Sin and Punishment
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 "Ruffians? Here? Already?!"
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Sin and Punishment (Known in Japan as Tsumi to Batsu: Hoshi no Keishōsha (Japanese: 罪と罰 ～地球の継承者～, lit. Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Earth) is a rail shooter co-developed by Treasure and Nintendo R&D1, and published by Nintendo, originally for the Nintendo 64 on November 21, 2000, originally as a Japanese exclusive. It has since been rereleased on the Wii and Wii U internationally as part of the Virtual Console line and on the Nintendo Switch as part of Nintendo Switch Online's N64 expansion pack. It is the thirteenth game to be developed by Treasure.
Plot
The year is 2007. The world's population has prospered, leading to a shortage of food. In order to solve this crisis, Japanese scientists on the island of Hokkaido have bioengineered a new mutant species as a food source. However, these creatures soon turn on their creators, and terrorize Japan. The beings are known as Ruffians. To tackle the threat, the United States has sent in a military organization named the Armed Volunteers, led by a man called Brad with strange powers. However, the Armed Volunteers are corrupt and murderous, and are oppressing the Japanese (the first time since World War II that the Americans have brought trouble on the Japanese). The final participant in this three-way war is the Savior Group, a group of rebels who fight both the Armed Volunteers and the Ruffians. The Saviors are led by a woman named Achi, who has strange powers of her own, and also represented with the male and female co-protagonists, Saki and Airan. Achi offers salvation to those who join her cause.
Why It's Not A Punishment
- Excellent and fantastic gameplay that's an amazing step up from Treasure's previous works, including Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Alien Soldier, Guardian Heroes, Mischief Makers, Radiant Silvergun and Bangai-O, complete with non-stop action from the start of the level to the end, with a lot of explosions.
- The game often switches gameplay between using either Saki or Airan.
- The game's aesthetics seem to be inspired by the 1997 film Starship Troopers.
- Brilliant music, such as Within Earshot, Blood Infactor, Risk One's Neck, Agave, Raid Blue, Dying Peace, Spiral Up Fortune, and Heroine 'A'.
- It plays like Star Fox, but like Contra, it's on foot.
- Great visuals for a Nintendo 64 game.
- The player can switch between two gun modes at any time. The first is the lock-on gun, which as its name implies will lock onto any of your opponents when the cursor is moved toward the enemy. The second is the manual gun, which is considerably more powerful though harder to aim (note: this is arguable). Different situations may require use of different modes.
- On the bottom of the gun is a "night stick", which is basically an advanced sword. While the sword is much more powerful than the gun (manual gun shots deal 1 damage per shot while the sword deals 20), it can only be used when going against enemies close to the protagonist. While it's most common use is close combat, some projectiles can be reflected with the sword, where it'll return to wherever the gun is aimed. The counter attack is the most powerful attack that the main characters can perform.
- The characters have English voice acting, meaning you don’t have to know Japanese to understand what the characters are saying.
- There are a ton of intense boss fights, each requiring a different strategy to defeat.
- The final stage is epic, and has an equally epic final boss in the form of the Planet Mimicry.
- Despite being a console-exclusive, it plays just like an arcade rail shooter.
Bad Qualities
- There is no save feature, which means you have to beat the game in one sitting, which is egregious especially at the time when most games had save features.
- The game is very short, at only three levels, which can be a good thing in retrospect due to the game's lack of a save feature mentioned in BQ #1.
- The game was not originally officially released outside Japan, likely due to it being released late in the N64's lifecycle, as it was released the same year as the PlayStation 2 and one year before Nintendo's next console, the GameCube. It was thankfully eventually released on the Wii Virtual Console worldwide in 2007.
Reception
Sin and Punishment was met with largely positive reviews from critics and users (Metacritic's user score is 8.3/10), with praise going to its art direction, gameplay, and story, but criticism directed at its relatively easy difficulty and short length.
Trivia
- The success of Sin and Punishment led to it receiving a 2009 sequel on the Wii, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. Set several years after the original game, Achi makes a return, but Saki and Airan do not.
- The game was originally going to be titled Glass Soldier, the game even tells you this right before the credits roll, but Nintendo didn't like it, so they changed it to Sin and Punishment.
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