Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble!

Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble! brings the stylized, film-inspired action series to the Nintendo DS and partly changes the perspective on the game by making use of both displays stacked on top of each other. Playing as movie hero Joe, the player fights cartoonish enemies using a combination of strikes, dodges, and effects like slowing down or speeding up time, which are typical of the series and allow chaining flashy combos into a high score. New is a companion able to move between the two displays and help Joe from one screen to the other, which adds a spatial puzzle element to the otherwise action-focused core of the game and forces the player to watch both parts of the display at once.

The visual style stays true to the comic-book, richly colorful aesthetic of the original installments, with bold black outlines and exaggerated character expressions, though it had to be technically adapted to the handheld's lower power. The music and sound effects continue the series' cinematic atmosphere, full of exaggerated gestures and bombastic battles referencing action films and tokusatsu series. The controls combine buttons for combat with occasional use of the touchscreen, mainly for special abilities, menus, and interactions with the second display.

Critics at the time of release appreciated the effort to bring the series' distinctive style to a handheld, while also pointing out that the game does not reach the quality of its console predecessors and that switching between displays can at times feel like a superfluous or confusing element. Today the title is seen as an interesting but rather minor piece for fans of the series who want to experience the distinctive humor and style of Viewtiful Joe on the go, though with the understanding that it is more of a side detour than a key installment, whose significance lies above all in how it tried to adapt a console concept for different hardware without fully abandoning the series' characteristic identity.