| The Behrend Beacon
Life is 4 Viewtiful ’
By Nick Hammond
staff writer
Early screen shots of “Viewtiful Joe"
revealed little about the enigmatic super
hero except his fondness for skin tight
clothes and a curiously flamboyant de
meanor. However, it was enough to pique
the curiosity of all who saw them.
As soon as "Viewtiful Joe” made its de
but, however, curiosity vanished. In its
place was utter bewilderment and joy, as
the game blasted us with a game experi
ence second to none, and it did it with style.
As Viewtiful Joe. we tore through seven
stages filled with more action than a stack
of Stallone flicks. Apart from an over
whelming sense of style, it had a combina
tion of satisfying gameplay and madden
ing difficulty that distinguished Viewtiful
Joe” from most games today. And as you
might guess, “Viewtiful Joe 2" keeps up
with the tradition.
Like its predecessor, "Viewtiful Joe 2"
slaps conformity in the face and unleashes
a storm of unrelenting action drenched in
the same brand of funky chic. It's fun, it's
fast and it’s hard. “Viewtiful Joe" plays
much like the classic brawlers of old in that
you run around from left to right smashing
everything in sight. What made Viewtiful
Joe so remarkable was the execution and
combination of classic elements with dar
ing art style. The game looked funky and
controlled like a dream, letting players ex
ecute artful combo attacks with ease. And
it’s the same in “Viewtiful Joe 2."
Using the same roster of VFX powers
as in the first game, namely Slow, Mach
Speed and Zoom, you’ll devastate swarms
of enemies once you’re experienced in the
ways of the game. You become a whirl
wind of pain, delivering hyper-stylized at
tacks with gusto. With over 40 different
enemies, you’ll need to find ways of tack
ling each wave after wave of hostiles ef
fectively and consistently. Fortunately,
beating the living snot out of everything in
sight is just as viscerally fantastic as it ever
Why pleas
By Chris Jones
Chicago Tribune
(KRT)
Bruce Springsteen was forced to surrender.
Sharon Stone's instincts moved few beyond the
Democratic base. And while a victory for John
Kerry in the presidential election of 2004 was
declared of titanic importance by Leonardo
DiCaprio, no less, the 29-year-old’s partisan
powers of persuasion proved as unable to move
the Republican iceberg as the rapping of
Eminem or the jottings of Tony Kushner.
As America's arts group of
overwhelmingly if not exclusively Democratic
persuasion blinked miserably out through their
collective tears on Nov. 3, they were con
fronted with what looked like their colossal
and confounding failure to influence and per
suade their fellow Americans of the value of
the artistic world view.
"1 think everybody's just reeling from the de
feat," said Sherry Lansing, the chairman of the
Paramount Motion Picture Group and an ac
tive Kerry backer from Hollywood. "Now we
just have to reassess what good we did and
what effect we had."
Maybe the answer is no good at all and no
effect whatsoever.
But the significance of the election of 2004
goes far beyond the oft-cited generality that
people are sick of being told what to do by
Hollywood celebrities with big mouths.
There’s evidence that the issues go deeper
than that.
Plenty of high-art types stuck their hands
into the political dirt during this presidential
campaign without achieving the desired re
sult. In Chicago, a slew of anti-George Bush
plays showed up in recent weeks, from "The
Bushie Plays" in Evanston to "W!" at the Bai
liwick Arts Center. There were no anti-Kerry
plays on the radar.
Rick Cleveland, a writer and producer of
HBO’s "Six Feet Under," decamped for Ohio,
where he worked the election and tried to turn
out a vote that did not go his way. On Broad
way, as always, Bush got ridiculed eight times
a week from the stages of "Avenue Q" and
"Hairspray."
Bush still won the majority of the popular
vote, suggesting there's nothing more politi
cally useful for a Republican candidate than
Broadway opprobrium.
Behold a strange paradox.
The 2004 election turned mainly on cultural
issues, as distinct from matters of economics
or public policy. Yet the vast majority of those
who think of themselves as cultural profession-
CAPCOM ENTERTAINMENT
Viewtiful Joe returns with fast, fun action and receives help from the first
game, Sylvia.
This time, Joe’s got a little company. His
girlfriend from the first game, Sylvia, re
turns in force here. Hiding beneath her skin
tight suit and flashy sense of vicious femi
ninity lay a flurry of devastating punches
and kicks. Not to mention laser pistols,
which fire jumbo shots of blue energy.
Once Sylvia picks up another gun and
starts dual wielding, she dishes out an im
mense amount of damage. She also has ex
clusive ownership of VFX Replay, which
lets her record her actions and play them
back to deliver three times normal dam
age. This ability may sound cool, but it de
livers little damage when you think about
how much VFX juice it takes to power the
move. Replay is visually impressive, but
apart from being required to solve a few
puzzles, it lacks the indispensability of both
Mach Speed and VFX Slow.
Making its debut along with the Replay
ability is the all-new “V-Touch,” which lets
you swap characters at the touch of a but
ton. You choose a character before head
ing into a level, but you can switch charac-
from entertainers fall on deaf ears
als , Mel Gibson and some like-minded others
notwithstanding , found themselves firmly on
the losing side.
In an election that many arts people saw as
being of cataclysmic importance, that clear dis
connect spawned a lot of soul-searching in stu
dios, offices, screening-rooms and theaters
over the latter half of the week.
Many reported they were severely depressed.
Many said they just couldn't understand what
looked like a majority refutation of their core
values. Many admitted they didn't know many
Republicans.
In the election, both sides featured endorse
ments from arts figures, Ron Silver, Toby
Keith and Arnold Schwarzenegger all cam
paigned for George W. Bush. But Kerry had
far, far more vocal figures from the arts on his
side than did his Republican opponent. And
even though one cannot discern the precise
level of artistic influence (or lack thereof) in
this campaign, Kerry's defeat adds juice to the
argument that arts figures now are more of a
liability than a strength for a politician.
Especially a Democratic politician.
The salient question now is why. And the
truth might be tough for artists to swallow.
"Nobody votes because a cultural figure tells
them to vote," says Curtis Gans, the director
of the Committee for the Study of the Ameri
can Electorate in Washington, D.C. "They just
don't persuade anyone."
"People are now sick of celebrities taking
political positions," says Darrell West, direc
tor of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at
Brown University and the author of a recent
book called "Celebrity Politics." "People tend
to want them to stick to music and culture."
In other words, West argues, non-Democrats
are perfectly willing to tolerate Springsteen
singing about the angst of a working-class guy
as a part of his everyday art, even to learn from
him, but are determined to tune out the mo
ment he makes an explicit endorsement of
Kerry. Ergo, that endorsement is a mistake.
"There's a difference between debating ideas
and music in art and the endorsement of a par
ticular politician," West says. "Endorsements
always are interpreted in more partisan terms.
Celebrities should just write a check and shut
In West's view, one lesson from this week's
election is that artists have more influence
when they stick to their art and avoid partisan
politics
Yet that also doesn't make much sense
If one buys the irrefutable argument that
Schwarzenegger, the neophyte politician, only
was electable as a consequence of the fame of
Hf -y !CJ * k|* r I Irt
ters mid-level using “V-Touch.” Doing so
triggers a cool animation showing Sylvia
or Joe jumping in from the sides of the
screen and throwing the other into the fore
ground.
Like the rest of the game, timing here is
critical. Trading characters at the wrong
time leaves you at the receiving end of pain
and suffering. For example, since Joe is the
only one who can use Mach Speed, he’s
the only character who can extinguish him
self when on fire.
All sequels should be this fun. “Viewtiful
Joe 2” conjures the same level of extreme
entertainment as the first, while expand
ing the formula by introducing new moves,
enemies and vehicles. If you hated the first,
then don’t bother with this one. But if
you’re a normal, healthy human being, then
you loved the first one. If that's the case,
then it looks like it’s time to bust out those
red tights and blue mini skirt, because
“Viewtiful Joe 2” delivers exactly what you
want: a super stylish, extremely challeng
ing and riveting time in Movie Land,
Henshin-A-Go-Go Baby!
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Bruce Springsteen sang at Former President Clinton’s library opening yesterday.
Schwarzenegger, the macho actor, it should
follow that celebrity endorsements would be
gaining, not losing, clout.
But that was California, not the South. And
while it's possible Kerry benefited from
Springsteen’s Ohio appearances, Gans argues
that it's one thing for arts figures to run for
office themselves, but entirely another for them
to use their fame to promote someone else.
"Celebrities can run for political office very
effectively," Gans said. "But there's a resent
ment when they try to persuade people how to
vote."
"We are now reaping, in election results, the
consequences of the colossal reductions in arts
in education,” Woods said. Then again, the on
going definition of the arts especially opera,
theater and classical music, as appealing only
to people with higher levels of education cre
ates its own set of problems. Maybe the arts
need to see themselves as something other than
a liberal interest group and develop a broader
appreciation for conservative thinkers in their
midst.
Consider the matter of religion. In Tuesday's
Organizations participate
in community service
By Maggie Causgrove
staff writer
Community service is beginning to
really branch out over the Behrend
campus this year. Many organiza
tions and groups here on campus are
actively becoming involved and par
ticipating in acts of service to ben
efit the greater Erie community.
These organizations are numerous.
Some of the participating groups
nclude Greek life as well as residence
halls here on campus and the resi
dence advisor class offered during
the semester. This is a wonderful way
to become involved both with the
student body as well as help to make
a difference on the university
grounds.
According to Kelly Shrout, Coor
dinator of Community Service and
the Smith Chapel, “every organiza
tion in one form or another is in
volved in community service
projects.”
The Center for Service is an asso
ciation on campus where students
who are interested in becoming more
involved in the greater community
can go and find service projects of
interest to them. The center provides
an online catalog and file cabinets
filled with different nonprofit orga
nizations in Erie County that students
can get active with.
Shrout stated, “The center also has
two memberships to greater organi
zations. The first is called
Breakaway which provides an alter
native to breaks and the second is
called C.0.0.L (Campus Outreach
Appreciation League) which deals
with civic engagement and active
Friday, November 17, 2004
community relationships.”
This past year Penn State Behrend
placed first in the Second Harvest
Food Bank drive for the most active
participation in the college category
and technical institutions, beating
out the other area universities and
opportunity schools.
“Organizations on campus such as
THON and those involved with the
Second Harvest Food Bank raised
$lB,OOO and served around five thou
sand hours of service time this past
year,” said Shrout.
Shrout also stated, “I absolutely
hope more Behrend students will be
come involved in community service
projects. I don’t think it’s too much
to ask if each student gave twenty
hours of service a semester. We have
something for everybody here on
campus.”
It is important to note that any stu
dent on campus can become involved
with community service projects,
even those not involved in a specific
organization or group here on cam
pus. The Center for Service will try
to funnel those students who want to
participate into an organization of in
terest to them so that they can be
come part of group community ser
vice projects.
Organizations for example in
clude: Reality Check, Labor of Love,
the service fraternity, Alpha Phi
Omega or even after school tutoring
positions are of availability to inter
ested students. Anyone interested
should contact either Kelly Shrout in
the Smith Chapel, by email,
kawl4B@psu.edu, or their Residence
Advisor Coordinator here at
Behrend.
election, people of an evangelical persuasion
tended to be on the other side of the political
aisle from people of the artistic establishment.
That's also creating a pause for thought in
artistic circles. Finally, arts advocates are be
ginning to figure out that they need to get
churches to see themselves as a part of the arts
community.
Over at the Chicago Humanities Festival, ex
ecutive director Eileen Mackevich has decided
the time is ripe to offer more programs such
as science fiction without obvious ideological
controversies.
"After all this," she said, "I think people are
ready for an escape."
That may well be the case. But it still doesn't
do much to assuage the feelings of people such
as Judith Mayne, who teaches film theory and
women's studies at Ohio State.
Mayne sees plenty of access for the politi
cal extremes, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/
11" showed up in plenty of mainstream the
aters in Ohio, and conservative commentators
also got wide exposure in local theaters and
lecture halls, but little evaluation thereof.