Let's get the basics out of the way first. As a GameCube game that supports progressive displays and Dolby Pro Logic II sound setups, P.N. 03 is more HD-ready than a good chunk of the Wii's current library. The game is a strictly single player affair and can be found at various online stores for around $5 to $10 used. When it was released critics were all over the place with reviews giving it everything from low 90's to low 30's. The metacritic average settles into a "mixed or average" score of 63. As long as you're ready for something a little new and can see past a few of the game's flaws intricacies, you should be fine.

Opening on a dessert planet outside of a terra-forming complex, a sudden flash appears on the desolate landscape. Out of this flash a white amour-clad female rises like a Terminator and promptly puts headphone buds into her ears. As security robots race towards her and fire at her from a distance, she starts to tap her feet to music only she can hear as lasers fly by her face. With a swift snap from her arms and popping into an elegant pose, she sends blots of electricity out of her palms, tearing the robots apart. This is how we meet P.N. 03's sassy femme fatale Vanessa Z. Schneider, freelance mercenary and all round robot ass-kicker. Vanessa has been recruited by a faceless client to come to this planet and take out its Computer Arms Management System, a supercomputer responsible for controlling the complex's defense robots. Realizing that the people playing this game wouldn't care all that much about this cliché-ridden plot, the developers wisely made this brief opening the bulk of the "story" presented to the player, and jump right into action.

Players run Vanessa through the corridors of the complex and blowing away any and all robots in her sights on her way to the inevitable huge robot bosses one would expect from a game like this. So what kept this spin on the "Sexy Space Girl blows up big robots" genre from connecting with players in 2003? Simply put, the controls. When playing the first few minutes of the game, the controls will feel sluggish, rigid and broken. But once you get a feel for how the action is meant to be played, it all comes together wonderfully. Unlike other third person action games like God of War or Devil May Cry, P.N. 03's controls were designed for more "procedural" gameplay. Instead of having the player adapting to twitch-based elements and clusters of enemies, this game places an emphasis on purposed enemy spawns, movements and behaviors, in turn establishing a gameplay rhythm closer to an arcade shoot-em-up with music game influences.

Players progress through each room not too dissimilar from Gears of War's approach to combat; moving from safe spot to safe spot, popping out for short periods to blast one enemy at a time. But unlike the hulking mass of scar tissue that is Marcus Phoenix, Vanessa uses her flexibility to dance between each movement, attack and dodge. And when I say "dance," I mean Ulala would be jealous of what Vanessa is popping off. This is where the seemingly broken controls end up shining. Vanessa's moves feel stiff when executed one at a time, but flow naturally together when thought of like commands to a music-rhythm game. Snapping from one pose to another, the player is able to string these actions together with simple button presses allowing them to take on waves of enemies. This is definitely one of those "love it or hate it" sort of things, but it ends up really setting the game apart from the mountain of Johnny Come-lately's that appeared after the release of Devil May Cry.

Reinforcing this notion of chaining attacks together, the score-focused gameplay encourages players to think ahead while constantly pressing forward with a timed-base combo system. Like Sega's equally misunderstood The Club, as soon as one enemy is destroyed, a timer will begin to count down. By killing another enemy, the timer is refilled as points get multiplied. Players get evaluated on a room-by-room basis, judging the time they took to clear the room, how many enemies they've destroyed, and the number of the highest combo achieved. Players will want to rack up as many points as possible to purchase new Aegis Suits for Vanessa, Suit upgrades, weapon upgrades, and extra continues.

The extra continues will come handy as soon as you get to one of the game's epically huge boss encounters. Aside from a false start at the beginning of the game, P.N. 03's bosses come from Capcom's big book of classic boss design. Sure, almost all of them boil down to "hit the weak spot," but just like recent examples, this isn't exactly a bad thing. Each of the boss battles call back to the 16-bit era of yore with towering robots, vicious attacks, and over the top weaponry. While I did find myself having to retry them a few times, none of them were too hard and clearly showed me what I needed to do.

For a game that is nearly five years old, P.N. 03's visuals have aged extremely well. Vanessa is the sexy walking embodiment of an iPod. Her enemies and surroundings look like something out of a Bjork video. The art direction is clean, crisp, and precise. Accented with dynamic lighting (something of a rare find on consoles those days), the world of P.N. 03 is one that is fully realized, even if it is more than bit sterile. Vanessa's cat-like animations are graceful, even if they are a bit silly at first. How often do you see characters pirouette instead just taking a step back? When augmented by subtle raver-inspired motion trails, Vanessa inherits a stylish aura that one would expect from a character that hangs out with Aeon Flux. Musically the soundtrack remains up-to-date with a variety of electronic music tracks, leaning on futuristically flavored drum and bass that perfectly complements the visuals and pacing of the game.

Developed by the Capcom's Production Studio 4 and designed by Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil and Devil May Cry fame (and God Hand infamy), P.N. 03 was released in late 2003, long after many third parties had abandoned the GameCube. For those that can't remember when a time Nintendo had trouble attracting third party support, P.N. 03 was conceived as part of the ill-fated Capcom 5, a series of games that Mikami had a strong influence in that were all planned to be exclusive on the GameCube. While each of the other entries either ended up being ported to other platforms (Killer7, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe) or canceled outright (Dead Phoenix, one time rumored to be a Kid Icarus sequel), P.N. 03 was the only game out of the bunch to stay exclusive and likely fated to be forgotten by most players.

When I talk to fellow gamers about their favorite games on the Cube, RE4 almost always gets mentioned and rightfully so. But when I ask if they've played this, the answer is usually no. I find it funny because I when I look at Vanessa, I see shades of Ada Wong in her movements. I see the playful approach to controls that RE4 would feature over a year later. I see hints of how RE4 would reinvent itself into an action game. Call it a failed experiment or misunderstood classic, P.N. 03 deserves to be played by any RE and action game fan if only to see where one of the best games in the genre came from.