Viewtiful Joe and God Hand: Separated at Birth?

This has pretty much nothing to do with anything, but it’s something I’ve wanted to talk about for years and never gotten around to it. Two Clover Studio releases, Viewtiful Joe and God Hand, have pretty much the same storyline.

A cocky jerk (Joe, Gene) fights to rescue a girl using a magical device on his arm (V-Watch, God Hand) that increases his strength and gives him access to supernatural, fourth-wall-breaking abilities. The girl (Silvia, Olivia), who is connected in some way with the source of the magical device, is being held by a group of four demonic characters (Jadow, the Four Devas).

Did Hideki Kamiya and Shinji Mikami (or whoever wrote the scenarios) set out to tell the same basic story in two different ways? Or were their desks just too close together? Or am I seeing patterns where none exist? Anyway, in conclusion, God Hand is awesome.

tags / god hand / clover studio / viewtiful joe / jc