699: Sin and Punishment

[JaySevenZero]

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Sin and Punishment for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.

[Jobobonobo]

I remember seeing this in magazines, taunting me with its exclusivity to Japan and really wanting to try this out. Its sci-fi anime style was something not often seen on the N64 and rail shooters is always a genre that I enjoy so to find out this was not coming to the West really was a punch in the gut. Thankfully I tried it on the Wii Virtual Console many years later when it got released there and was surprised that so much of the game was in English despite it being the original Japanese version. One reason why I think this game was not released out west is that the plot is incomprehensible, and I always struggled to keep up with why certain things were happening. Despite that, the gameplay was typical sublime stuff which is what Treasure really excels at. The fact that you have a gun blade effectively means that no matter where the enemy is positioned on screen you can take them out and the constant action really makes this a rollercoaster of a game. I heard this game was really tricky to play with the Wii classic controller, but I was lucky that I had my GameCube controller which seemed to map onto the N64 control scheme much more fluidly. While the storyline is whatever, I was impressed with the overall presentation of the title with the amount of stuff going on screen without slowdown and the intense soundtrack constantly pushing you forward.

Sin and Punishment really is one of the best N64 games that was exclusive to Japan and anime gibberish story aside, might have done well out West if Nintendo properly marketed it. It is a nice lean on rails shooter that showcases Treasure’s mastery of action-packed gameplay quite admirably. I’m glad it finally made its way over here even if not fully translated and is a must play for anyone who is a fan of both on rail shooters and wants to explore some of the less known gems in the N64 library.

TWR: A true treasure