camera pan around as you desperately try and survive an all-out assault without any sign of cover.

In fact, the camera plays quite an important role as, at key points, it will shift around to create an entirely new playing experience. An example of this would be turning the game into a vertical shooter.

As with most Treasure games, high score chasing forms the real meat for fans to chew on. The story can be blasted through in about five hours, but the key to the entire experience is to build up your score multiplier and try and top the online leaderboard.

Staying on the ground whilst destroying enemies will see your score sky-rocket, whilst heading into the sky might be easier, but you will find points hard to come by. When you die (and you will die) you get the choice to continue from the last checkpoint with your score reset to zero, or start the whole level again.

It’s stuff like this that fans of the genre live for.

Graphically, whilst the game won’t win any awards, it certainly has its own unique charm. The character models aren’t brilliant, but some of the levels are stunning to behold and everything whizzes by at a blistering pace.

I cannot express how impressive Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies really is. The sublime level design, the wealth of ideas, the brilliant boss battles and the addictive gameplay all add up to one heck of a game. I’ve owned it since launch and it’s one of the few in my collection that I’ll never, ever trade in.

You want a hardcore game on the Wii? This is it, and then some.