P.N.03 - Fighting with Flair

So I just started playing PN o3, the unique third-person shooter from Capcom that came out exclusively on GameCube a few years back.

The game was part of the Campcom Five, a group of five high-profile Capcom games that were to come out exclusively on GameCube. Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7 and Resident Evil 4 were also part of this group, but those 3 all came out on PS2 later, making PN 03 the ONLY game from the Campcom Five to stay exclusive. The fifth game (dubbed Red Pheonix or something like that) was never completed.

The game is pretty crazy compared to most shooters. It does not focus much on your accuracy, as the auto-targetting is so strong there really is no skill involved there. It also doesn't allow for many changes in attack weaponry, so the skill doesn't lie there either. The tricky part is in learning how to dodge.

The girl in the game, Vanessa, moves around as if she is in the middle of some kind of techno-dance competition, but in a good way. Her jumps are exagerated and acrobatic, and make platform jumping actually kind of fun to watch. You will rely heavily on the L and R buttons, which dodge in the respective directions. These dodges go from shrugging to the side, to spinning out of the way, to doing sideways cartwheels. It can be fun for a while to dance back and forth, watching as your robotic enemies fire shot after shot without touching you. Capcom obviously put a lot of time into perfecting this dodging/acrobatic effect, and it turned out great.

Unfortunately, it seems from what time I've spent so far that this is the only mechanic that they delved into deeply. The level designs are repetitive squeaky-clean labs, the enemies are all some variety of security robot (they are cool robots, but still get boring after a while), which as a creative choice isn't bad, but as an AI choice is awful. The enemy AI is something you would have expected from an old computer game like Duke Nukem or something, its not even as engaging as shooters on the 64. The music is a bass-heavy techno mix, which pumps you up for about the first half hour of playing, but takes you no where after that.

Fortunately, the RPG elements and scoring system add a bit of challenge and reward to the mix. While the bots are sometimes painfully simplistic, this makes racing through a level for a time bonus more feasible. And building up points to buy new suits and power-ups adds a bit of excitement to keep you interested.

This game does some interesting things with the concept and the dodging mechanics. But at the end of the day, it is a slightly-below average game with only a few novel ideas to save it. This game is best in small doses, and at a cheap price.

- Scott