P.N. 03 Game Sample - GameCube
82Original Air Date: 05/11/2009 (Revised Today!!)
"P.N.03" or "Product Number Zero Three" is an okay arcade-style 3rd-person action game that became a victim of time constraints, limited budget, and Capcom's constant shift during the early 2000s to stimulate new IPs and growth within the video game industry, resulting in a minimalist, somewhat unrealized and unfinished game which would later be fully realized in Platinum Game's 2010 "Vanquish" title. Part of Capcom's short-lived "Capcom Five" initiative to release unique games for Nintendo's GameCube, P.N. 03 was the first of five (four) games. It was released in 2003 and directed by famed designed Shinji Mikami of "Resident Evil" fame, but failed on a commercial level, though it maintains the distinction of being the only game in the Capcom Five to remain exclusive to GameCube. The rest (Viewtiful Joe, Dead Phoenix, Resident Evil 4, and Killer7) were released on other platforms or canceled during development.
In the game, players take control of Vanessa Z. Schneider, a freelance mercenary who works on colonized planets. Hired by a mysterious client who equips her with an experimental "Aegis Suit" linked to her Spinal Cord, she is tasked with eliminating a legion of rogue machines part of the "Computerized Armament Management System" or "CAMS" network. Having a personal grudge against CAMS for killing her parents, Vanessa gladly agrees, but not much else plot-wise is revealed through the course of the game. Players must trudge through labyrinthine, repetitive rooms and corridors trying to destroy as many CAMS as possible while earning points to purchase upgrades to her abilities. Vanessa can jump and "dodge" but these abilities are more for aesthetics than functionality; Vanessa has no frames of invincibility when dodging unlike some other games of this type, so players must be much more aware of how things work... this is not necessarily a bad thing, as there is a greater sense of realism and accomplishment when done successfully, but Vanessa dies pretty easily, so the game can get quite challenging. Vanessa is only truly invincible when activating "drives", special attacks that are executed like special moves in a fighting game that consume energy and must be used strategically.
Vanessa has a limited number of upgrades that serve general purposes, and players must rely more on memory patterns and observation than tight play control and OP abilities, as Vanessa has a fairly clunky means of attacking and defending that work once mastered, but never really justify the game's weird camera angles or inability to move and shoot simultaneously. There is a certain charm in the way the game operates, but it's still rather dull in its entirety, but an interesting game to attempt speed-runs or other challenges with.
Visually, P.N. 03 is crisp with well-rendered environments and enemy models, but this is largely in part to most areas looking exactly the same and with the game having few models to begin with. Vanessa herself moves and animates smoothly, though bizarrely, across the screen in an attempt to appear graceful and sexy, but some of her animations are not genuine. Initially, there was meant to be more to the game such as Vanessa using different weapons and appearing in other locations, but this was removed to save on time, so she mainly appears inside of complexes. The sound is okay, but nothing particularly memorable, so it serves its purpose.
This is a video of the game in action going over the first level (which is ironically harder than some of the later levels) revised at much higher quality. Enjoy.