I was totally blown away by this fantastic game! It’s got style, it’s got game play and it’s got some actual challenge to it. It’s not hard, so much as it makes you actually think about what you are doing. It’s not just a point and shoot action game, you have to think about how you can most effectively stop your enemies form stopping you first. Once you figure out what you need to do, it’s just a matter of doing it, unlike many modern shooters that seem to be more based on luck than actual thought and skill. You feel a much greater sense of accomplishment when you figure out how to beat a boss in this than you do in other games when you finally manage to live long enough to fill the bosses with enough bullets to drop a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

I could play this game for hours on end and completely lose track of the time. It’s just so entertaining. The consistently fast pace in this game keeps it very engaging and exhilarating–but be careful! You just might forget you should have been in bed seven hours ago!

You start off as a member of a rebel group, fighting their way through wave after wave of well-armed baddies scattered throughout a city in Japan in the post-apocalyptic future. The city is overrun by these strange mutant animals that resulted from an experimental species of animal created specifically as food and raised on the island of Hokkaido. In this post-war future life is peaceful, but as a result; overpopulation has rapidly accelerated and there is a rather immediate need for a more stable and replenish able food source. A group of sceientists genetically engineer a specific creature for the cause, but mutations gradually occur and these new creatures begin hunting their own hunters and eventually escaping the confines of Hokkaido and invading greater Japan. These creatures are referred to as the Ruffians.

Japan was in dire need of some saving at this point and commissioned the Armed Volunteers to save the country, however; they saw it more fitting to oppress the citizens and try to take control for themselves. The last hope of Japan seemed to be lost in the chaos, however; a strange rumor began to surface. A rogue group known as the Savior Group was on the hunt to take out some Ruffians and save the citizens of Japan. What was strange about this rumor was that all the members of the group were said to have been cured of various illnesses via the miraculous power of a mysterious woman known as Achi.

The story follows two teenage members of the Savior Group, Saki and Airan, as they battle the Ruffians and try to retake Japan from it’s seemingly hopeless state. They, like many others, received the salvation of Achi and were healed of their illnesses on the condition that they devote themselves to fighting the Ruffians and saving Japan from spiraling into a state of chaos and despair.

The game plays like a standard, arcade style, on-rails shooter, but it is very unique in comparison and has a much more prevalent story progression than most on-rails, arcade shooters. Everything is very anime themed, from the over dramatic story to the colorful and highly stylized graphics. So if you like a good epic scifi anime adventure this game will sure fill the bill.

Sin & Punishment was a hit Nintendo 64 game in Japan that, for various reasons, never made it to North America. But after an incredible number of requests for it to be included on Nintendo’s Virtual Console it finally made it to the finger tips of millions of Wii owners all across North America. This game was recognized by the game importing community for it’s english voice acting with japanese subtitles, which made it a very popular game to import. Flash forward a few years to the current and now you don’t have to import it! Just turn on your Wii, load up the Shopping Channel and download Sin & Punishment right off the Virtual Console section!

This game was created by legendary game developer, Treasure; a game company known for making some of the biggest cult classic video games, but they’ve laid dormant in recent years. You may know them for Gunstar Heroes or Radiant Silvergun and it’s sequel Ikaruga. They are the creators of many of the most sought after imported games of all time, and now they are back to finally bring their fantastic futuristic adventure, Sin & Punishment, to the western hemisphere!

If you like the good old arcade style rail shooters or epic scifi anime (or even both!) I very highly recommend you give this game a try! It is most certainly worth the mere 1200 Wii Points it costs on the Virtual Console. It is a rather challenging game, but in a way that makes you really want to keep trying to figure out what to do rather than just being frustratingly impossible. Current Gen game developers need to figure out that there is a difference between challenging game play and broken game play. >.>