God Hand

Oct 12, 2006

If you've seen a trailer for God Hand, with its fighting midget superheroes and bloodthirsty Chihuahuas, cheap shots to the junk accompanied by a comedy show laugh track, hyperactive face-stomping and punishing butt-spanking attacks, you know that it's not exactly what you'd call a normal game. You won't know the whole truth until you play it. The game combines a bizarre, absurdist, slapstick kind of humor with superhuman fistfights -- viewed up-close and personal -- that are entertaining and challenging or, alternately, infuriating and humbling. The game knows what it's doing, but are you going to like what it does?

After being introduced to the main characters and getting the setup for a story that makes only trace amounts of sense, the roughneck wanderer Gene is thrown into a dusty town full of bad men, every one of them looking for a fight. Since you're holding the controller, it's up to you to man up and do something about it. You start off with a trusty four-hit combination (jab-straight-left hook-uppercut) and five additional martial arts moves to employ as you see fit. Knocking enemies around good enough will stun them and let you trigger a special attack animation and rapidly mash the circle button to go to town. Roulette attacks slow time to allow you to choose ridiculously powerful-looking martial arts techniques -- often nods to manga, action cinema and other video games. When your tension gauge is full, you can use the power of the God Hand to become temporarily invincible and kick ass with pumped-up zeal and vigor.

You definitely get a lot of button-mashing mileage out of your standard combo, which, like your life bar and tension meter, you can increase by purchasing items from the game's shop, but there's a little more to it. You can completely customize your punches, kicks, elbows, or what have you. Once you've found and purchased a few new martial arts techniques, your simple mashing will translate into a continuous flow of preplanned blows. With the numerous available attacks and the variation in speed, power, range and what happens when they connect, you're eventually able to develop your own style using whatever criteria you like.

As you get the hang of the fighting, you'll discover a lot of nuances that, when put to good use, will let you cope with the game's considerable level of challenge and potentially have a lot of fun. Some useful commands are always available. These include running attacks, a useful low kick coming out of a dodge, and a complete sequence that pops a downed enemy back up into the air with a heel drop, smacks him with a dragon punch, and nails him with a powerful midair roundhouse. Other moves can be assigned as you see fit, letting you break an enemy's guard (a downright essential skill), launch them into the air for a juggle, or send them flying with a power move.

Of course, what good is dishing it out if you can't take it? Luck may send you a comically large piece of life-restoring fruit from a smashed/broken barrel enemy, but you'll probably want to master the art of not getting hit in the first place. Unlike his enemies, Gene can't simply block the punches and kicks flying at him from every direction, but you do have numerous ways to avoid pain by flicking the right control stick in different directions. You can dodge and weave, sidestep, or back flip to avoid different types of attacks. When the offensive and defensive elements come together, a skilled player can really show off the versatile, freeform nature of the system.

Player discretion is, however, advised. The game does kind of set a minimum skill requirement for you -- the main character will actually make fun of you for choosing the easy difficulty setting. Fail to qualify (even on easy it's not exactly a cakewalk) and the bouncers will throw you straight to the "Game Over: Continue?" screen again and again, which could result in a bruised ego and unfounded hatred of the game. To be fair, God Hand does have a few rough spots and minor annoyances.

The tight behind-the-back view and first-person controls make for a great close-up look at the fighting, showing off the great-looking martial arts techniques and the impressive enemy reactions. It also means you'll need to master the 180-degree quick-turn technique and use your onscreen radar from time to time -- or develop a sixth sense -- to avoid getting smacked from behind. The overall style of control is really out of vogue in modern action games, and yeah, it restricts your mobility. That doesn't mean it's broken (it isn't) or doesn't pair well with the action (it certainly does). If the game has one obvious shortcoming, it's the fact the environments themselves aren't very interesting or dynamic, and there's really not much to do but run through and beat people up. At the same time, that's the entire point of the game -- there's a retro sensibility clearly on display if you look for it. You won't play this game for the frills.

You may or may not play the game for its sense of humor. The characters and storyline are a little bit out there, to put it lightly, and the entire game gives off a kind of '80s anime and manga vibe that people could easily love or hate for exactly the same reasons. Personally I can appreciate that the casino -- which houses video poker and slots that are way more entertaining than they should be -- is called the "Barely Regal." I likewise enjoy betting on poison Chihuahua racing, and think "Kissing a Hot Chick" is a good name for a stage. To each his own, though.

It's not exactly a a slick, accessible piece of entertainment, but anyone with decent reflexes and the ability to learn should be able to get deep enough into the system to enjoy what it has to offer -- namely technical, thumb-numbing martial arts action and satisfying, hard-fought victories. If you enjoy a good brawl, you could really stand to give this game a shot. Think about it. Fork over thirty bucks to your local game store and you get to shake the hand of God, or at least get punched in the face by it. There are worse deals out there.