God Hand

"Fist of the NorthStar meets Resident Evil 4 meets Viewtiful Joe in one great game."

God Hand is unfortunately the last game we will see from the geniuses at Clover Studios. However, Clover goes out with a BANG. This game is just plain great. Fun, skill, humor, action, sexiness, and violence are all here and then some. What the heck is God Hand? Well, there are these demonic arms that give you super strength and our hero lost his arm trying to save a girl. It so happens that that girl had this "God Hand" and now our hero, "Gene" is a real tough guy. So they go town to town helping the innocents from the evil and sadistic gangs from the Mad Max movie. Let's just review...

STORY 6/10: The story is wack. You play as "Gene" who is a cross between Viewtiful Joe and Kenshiro from Fist of the Northstar. This means you get the kick butt multiple hit moves and the sass and jokes of Joe. You have this "God Hand" that makes you ultra powerfull. You take orders from Olivia, who is yet another cross between Silvia (viewtiful Joe) and Julia(Fist of the Northstar). Anyways, you wander the wasteland and help the innocents from all the mohawk/ leather clad bad guys and the dominatrix girls that seem to be everywhere. Power Rangers show up as well as a lot of "Alternative Lifestyle" type of people. It boils down to you fighting your way to these demons that want your, "God Hand". The story is pretty silly, but fun with a rather cliche ending.

GRAPHICS 8/10: You basically use the Resident Evil 4 graphics engine in this game. You have that 2nd person view which is right behind gene and a little to the right. However, it is much easier to see in this game than it was in Resident Evil 4. Everything is animated really well. All the martial arts are animated in glorifying brutality. The character models are straight out of Fist of the Northstar or a Mad Max movie. Gene and Olivia are animated very nicely as well. The game flows very smoothly and there is little to no slowdown. There is only one problem with the graphics. The camera allows you to see through walls when you stand next to the wall. This happens in 80% of the game. So if you wanna see what in a room without entering it, you can. The backgrounds graphics themselves are as plain as they come. Everything looks nice but you never see any astounding visuals. The fighting is the show and it is animated extremely well and fluid. Every animation conveiys power and style. Overall, God Hand is one of the better looking games on PS2 despite its problems.

MUSIC/SOUND 9/10: The music is rock with an "old west" feel. Silly, yet it works perfectly. Some of the boss themes are really good but for the most part God Hand delivers steady audio enjoyment. The voice are good as well. Voice actors from Final Fantasy X-2 and Dynasty Warriors are here so everything sounds pretty good. The script is silly so be prepared for some campy lines. Fighting sounds are good and everything works real well.

GAMEPLAY 10/10: How come they didn't do this earlier? No company has ever been able to reproduce a brawler game in the 3D world until now. God Hand lets you fully customize your fighting style and combo. You can dodge anything with the right analog stick and everything is easy to pull off. The enemies also get more aggressive if you do too well. In other words, the game constantly adjust the difficulty depending on your performance. Moreover, this game is TOUGH. Even the easy difficulty makes you sweat so be prepared. God Hand really brings that good old fashioned brawler feel and pulls it off perfectly. You have guard breaks and button mashing, balanced with skillfull dodging and killer finishing moves in a perfect package. Everything runs smoothly and you simply have a blast playing it. The loading is pretty quick and doesn't break up the action. The fighting is just so intuitive and deep yet easy to use. You usually don't get this kind of profound gameplay in a brawler but it's here, and it's great.

FUNFACTOR 9/10: God Hand is just plain fantastic. Brawler and fighting game fans need not look any further. This is your game. Imagine starting your hand combo, breaking the enemies guard, then finishing him with a killer move that hit's them completely off the screen. If you have ever seen Fist of the Northstar, then you know what to expect. This game is all about pounding your opponent with brutally fast combos and knocking him into the stratosphere. Everything is easy to pull of yet takes time to master. You also have these dizzy attacks that allow you to do a fury of unblockable punches or give the leather-clad chick a brutal spanking. Hmmm.... Anyway, God Hand is just a great game although it may get repetitive for some.

OVERALL 9/10: It's sad to see that Clover Studios is no longer with us after releasing one great game after the other. God Hand definitely shows the talent and innovation this team had. God Hand is more than the sum of it's parts. You have a wacky storyline, mixed with good graphics and decent sound. Thrown in is superb gameplay and you get a game that is just plain awesome. A fair warning for some players. You have a lot of S & M stuff going on in this game. On top of that, many of the enemy characters are... of a different sexual orientation, you could say. However, this game is not taking itself seriously and those depictions play into the humor of the game. In conclusion, God Hand is must have for fighting fans. It's only one player, but your thumbs get a workout with this game. God Hand is a great game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/30/06