by Wyatt "JOEDOG" Elliott
Capcom’s latest action game PN: 03 (Product Number) is a nice looking game.
You know when you start off saying a game is nice looking, you know its in trouble.
It’s like describing an ugly girl to a possible suitor and you say, she has a wonderful personality.
Of course the girl in PN: 03 is not ugly. In fact she’s a looker. She’s flexible,
a great dancer, and comes with a cyber suit connected to her spine which makes her body
the most powerful weapon in the known universe. So, she’s just an average woman.
The object to PN: 03 is not to shoot the crap out of the enemy . . . well, it is actually.
The scoring system and strategy of the game is based on dodging the bullets though.
Yes. You can dodge bullets, but when you’re ready, you won’t have to.
Well, that’s not true. I can’t back that up, but it’s a good thought.
Seriously though, the game does focus on dodging. You earn bonus and points by not getting hit,
but hitting your targets. Get it ? Got it? Good. PN:03 tells the story of girl,
who is a hired gun in the distant future. Her current boss is an unknown mysterious man.
She isn’t to know who he is or why he’s hiring her. He tells her objective and that’s it.
She isn’t concerned about this too much as long as she gets what’s coming to her.
She has a lot of rhythm in her performance. In fact from the previews of this game I saw,
I honestly thought it was gonna be another Space Channel 5 or something. Space Channel 5? It was a music game? You used dance moves to defeat the enemy? it was on Dreamcast? Sega??? Ah forget it.
If you do not touch the controller she bounces to the rhythm of the beats. Her dodging skills resemble
dance steps too. So, it’s not really a dancing game, but she does have flair.
Think of her as Britney Spears
if she could use her body as a weapon. Er....Okay, so she’s just like Britney Spears.
PN:03 is a good game. I wouldn’t call it a great game, only because when you take away all the fancy graphics,
controls, and dance steps. It’s a shooter. Nothing more, nothing less. You shoot stuff, stuff blows up.
You get shot, you die. Maybe you can say this about a lot of games, but the way this game is played,
it’s a shooter. Even the limited continues is notorious for shooters.
Before you shooter fans start sending me hate mail, let me say that I love shooters.
I’m a shooter fan. I loved Ikaruga. However, I expected more from this title.
I’m not sure what I expected, but I expected more.