Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble is like a gorgeous girl who doesn't take herself too seriously, likes to drink beer, and thinks pizza is God's gift to mankind. If you've never met a girl like this, you must be drinking beer and ordering your pizza from the wrong joint, baby! There's good and bad to this formula, and while we may quibble about the style of play, there's no denying that VJ: Red Hot Rumble comes on strong with some unique, anime-styled visuals. The cut-scenes are hilarious, and all the character designs have some humorous elements. My favorite is Coordinator Sprocket, who is constantly zipping up her top to restrain those luscious curves, because her darn zipper just won't stay zipped... And who can beat a girlfriend named Sexy Silvia?

Just as the visuals are waaaaay over the top, you've got a particularly frantic set of sound effects and music. It fits the genre, and the music definitely drives up your pulse. Everything in VJ: Red Hot Rumble seems to be in motion, from the background elements to the objects on screen. And besides the motion, there are a lot of explosions and energy blasts streaking across the screen. The camera swoops and zooms in or out, depending on the action, which can run from slo-mo "bullet time" to supercharged, lighting-fast action. Since the premise of VJ: Red Hot Rumble is to impress Captain Blue enough to win a part in his new movie, every minute of play is geared toward maximum stimulation.

Captain Blue barely fits into his clothes, and his past success leads him to believe that investing in a film career is better than spending all his time fighting the bad guys. Before he can just hand the mantle over to someone else, Captain Blue has to decide which hero is most deserving. After puzzling over the merits of each, the Captain decides to stage tryouts and pick the hero who creates the most excitement on screen. So, the game plays out as a series of battles, but not like the original Viewtiful Joe format. Rather than working through waves of enemy and boss battles, VJ Red Hot Rumble is drawing from the Mario Party world of short, energetic stages that have simple objectives. Take out more enemies than the other guy, or beat him in a mini-game, and you may be one step closer to winning Captain Blue's part in the new movie.

The single-player game is fairly limited, not because there isn't a lot to see and not because there aren't good controls or weak A.I. The fact is, party games are best with other folks. Hence, the name. One person does not generally make a party, unless that person happens to have a fertile imagination or a large vat of hand lotion. Or both. Players who liked the style of play from the original game and hoped to see that coming to PSP may be disappointed, but there are some things in VJ Red Hot Rumble that carry over from the original game. Even for a party game, there are lots of great battles that give Joe room to stretch out and use his special abilities. As the "movie" is being filmed in different locations, there's plenty of visual variety, and the boss battles are still exciting. Both the A.I. opponent battles and the boss fights are challenging, but there isn't enough variety in the gameplay to make single-player compelling.

Hooking up with other players is a great way to appreciate VJ: Red Hot Rumble, either through game sharing or true wireless multiplayer. The game sharing option is nice, since it lets you get your friends hooked on a relatively stripped down version of the game. If they like it and go buy a copy, you can use the wireless multiplayer to access more than basic options. As much as the multiplayer aspect is fun, there just aren't enough activities to keep VJ: Red Hot Rumble interesting as a party game for long. What it looks like on the surface is that VJ: Red Hot Rumble plays well enough to be entertaining, but not sustaining.

The link between action and success is sometimes hard to find in Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble. Through the game, after the tutorial, the question of what constituted a "successful" performance often came up. Earning extra money is the key to making progress, and by pulling off special moves or winning in the VFX mode, Joe can earn his stripes with Captain Blue and secure his place in history. Not every character is available at first, and all the available characters have some quirks and advantages when fighting. Even though the objectives in each level don't always have to do with fighting, the heritage of Viewtiful Joe comes through intact. Every character can unleash signature moves, and even when a challenge involves gathering items or taking down a boss, it's more than fair to attack the other player. Fighting more than one opponent is when things get really fun, and you have the ability to customize the game so that larger fights are suited to your ability and desire for challenge.

The training mode goes into detail on the different moves for your character, and the function of each button. The attack and jump buttons are grouped together, with movement assigned to the D-pad or analog stick. Triggering the VFX attach is simple, after you find the item that allows you to launch an attack. The VFX moves include those mentioned before (slo-mo, lightspeed, etc.) as well as an attack that causes you to get bigger than anyone else, and one that lets you launch "sound effects" to stun your enemy. Using the shoulder buttons to launch VFX powers is smart, since the buttons in front are all assigned to different attacks or character movement. Unlike many fighters, where there are major button combos to be launched, VJ: Red Hot Rumble keeps things pretty simple. Characters have a handful of attacks that are powerful and easy to execute. Each character plays differently, which hopefully creates more replay value.

VJ: Red Hot Rumble isn't what I wanted for the series on my PSP. I would have been happy to have had a conversion of the original game from the big console, rather than a fairly mediocre party-game that is riding on Joe's good name and reputation. For the great style and the nice controls, we can get adjusted to the fact that the game is a series of roughly the same objectives and team battles, played out in different environments. What is consistent is the style that elevated the first game to the cultish appeal it now has. Given a choice, I'd take a more conventional brawler over this, but party-game fanatics will rejoice. Still, in doing a mash-up of a great fighter with a party-game concept, there's been something lost in the translation, on both sides. VJ: Red Hot Rumble may be an acquired taste, so definitely rent or try before you buy.