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One of the Most Underrated Games for GCN

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

P.N.03 is the vision of producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi of Resident Evil fame, but is a definite departure from the R.E. series. You play as Vanessa Z. Schneider, a freelance mercenary and robot killer with a grudge to settle. Vanessa is called upon by The Client to disarm a formidable threat on a distant colonial settlement that has been overthrown by a haywire Computer Arms Management System. (CAMS). And so P.N.03 begins. The story contains an interesting twist, but it never gets fleshed out enough to really get your attention. I think Kobayashi had a sequel in mind, but due to lackluster sales it may never see the light of day. Too bad. P.N.03 was developed and published by Capcom and released on September, 10th 2003.

Once the action starts you probably won't care about the story anyway, or even the cool and playful banter that takes place between Vanessa and The Client between missions. What you will (or should) care about is the delicacy of the game-play. Vanessa fights as if she were dancing: rhythmically and gracefully. When she comes to a stop she continues to tap her foot to the infectious techno beats that seem to accompany her wherever she goes. Much of the action is duck and cover, but it's never slow. It's a thrill to watch Vanessa cartwheel behind an obstacle just in time as a spray of fire erupts from one of many of the mechanical behemoths in the game. Or jump into the middle of a group of enemies and deliver a devastating Energy Drive attack. Like any great shooter, the game play in P.N.03 is precise and addictive. This is no button masher.

So you won't enjoy P.N.03 if you don't have the patience to adapt to the unconventional control scheme. You can move straight ahead by pushing up on the control stick. If you Press left or right you start to spin in a slow circle. The R and L buttons are used for a quick side step that takes the form of a graceful cartwheel after the second tap. The Z button is useful for a quick 180-degree spin. A fires the palm shot, and B makes you jump. The Y button is for ducking. By pressing the right combination on the control pad you can unleash Energy Drive attacks unique to the particular Aegis suit you are using.

Speaking of suits: you start with the Prima Fusion, a simple black and white suit with fairly balanced stats. As you play and acquire points you can upgrade your Fusion suit to a limit. Soon the Prima Blazer (geared for offense) and Prima Guardian (geared for defense) will become available. After that the more powerful Intera line of suits becomes available, and so on. On the first run through, there are nine suits for you to try out, (assuming you can accumulate the necessary points to purchase them) each with differing strengths and weaknesses, different colors, and pack designs. Upon completion of the game other suits become available.

A good way to rack up the points to get suits is by taking advantage of the combo system. Every time Vanessa destroys an enemy a timer starts. If another enemy is destroyed within the timeframe you get a point bonus and a time extension. The more enemies destroyed within the timeframe the higher the combo, the bigger the points. You also get a point bonus for getting through an area undamaged. Trying to get through every area without damage and with the highest combo possible is one of the joys of P.N.03. In addition, there are trial stages between levels that can be accessed to acquire more points, as well as practice.

Graphically, P.N.03 is highly stylized. Design and animation for Vanessa is incredible, and when placed against the sterile background of the CAMS planet she pops with vibrancy and movement. But repetitive level architecture might be considered a problem here. It would have been nice to have some more color and variety in the level design, with only two outdoor locations that made for a nice change of pace. A couple locations and bosses are repeated with slightly varied paths. On the other hand, the sterile environment and repetitive nature of the levels lend themselves perfectly to the mechanical nature of the CAMS, complementing a theme in the game.

My only real complaint about P.N.03 is the direction taken with Vanessa in the ability to unlock a suit that shows a bit, "more" of her. I appreciate that Vanessa is so well designed. However, I'm disappointed that the decision was made to exploit her design in such a way. That said; few games hold my attention like P.N.03. It's a game that I can pick up any time and become lost in the movement and rhythm, and the addition of several different suit types keeps it fresh several times through. It's one of the best action-shooters to come out this generation and certainly the best one on the GCN. A-

good and bad

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

this game was great at first but turned bad! after doing the same exact thing for 1 maybe 2 hours it gets pretty boring.
nothing seems to change threw the entire game.this game is only good if your planning on playing it from time to time.

Aarghh...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 11
Date: December 22, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Boom! This is one of the only enjoyable things about this game. The backround never seems to change and the gameplay never changes. Each room (there are 15 a stage) seems identical to the one before it. Unless you really enjoy slowmoving games- ignore this one.

Down right aweful.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: November 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

THis game makes you think it will be good over the first few minutes of cool cut scenes and cool action. THen you move inside the game ... for the rest of the game it seems. THen the game loses all coolness. Somewhere around the fifth room, you realize you have to do the exact same thing in every room.
Bottom Line: Is it fun? If you like bad action and the same thing over and over again. Will you keep it? No way. Is it for kids? You blow up robots againa and again and again and again and again and ... you get the idea. If that is bad for kids well there you go.

THE most eclectic shooter I've ever played hands down.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: January 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The main character's name is Vanessa.

You start off in the desert and you eventually enter this place where there is nothing but metal on top of metal and robots and drones aplenty. You shoot with the A button but it's not just shooting you actually dance as you blast your foes! Trust me, it barely gets boring. That's one of the most amazingly-awesome features of the game.

You can upgrade suits and master different techniques, each suit possessing different colors, strengths and weaknesses, and 2 (or 3) different abilities that come in handy! She jumps high and awkwardly, like a ballerina on crack but it's cool! Very graceful.

It starts off pretty easy but by the middle of the game it gets tougher. By the end you will have died plenty times and gotten frustrated enough to throw the controller across the room and at the wall or at least think about it! : )

Besides the control there are one or two main complaints I have to attack:

---> The training mode where you get points for more suits and to strengthen them is fun at first but eventually, the rooms start to blend giving you a "I know that I've been here and done this room before...!" and it's TRUE. You HAVE been here before! You HAVE done that!

---> The graphics are pleasant 4/5 but grainy sometimes. Especially some boss battles and the CG clips. But no major complaints there.

---> It's not very long and there is NO 2-Player mode.

I'm thinking the pluses here outweigh the minuses.

Cover Art: D+
Inside Art: C
Story: D-
Gameplay: C++
Character: B
Voice Acting: B-
Graphics: B-
Difficulty: B-
Replay Value: D+
Length: C+

3.65 stars.

Overall: C

I really would have liked to give this game a 4/5 but seriously the controls and the repetitiveness of the rooms in training mode will irk your nerves like no other! The controls also could use some fine tuning. Lastly, the graphics were nice, but could have been touched up also in the CG clips. Otherwise, this game is a quirky look into a shooter game. Very futuristic and pretty fun. I enjoyed it and beat it over 3x! ^_^

WHY?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The story is convoluted yet sparce and the gameplay is dubious at best. I read reviews of how great this game is and when I play it I know why - horny teenagers will give a great review to any game with an attractive female character(seen from behind) who gyrates and poses every time she attacks(which you must do alot because your weapons aren't very effective). If you need a storyline or good gameplay DON'T GET THIS GAME, if you don't and your tastes only rely on a techno chick then go ahead.

Final verdict: Get Ghost in the Shell(PS2 game or the Shows) instead, because then at least you'll get a good story to go with the fan service.

Great game though they could have put some more work into it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

P.N. 03 is truly a game to behold with its futuristic environments and enemies but the game has a class of its own because you "dance" to actually dodge enemy fire. Because of the price right now you should get this game. I got this game about a year ago and I'm still playing it.

Review points are averaged together.

(8)Plotline: A colonial settlement on a distant planet goes out-of-control after a Computer Arms Management System goes haywire. Enter Vanessa Schneider, a freelance mercenary and robot killer with a grudge to settle in this exhilarating action game. But will Vanessa's dark past collide with her ultimate mission?
Now this is one of those games where the title is sort of secret and you have to play the game and do some thinking for yourself to figure this title. You were probably wondering why the game is called Product Number 3 anyway but I won't spoil the fun exactly. The missions you're looking for to give you the hint would be mission 9 and 11.

(8)Graphics:Now the graphics failed to get my attention but they're just okay. I like how they showed all of the transforming robots and how they explode. The special effects are pretty good though. The graphics probably could have been better for 2003.

(10) Sound:The sound for this game is simply astonishing. The techno music was great and fit the levels perfectly. Though I did hear the same soundtrack in a few levels. The enemy sounds gave me the reason for this to be a ten. The sounds of the lasers and the movements of all the robots were great. But in some of the later levels when you have to face a flying robot that sounds like it's making breathing noises like in a scuba tank made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

(9)Control: The game uses all the controls and are pretty easy to use. There are two reasons why I gave it a nine. One reason is that you should already start out with full automatic palm shots so you can just hold down A and fire. The second reason is when you're in a tough fight and want to use an energy drive, but the control pad is sometimes hard to use and it takes a few tries to get it to work. This creates a problem when you're facing the final boss on Hard and you can take about 4 lasers.( No really.)

Multiplayer: No multiplayer but if it doesn't have a multiplayer, then I won't give it a score.

(9)Glitches: A few glitches like when you're floating over an abyss in level five on the invisible barriers around the corners of paths. And when you're going through enemies.

(10) Entertainment: This game is great to play and listen to. I don't understand how great games like this people can hate though. This is completely different from one of those shooter games where you hide behind a wall, lean over the side, shoot some people, roll over into some cover, continue, and then move into the next area and continue the steps. I love how the enemies transform because then you have to completely change your strategy if they get a new move. The bosses are hard and challenging.(At least on the later difficulties.)

(9) Replay Value: Even though this game is short, you'll want to play it over again on the different difficulties and try to get all the suits,powerups,trial missions, and more. That could take awhile because trial missions are basically another level and change depending on the level you're currently in and those suits don't come cheap either. So there's a lot to do in this game. This game could have used a multi-player though. Think about it, you start out in different places in a level with the Prima Fusion suit. You can collect better suits by searching through the level. Your palm shots would probably do a lot to each other because they aren't the weakened blasts from the robots. Normally you can't use energy drives but when you get one from like an item box or something, you would get a randomly selected energy drive and would be able to use it once. You could even get energy drives you couldn't normally get for that suit. There would also be some robots that respawn in parts of the levels for chaotic fun. That's a pretty good idea huh?

Overall Rating(Review points are averaged together.): 9 exact

A final word: It's a great value for eight bucks, so I recommend you just get it.

Make her dance...if you can...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Jet Set Radio. Viewtiful Joe. Gun Valkyrie. These are games that you'll never hear a mainstream gamer talk about. They are games for the hardcore, die-hard, take-no-prisoners-and-get-no-sleep-till-you-break-the-highscore gamers. They emphasize gameplay and innovation over graphics and accesability. But they are brilliant in their own way, and so just plain DIFFERENT in their dynamics and control schemes that they make you unlearn what you have learned. This is THAT kind of game.

If you are expecting a typical action game you will be diappointed. If you are expecting highly polished graphics you will be disappointed. If you are expecting greatness that requires patience, practice, and dedication that only the hardcore can muster you will be blown away. The story is simple. In the future a mercenary has been dispatched to destroy the robots on a colony world that have gone awry and started attacking anything that moves. She is one Vanessa Schneider, a skin-tight armored bodysuit wearing chick who is short on words and fast on acrobatic manuevers. Through a series of simple text explanations you are briefed on the situation of each level, and then you run and gun your way through every room in the level until you beat the level boss and get a chance to save your save before progressing to the next level. It all sounds so simple. And it is. And it isn't.

You see, the control system is optimized for acrobatics, not for changing direction. You don't walk. You run (by pushing forward). You don't turn. You change direction (by hitting the Z button to turn around or Z and another direction for a 90 degree turn). You don't jump. You flip through the air forward or backward. And sorry, but you don't run or jump and shoot at the same time. You stand still and shoot, and when the time is right you dodge or jump out of the way (or crouch). Well, actually, you can turn, but it is slow and awkward. You will quickly find that it is far more effective to dodge to sidestep or cartwheel in a direction (right or left trigger) rather than wasting time turning. It sounds odd and it is. It is also genius.

When you are doing poorly this game is very frustrating, as you fall off ledges over and over and keep taking hits and getting killed by the robots' laser fire. The trick is to overcome the limitations, or rather the UNIQUENESS of the control scheme, and make Vanessa DANCE across the levels in a sort of high-speed blasting ballet.When you are doing well, and with practice you will, this game is wonderful. It's like every Mila Jovovich movie was combined into one long action sequence. You backflip and cartwheel and shoot energy blasts, timing your shots and dodging out of the way in the nick of time. You destroy huge bosses in seconds and backflip and dodge through the air, barely touching the ground as you back away from lasers chasing you. Everything moves to a rhythm, and every moment you stand still Vanessa keeps tapping in time to the music, like she's itching for action and can't bear to stand still. The graphics are not crystal clear or razer sharp. They have artfacting and pixelation and jaggies like look kind of like a low resolution video feed. I love it. The rooms of the complexes look incredibly retro and spartan like like they came out of Space Channel 5, all smooth lines and bare walls. I like the purity of gameplay the spartan presentation highlights. No distractions here. And there ARE outdoor segments and a timed escape to break up the repetition (with some great dust wind blowing and searchlights to run from). And of course there is a boss at the end of every level which you must defeat BEFORE saving your progress.

You can upgrade your battle suit throughout the game by cashing in the points you are awarded for destroying enemies in combos (a timer starts whenever you destroy an enemy), finishing rooms quickly, and finishing rooms without taking any damage. All the suits have different strengths and weaknesses (and colors), and collecting them provides some replay value as well as motivation to score well (suits are very expensive). There is also a trial mode of levels to unlock, and all purchased suits can be upgraded for a price.

The key to enjoying this game is to master its difficult controls, to grow to love its unique presentation, and revel in its unique and amazing gameplay. I love action games, and difficult ones are ultimately the most rewarding if you have the patience for them and they are well balanced. I love this this game, and if you feel the same way about action games I highly recommend a rental, if not a purchase.

Step To Your Own beat

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

PN03 is a novel game, for those that love action, shooters, and a bit of attitude. As offbeat it may be, this game goes over the top with its simple, yet challenging design. For anyone that enjoys a game that is fun, yet difficult, do not miss a game like this one.

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