Sin and Punishment (2000)

A final plead for salvation is cried out towards a callous Saviour, and then swiftly rebuked through a hail of merciless gunfire. One’s existence has now become tantamount to sin. An absurd delusion in infinite growth, contained within a finite world, has become undeniably irreconcilable. And those deemed as excess are to be culled. Any semblance of a natural order within the world now long gone extinct. Those permitted to survive is instead based upon one’s social circumstance. And a covenant of blood dictates the few whom are allowed to attain power in this world.

“Even if we steal the damn transport, it won’t mean anything if there’s no one to ride in it.”

One of the chosen few stirs from their slumber, although the distinction between the subconscious and the waking world has worn thin. The imagined becoming analogous to reality. So a pointless rescue mission, for now fresh corpses, proceeds unadulterated without hesitation. The momentum induced by a revengeful desire is much too steep to slow down one’s conviction. A war waged upon the living, for dreamed delusions imposed upon the dead.

“Kachua’s gone… Think of the living – like me!”

Violence begets violence. A perpetual reciprocation that further emboldens animosity. Another infinitely growing cycle has manifested. Except this one has been deliberately incited to be. As the two forces clash, the Saviour revels at the strength of the monsters formed from a mutual hatred. Their contest will surely unmake this world, as she meant for it to be. Her ambitions lie beyond the containment of this finite plane after all.

“Change can be a scary thing when you don’t know how to change back”

The battle is settled, and yet it is not deemed destructive enough. One side enigmatically relents from escalation, instead accepting their annihilation. The other must now be enticed into further proclivity. So a vision of the future is laid out bare before the victors. The doomed prospect of this world consumed beyond its means. Of the futile connection between their human hearts. Yet one that bears progeny, born in spite of the uncertainty in their union. A vision sought to rebuke attachment instead provides solace. The surviving monster violently rejects the potential of forming a new world, in favour of familiarity within the doomed old. And so willingly chooses to wade through the ocean towards the setting sun.

“The old Earth will die soon, killed by the very people it fed”

(Sin and Punishment is an incredibly visceral experience. A visually dazzling violent spectacle that glamorises indulging in its brutality. While it is perhaps curt on commentary, much of this can be attributed with just how incredibly condensed it all is. Its story as a result is perhaps a little hard to follow from the game content alone, and I needed the relatively brief excerpt and character profiles to follow along (I used the translations provided here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/n64/366184-sin-and-punishment/faqs/14085). Understanding what is going on however is secondary to the overall experience, the game’s focus placed upon its pristine game-play. Your patron would actually prefer to have you indulge in it’s depravity unquestionably. As it is already famously distinguished within its genre space, I would additionally recommend it to any one already acclimatised to the N64 catalogue, as indulging it’s control scheme is perhaps its greatest barrier to entry)

For me personally, Sin & Punishment is not quiiite as fun as its amazing sequel (review), but it's still a great game whose flashy, fast-paced action stands out in the N64 library.

Since it is an N64 game, the controls are unsurprisingly a bit weird, especially when translated to a modern controller via your typical emulation mapping. With a bit of shuffling around, you can make it feel more familiar and reveal the fun combat system underneath.

Though this is a shooter, my favorite parts of combat are two things that don't involve shooting: deflecting projectiles back at your enemies, and slashing away with your sword at close range. The former in particular is a highlight of some boss fights and levels, as you can leave certain enemies alive to continually redirect their attacks at other enemies. Shooting does feel nice too, with an option to lock onto your foe in exchange for reduced damage.

The best parts of the game use all these abilities in combination with your double jump and dashes from side to side for some pretty fun and demanding fights. It's particularly demanding toward the end—a bit more than I would have liked at points, to be honest. But it all pays off with an absurd and fun final boss battle, the likes of which you only see in weird Japanese action games.

I found the cutscenes and story and such pretty bad or meh in the sequel, and that is true here as well. Characters don’t look great, but there are some really impressive-looking bosses, environments, and big setpieces to look at. It just has a great visual vibe overall. There aren't a ton of levels here, but there's a decent variety of styles to look at and the game certainly never gets boring.

Definitely a fun game that non-Japanese gamers unfortunately missed out on back in the day. I do recommend the sequel over this, but there's no reason not to try both if you have access to them.

While I've played admittedly few by them, this is an excellent shooting game by Treasure. It reminds me a bit of something like space harrier or star fox 64, or so many very old era behind-the-back shooter arcade games where you are running on foot shooting or taking cover. However some of the crazy camera angles the game will send you on combined with its very flashy form of presentation feel like Rez.

some parts of S&P are quite awesome and best experienced yourself.

Some of the levels manage to borrow takes from various genres. one towards the end is a run and gun and some feel more like scrolling shooters/STGs (particular the aircraft carrier level where you shoot down all sorts of things, and you fly through the level on a craft of your own while doing it) If you like shooting games of any kind you should really play this because it seems to manage to combine elements of every genre. There is even one spot in in that is based off Missile Command

S&P has a either absolutely arbitrary story or it's been dubbed to death, but the whole thing is pretty much completely playable to english-speaker you just have to get past the initial menus. a simple faq or youtube video is all you need to play it (if even that)

S&P is hard though, and upon dying you get a generous amount of continues. It helps to take the time to go through the practice mode to get a live demonstration and drills of each of the games mechanics, it's not overly quirky but there are a lot of things going on it, and you will need to know them. Essentially you are juggling bonus pickups you collect for increased time, health and going for points (here we go feeling like a STG again!) on your way chopping through one miniboss after another. After about three or so, the levels themselves culminate in some kind of 'big boss battle' or show down fight. these bosses are where its typically harder. its a matter of figuring out their exploit and doing them in, if you know how to do it its easy, if you don't it's impossible. that kinda game. I have mixed feelings about the way it plays, its easy to make mistakes with your controls and it's a lot more control heavy than maybe any shooting game i've played.

In the end this is a fun ride. It showcases some really incredible looking scenes for the Nintendo 64 and there are a lot of enjoyable cutscenes in between the action, its a really good balance of things I felt, as well as takes inspirations from various kinds of anime into a big ball that makes no sense at all (in the way that only an anime can a manage to pull off and get away with it) If you don't mind outlandishly absurd stuff you'll appreciate this.

The game hits its many high notes quite hard that they overshadow its flaws and quirks. It feels so close to perfect but its fairly short and three or so hours at most with next to no discernible story and what at times is a really tough game from tricky (almost gimmicky) boss fights. I'll still give it Five stars for being so unique and standing out among this console in the era it hails from, even though I barely have a clue on what this game is even about!

Cabal-like is certainly pushing it; the amount of movement freedom and challenging rail-shooting that Sin and Punishment on the N64 offers is phenomenally original. The challenges and rapid-fire bosses are unfortunately short, but manage some top-notch variety, whether it be swordfighting a large beast, chasing what appears to be a large dung beetle, and picking off battleships flying high above the sky.

Could this game use some improvements? The co-op is a bit wonky, forcing one player to aim and shoot while the other moves. It can be quite irritating to have to rely on a player's skill instead of taking up both, but it does help for players who feel a bit overwhelmed by shooting and moving at the same time.

The story? Whereas most stories are bad, this one approaches a brilliantly nonsensical bad, as the player will never know what they're being thrown into next. And it's in full English regardless of version! The music is exciting and teeters the line between alright and instantly memorable melodies.

For N64 players (but really, Virtual Console owners), this is one of the reasons to have the system, with original and well-designed gameplay and action that is short but beautifully sweet.