[QUOTE=bluemonkey]-Dull, uninspired designs and graphics beyond the first level.[/QUOTE]
Although not absolutely ground breaking, I thought the level designs were typical of the 2D beat 'em up platformers that VJ was trying to emulate, only with a nice 3D background graphical facelift.
I particularly loved the level in the corporate building. Rising up each floor in another elevator to the next level, making sure not to fall through some holes leading back down to the floor you were just at. Or, sometimes doing it on purpose to reach an elevator that leads to a floor you need to reach. Crashing through a bathtub to reach the next lower floor, etc. Ah, good memories!
[QUOTE=bluemonkey]-Incredibly repetitive main level sections without any depth to the fighting.[/QUOTE]
Gonna have to disagree there. Every enemy, from the weakest to the strongest, had a very specific set of strengths and weaknesses. You couldn't just go through VJ and beat everything up the same way, and you certainly couldn't rely on random passion mashing the buttons up however you liked. You might get through a level or two that way, but you wouldn't save up enough of your life meter (or your individual lives) to successfully face off against the impending boss. You had to examine and observe how to beat specific enemies with subtly different maneuvers over multiple attempts.
Going back to the issue of the Fire Leo level, one of the purposes of having all of the previous bosses there before having to fight Fire Leo was to test the player to see if he had actually learned the strategies for fighting these bosses, or if he was just lucky one out of the 30 to 130 times he tried to beat a given boss. Just to make sure, the bosses were made even more difficult that time around. Again, these bosses had very specific strategies that you couldn't just pick up from one play through. You had to learn it over time, and you had to be VERY observant for slight signs of a weakness or a strategy. I think the article posted described Fire Leo's strategy in particular very well, but in truth, every creature from the pawns to the bosses had to be treated in the same fashion.
[QUOTE=bluemonkey]-Weak puzzles that were also ridiculously obscure the first time you come across them and then present no challenge after that.[/QUOTE]
All puzzles can be described that way. I've rarely seen good puzzles in a game that had immediately apparent answers. I've also rarely seen a puzzle that was randomized to such an extent that it wasn't easy to solve immediately once you had already solved it in a previous play-through.
If you became good at killing those bosses (which you had to really by that time), then they were no problem, even when they were a little more difficult that tme around.