Sin and Punishment

Sin and Punishment has been described as an arcade-style rail shooter and shooting gallery video game. The player character is controlled from a behind-the-back perspective, and can strafe left and right, double-jump, and perform a roll dodge. The character progresses forward through the level automatically due to the rail shooter format which drew comparisons from critics to the Panzer Dragoon series, Star Fox series, and Space Harrier. A targeting reticle is used to aim shots on enemies and projectiles and has two modes that the player can freely alternate between, a lock-on mode and a free aiming mode. The lock-on mode will auto-lock onto visible targets, and the player can quickly move the reticle between targets. Alternatively, the free aiming mode gives the player full control of the reticle and a more powerful shot. The player character is also armed with a sword which can be used to damage or destroy nearby enemies, and redirect projectiles back at the enemies. The character can be controlled by a single player, or cooperatively between two players. In cooperative mode, one player controls the movement while the other is responsible for firing duties. The game supports control schemes for left and right-handed players, switching the character movement controls between the D-pad and C-buttons on the Nintendo 64 controller. The analog stick is used to control the reticle. The game features a score system which grants bonuses the more hits the player can make without losing all their health. If the player loses all their health or the stage timer expires, it is game over. Items can be picked up to refill the player's health gauge, increase the time, and provide bonus points. The game also features three difficulty modes, easy, normal, and hard. Normal and Hard mode feature extra bosses and enemies in addition to being generally more difficult. ==Plot==

Sin and Punishment is set in a dystopian near future of 2007, when humanity is struggling with a planet-wide famine. To solve this problem, scientists develop a genetically-engineered species to raise as food. These creatures are herded in northern Japan until they mutate and begin attacking the country's citizens. They are dubbed "Ruffians". An international peacekeeping organization called the Armed Volunteers tries to stop the creatures, but they also oppress the Japanese people. Another group, led by a mysterious woman with unusual powers named Achi, rises up to defend Japan against the Ruffians and Armed Volunteers. Within her group are Saki and Airan, the male and female protagonists of the game. Between battles with the Ruffians and Armed Volunteers, Saki unintentionally morphs into an enormous Ruffian after falling into a rising tide of blood filling up Tokyo. To bring Saki back to normal, Achi tells Airan that she will need to shoot Saki, but Airan refuses to do this. In response, Achi places Airan into a dream sequence, set ten years in the future in Long Island, New York. Here she meets her future son she shares with Saki, and sees a Ruffian Saki rampaging through the city. The dream ends with her shooting Saki, and waking up to realize that Achi manipulated her through the dream into having just shot the real world Saki in the present. After Saki fights Ruffian forces in Hokkaido and Airan is kidnapped, Achi reveals that she is not from Earth, and that the war between the Ruffians and the Armed Volunteers was her ploy to groom Saki into an ultimate warrior to use in a cosmic battle with extraterrestrial beings. She reveals that Saki would help her rule the new Earth she is about to create. Achi creates a new Earth and begins attacking the current Earth. Saki, in a part-human, part-Ruffian state, combines with Airan to revert to his full-Ruffian form while maintaining self-control. Saki and Airan successfully destroy the new Earth and send Achi drifting into space. After the battle, Saki and Airan revert to their human forms and descend back into Japan, which the battle with Achi has left in ruins. Airan questions what she and Saki will now do, after which they decide to take on the rest of the Ruffians together. They change back into Saki's Ruffian form and head towards Honshu. Meanwhile, as Achi drifts in space, she notes that with Brad and Saki lost as potential warriors, she cannot hope to win against her enemies, but mentions Saki and Airan's future son Isa, who will inherit the former's blood. Seemingly viewing Isa as another candidate, she says that the time for the enemy to call themselves gods is "coming to an end." ==Development==

Background and staffing ''. Treasure wanted to develop a game in which the player holds the left and middle grips. Sin and Punishment was co-developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1 and Treasure. Development began in 1997 when Treasure submitted their original proposal to Nintendo. Both previously held minor roles in developing Treasure's Radiant Silvergun (1998). Discussions about game difficulty continued for almost a year. Towards the end of development, the difficulty level was decreased. All the music was composed using a Roland SC-88 Pro. Name The game was originally titled during most of its development because the main character was fragile like glass. The title was written in katakana, a Japanese writing system typically used when writing foreign words, however many game titles were written in katakana during this era. To help the game stand out, Yamagami wanted to create a new title written in kanji, another Japanese writing system. Perfect Dark (2000) was in development at the time, and was known in Japan with a kanji title, . Yamagami took inspiration from this name to think up a new title, . Thinking the title may be too obscure, Yamagami approached young staff members for a subtitle. They suggested , but with the reading of the which means "Earth" changed to "hoshi" which means "star". One of the other titles considered was "Dark Wasteland". The Treasure team initially did not like the change in name brought by Nintendo, but gradually took a liking to it. ==Release==

Sin and Punishment was revealed in August 2000. The game was first released exclusively in Japan on the Nintendo 64 on 21 November as the console's life cycle was approaching its end. The game was targeted towards older gaming audiences, and sold about 100,000 copies. Maegawa said he could not call the game a financial success, but Nintendo had wanted the genre to be represented on the Nintendo 64. Sin and Punishment grew a cult following in western territories among import gamers, and was regarded as one of the best Nintendo 64 games to never see localization. With the release of Nintendo's Virtual Console for the Wii, Sin and Punishment became one of the most demanded titles. The game featured English voice acting, which also made it a good candidate for re-release. It was finally released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on 20 September 2007, in PAL regions on 28 September 2007, and in North America on 1 October 2007. The localized releases featured English menus. Sin and Punishment was among the first Nintendo 64 games added to the Nintendo Classics service in October 2021. ==Reception==

Although it was not localized for its original release, some western critics still imported Sin and Punishment for review. In 2009, Official Nintendo Magazine ranked the game 64th on a list of greatest Nintendo games. Eurogamer, in a 2022 article about "nine of the very best Treasure games" said it "might be one of the most beautiful games ever seen" and was "absolutely blinding fun to blast through". ==Legacy==

Retro Gamer included Sin and Punishment among their list of top ten Nintendo 64 games, highlighting the game's intensity and hardware pushing prowess, and IGN included it among their list of best Virtual Console games. Todd Ciolek of GameSetWatch described it as one of the best games in the sparsely populated shooting gallery genre along with Wild Guns (1994). A comic adaption was also printed in Dengeki Daioh magazine. Saki did not return as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but he received a Mii costume, where his outfit and hairstyle can be used as costume pieces for certain fighters. Nintendo and Treasure collaborated again for a sequel for the Wii released in 2009, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor. ==Notes==