Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - Capcom today announced it will release Viewtiful Joe for the Playstation 2. The game, originally a Gamecube title, blends beautiful cel-shaded graphics that create a unique cartoon-noir style with side-scrolling action gameplay. Viewtiful Joe was created by Capcom’s Atsushi Inaba, producer of Steel Battalion, and Hideki Kamiya, director of Devil May Cry and Resident Evil 2. The game will be released for the Playstation 2 this fall.

Story
The game begins as Joe and his girlfriend, Silvia, are at the cinema watching Joe's favorite superhero, Captain Blue. Silvia is somehow warped into the motion picture realm and it is up to Joe to fight the bad guys in the moview and rescue her. Granted superhero powers by Captain Blue, Joe gains visual effects powers that let him perform special fighting techniques that can affect time, create combos, and solve puzzles.

Gameplay
Joe's special visual effects powers are the key elements of Viewtiful Joe's innovative gameplay. When facing enemies, players must activate the correct view mode, like "Slow", a technique for instantaneously slowing down the action to inflict devastating damage, or "Mach Speed" to destroy enemies using lightning-quick martial-arts combat animations.

"Viewtiful Joe is the most innovative creation in videogames and we are thrilled to bring it to the millions and millions of PlayStation 2 owners," said Todd Thorson, director of marketing at Capcom Entertainment. "The combination of a classic side scrolling brawler and state of the art Hollywood-esque special effects makes Viewtiful Joe a one of a kind game that delivers a compelling and fun experience for every type of gamer."

The game was awarded a "Game Innovation Spotlight" at the 2004 Game Developers Conference.