Review

The recent demise of Capcom’s Clover Studio is a major blow for gaming. They had produced some of the finest games of recent years such as the Viewtiful Joe series and Okami, but sadly God Hand is their final title as they studio closed late last year. It is also, unfortunately, the worst title they have produced, but then they had set the bar very high for themselves!

The first thing that strikes you upon starting to play is the mix of styles. All of the characters look like they’re out of an episode of the Final Fantasy saga; the levels straight out of a western; and all accompanied by a 60’s disco soundtrack that wouldn’t be out of place in an Austin Powers film. There’s even the option to play in a casino between levels! Yet, bizarrely, it works, and works well.

Gameplay at first appears as shallow as they come. You run around and fight various goons, collect the bonus they leave behind and fight bigger goons. The controls are very simple and don’t require a tutorial or glance at the manual to grasp and it’s very enjoyable to play. Then the depth starts to show and you realise there’s a lot more to this game than meets the eye. If you try to win by simply mashing buttons, you will fail.

Amongst the assorted array of bizarre collectables are new moves that your character will learn upon picking them up. These can then be added to your fighting repertoire by visiting the menu so you can customise your combos and controls to you own preference. Eventually finding a style that suits how you play and it’s this ability to personalise your game that gives God Hand the edge over its competition. It also makes you keep playing to see what other moves you can gather.

Unfortunately, there are a number of factors that conspire to stop this being an easily recommended title. The most important of these is the placing of restart points. Every time you die you’ll be asked to replay huge sections of the game just to get back to where you were. Also the storyline is just too off-the-wall to be worth bothering with, despite the good-looking characters and animation.

I said at the beginning that this is the worst title Clover produced, but it’s still miles better than other, recent Capcom beat’em-ups like Beat Down and Fight Fight: Streetwise. It may be a little too bizarre to find a mainstream audience but I recommend you rent it to play at least once, as there’s plenty to enjoy.

About the Review

Platform

Sony Playstation 2

Developer

Clover Studio

Publisher

Capcom

Released

16th February 2007