Product Number 3 (Gamecube)

[Ajinryu]

Title: P.N.03
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Shooter/Action
Platforms: Gamecube



Bust a Groove

Shooters are a genre that was explored extensively during the 80's and the 90's. They provided a great, mindless, or skilful (Depending on your style of play) experience that can keep you hooked for hours, or play for a short burst of time. Either way they are/where a great way to pass time. During the late 90's and the current 21st century this genre has slowly become an obscure and rare experience in Europe and America. Unlike in Japan, where you can still see and play a lot of traditional and modern shooters from the comfort of your own home or in a Japanese arcade. P.N.O3 is a title by Capcom, produced by Shinji Mikami. The game doesn't follow the regular shooter formula, but revolves around rhythm, timing and dancing based mechanics to proceed through each stage of the game.



Dirty Dancing

As fantastic and unique as this concept sounds though, booting up the game will make you think differently. The controls are very jerky to say the least, upon first impressions anyway. You can't strafe while running, you have to stand still to fire and tap Z to turn 180 degrees on a set pivot, much like the Resident Evil games. The only reason the system actually feels bad is because it's an unusual system to use, granted it's looks great when a veteran is playing it but pick up the pad on your first go and you'll be in a world of frustration, as enemies constantly hit you dead on as you strafe too late, and you find yourself running into walls much to often. The impression you get through the opening stages is not good but upon extensive playing you'll most likely find that the control system feels very responsive and you'll be pulling off a seamless combo of backflips, sideflips, and crouch rolls.

Although the controls and mechanics feel very different to most games of this type, a lot of the standard stuff associated with shooters is in there, such as the obvious points system, destroying enemies in a combo earns more points, which can be used to buy upgrades for your characters. Your characters abilities come from a suit that is attached to Vanessa's spinal cord called the "Aegis suit" There are nine of these suits to buy through shops that are accessible after each stage, or at certain spots in a level. Each suit has their own distinct look, as well as their own unique pro and cons, such as offensive and defensive use. For one category a suit excels in, it weakens in the other so picking the right suit before each stage is essential. These suits can also be upgraded by buying stats from shops too. So there is always room to expand and strengthen each individual suit. This makes a change from mid battle pick ups and keeps players interested and adds some strategy to some of the mindless blasting.



Out of Step, But in Sync

Visual wise, P.N.03 is a mix of stylish and sleek, and bland and repetitive, environments are very samey, white walls, think black lines, and glass tubes and floors litter the levels, and outside areas are barren brown deserts, there really isn't much to the environments, the enemies on the other hand are very nicely designed, all with their own unique look, some even resembling animals in a way except the obvious difference of them being metal renditions of animals, they're all very well designed and make up for the dull environments. It does the job, but more effort could've been put into it. You'll even come across rooms that are identical to rooms you've previously explored.

The games music consists of techno music, which fits in perfectly with the dancing style action of the game. It's nothing special but the music and SFX suit the space age style of the game, like the visuals it does the job well enough. It's a style that depending on your tastes will either frustrate you or appeal to you.



And the judges score?

The game has a charm to it, it's unique gameplay and premise cannot be denied, but it's done in such a way that can put people off, it's sad but some people will probably never like this game. It has numerous flaws, but if you look past some of them you'll find an enjoyable blaster that if, at the right price is really enjoyable but not exactly perfect. It's a game that borders on unique and frustrating at times, but given a chance it can possibly grow on you. Not star material though.

Graphics: 7.4

Pretty cosmetic and bland but the enemy design and animation evens things out a little.

Sound: 7.7

Techno music fits the bill and the SFX suit the space age design of the game. It does the job well. Could've been more varied though.

Lifespan: 8.3

Only 11 missions in the main campaign, but on normal the pace really picks up and it becomes a solid challenge and quite brutal. Also room for improving on high scores. And theres the trial mode.

Overall Score: 7.7

I bought this title for £8 and it was a good buy at that price. £10 or under is a perfect price to try this game out. Be warned though, you have to be very open to new ideas, and very persistent to get anything out of his title.

[YellerDog]

Grabbed this today for $9. Great fun, didn't know what the heck was going on at first. Caught on quick!

[Ajinryu]

Grabbed this today for $9. Great fun, didn't know what the heck was going on at first. Caught on quick!

Glad you like it. Some people where way too harsh on the game. (IGN gave it a 5.3 and GS gave it a 5.1 Ouch!) It's a love/hate game really. Much like Capcoms latest GC title Killer7.

[Diff-chan]

Game: 0/10

Review: 0/10

[Ajinryu]

Game: 0/10

Review: 0/10

[YellerDog]

Final analysis: The bosses are shit (one/two supers and dead? WTF?), but the combo-rush-dodge-combo gameplay is a lot of fun.

Great game for $10, but I would have been quite pissed if I paid full retail.

[Bacon McShig]

I never really "got" this game until playing Mercenaries in RE4. PN03 is a nice cross between that and Dino Crisis 2... You really have to give it time to grow on you, though.

Fun fact: RE4's Mercs soundtrack is actually remixed PN03 tracks.