Sin and Punishment

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. Achi offers salvation to those who join her cause.

Why It's Not A Punishment

 * 1) 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.
 * 2) *The game's aesthetics seem to be inspired by the 1997 film mh:greatestmovies:Starship Troopers.
 * 3) Brilliant music.
 * 4) It plays like Star Fox, but like Contra, it's on foot.
 * 5) 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.
 * 6) 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.
 * 7) The characters have English voice acting, meaning you don’t have to know Japanese to understand what the characters are saying.
 * 8) A Ton of intense boss fights.
 * 9) An epic final stage.
 * 10) Despite being a console-exclusive, it plays just like an arcade rail shooter.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) 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.
 * 2) 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.
 * 3) 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.

Trivia

 * Saki, the game's protagonist, has been available as an assistant trophy in every Super Smash Bros. game ever since Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * 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.

Longplay
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Reviews
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